The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

I found this spider last week-it could have come from the local nursery because hubby had bought some tomato plants and it was right near them. We killed it, but it was different looking and I was just curious. I have googled and cannot find anything. It is tan and brown.

This critter looks like it only has 6 legs, and spiders have 8, so maybe it is some kind of an insect. Still is creepy looking.

My first thought was "I sure hope that's a close-up!"

I would also go with an insect of some sort. Do you have a plant nursery near you? They are usually pretty good at making ID's.

Looks like a nursery web spider - see the picture on this site http://www.spiderzrule.com/commonspidersusa.htm

If you look closely though you can see the nursery spider has eight legs, this bug only has six (unless there are two more that you can't see in the picture).

By the way Esther - that site was both interesting and revolting.

Maybe this spider just lost the other two legs.

Eeeeekkkk. It would have been DEAD if I found it

Oh Debbie - you reminded me of something from years ago! My daughter (who was then about two years old and is now thirty-seven) and hubby and I were at my grandmother's house. My grandmother was VERY particular. We were outside on the patio and my daughter crouched down and said while pointing - "Oh Daddy - looky bug". Hubby went over and crouched down and said "Oh yes....I wonder what kind it is". At that point Grandma Rose stuck her foot in the middle and smushed the bug. Without looking up hubby said to daughter "well, I guess we'll never know."

My 13 year old son (who has always had a bug/spider fascination) says this is definately a spider. He says insects/bugs have 3 body segments and spiders have 2. The "thing" pictured only has 2 body segments so it has to be a spider. It obviously only has 6 legs but he says it is quite common for spiders to lose legs and keep living.

Sorry, he has no idea what kind of spider it is though.

It looks like a Nursery Web Spider that has lost two legs at some point.

Wow, I didn't now that about the 2 and 3 body segments!
Please tell your son thanks for the clarification.

Thanks, it does look like that nursery web spider, except that picture showed more hair, this spider was hairless. Dawn, it wasn't that big, like a normal sized spider. Maybe we should not have killed it, I thought that maybe my son should bring it into school for science, but he didn't want to. And I have a good zoom lense on my camera! I just did not want them reproducing in my yard near my dog pen!

Oh geez I must be bad because any spider within my reach is a dead spider

That's what I would have done! YUCKY looking spider!!!! If they stay outside i leave them alone, but once they move indoors its a death sentence.

Well I am glad I am not the only one who thinks the only good spider is a dead one. When I was a kid I was picking wild blueberries by a pond by my house and suddenly noticed a huge huge, hairy hairy spider(did I say it was huge and hairy!) right next to my hand. Could have been a tarantula, I don't know, but my berry picking stopped right there. I have never seen one like that in this area since and hope to never see one like that again, except behind glass!

This spider was a fast mover, I did try to kill it but it moved too fast, so I had the teenager take care of it!

Fortunately there aren't many really dangerous spiders. I used to trail ride with an entomologist for the State of California whose specialty was spiders. One day while we were on a trail out in Lucerne Valley (high desert), she got off her horse to pick up a small tarantula off the trail and put him in the shade! She said he was a male and was really irritated. Geeze. She told me that her two resolutions one year were to (1) divorce her husband and (2) to get over her fear of spiders. So she filed for divorce and bought the biggest tarantula she could find and made friends with it. No thank you.

Okay, I've got to ask.
How could she tell the tarantula was irritated?
And...Interesting resolutions...lol!

Maybe he swore at her? Hard to tell - I didn't get off my horse.

THAT is most defiantly a spider. If you look at the front of the body it has the eyes and mandables of a spider also you can almost see the 2 pair of back legs. I have come across many spiders that sit like this. One of the scariest was a wolf spider which was the size of a large grapefruit!!! Also I cant tell b/c of the panic feeling I get looking at the pictures

As to the type of spider it is well cant help with that ^_^