Found inside my coat on a cold morning in the woods
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Ottawa,
This is a Fishing Spider, probably Dolomedes tenebrosus. They aren’t medically dangerous to humans, which is good if they want to wear your coat.
Thanks, it was actually in the coat while I was wearing it. I took off the coat after the morning warmed up to find this hitchhiker. It wasnt all that interested in climbing onto my hand when I invited it.
Male or female?
Other people have also said that Fishing Spiders don’t want to hold hands with us. I got that impression from the ones I’ve observed so I kept my hands to myself, for a change. I can’t tell the gender on this one. The clues for Fishing Spiders- males may have swollen pedipalps (I can’t see them clearly enough), females may be carrying an egg sac (nope), and females may have a wide abdomen. This one has a downturned abdomen like a female that has put her eggs into an egg sac. Females live longer. If I had to gamble on… Read more »
They are awful chill spiders, they don’t mind human close, but coaxing them onto a hand can be a real challenge, quick when spooked. On your hand, they just sit there and chill,but likely jump off in time.Got a couple Dolomedes albineus onto my hand, 2 of these I tried managed escape.
I knew you would know if they will stay on a hand! I recently learned to avoid handling Steatoda spp. while wearing dark clothes. They want to be anywhere that looks dark.
Yea, long legged sac spiders are worse, they bolt from your hand and vanish. Steatoda may be more like live Yo Yo’s.
a Steatoda borealis decided it preferred my dark gray sweater more than my white hand. It was all over and under that sweater. I had to pull the sweater off quickly before anyone got hurt. Yes, the sac spiders take flying leaps. So far, in my experimentation Wolf Spiders have been the easiest to hold. Every family member has tried interventions on my tendency to go to “dangerous” places and handling “dangerous ” animals- except my brother who spends his vacations in rainforests getting to know the local people that are treated very poorly by the wealthier people Some of… Read more »
Can you take a look at the little guy that bit me tonight at work? I think it’s one of these dark fishing spiders but not sure.