I only have 4 of these cuties in my yard this year...

[bugcam 0]

Do any of you guys have these in your yards, they are a regular sight in my Albera yard. The local museums bug room calls them a Jewel Spider. They have a cats face on their back. We usually have a lot more than 4 in the yard, the most we ever had was 13!! Their abdomen is about the size of a small gum ball. They range in color from sandy to mottled drk grey/drk brn. They build large orb webs and are fun to watch when they catch a hopper. ZOOM, SPIN, GAME OVER! Every spring we see a batch or 2 of reddish babies, 300-500 huddled in a cluster on our screen door, when you blow on them they all drop a few inches like little parachutists then climb back up when its safe. I move the cluster into the bushes in the yard. I would like to tie one someday!

[flypimp 0]

That's kind of wild that you really count how many spiders that you have in your backyard. Altough, that is a pretty cool looking spider, I'm not to keen on them.

[bugcam 0]

I love bugs especially spiders. I would love to have one of these on my hand, the Bug museum staff said that this spidey wouldn't bite but I don't believe em. When these spiders are working on a hopper, their mandibles, fangs, whatever they're called bend up and down in a curving motion. That leads me to think they could sink their teeth into you if they wanted to. Why would the Museum guys say this spidey wouldn't bite?

[Redwings1 0]

I get lots of those as well, and since I don't particularly like spiders I think they are kind of creepy. If you blow on them they not only drop but they will also shake their web, pretty neat to watch.

[pacres 0]

When I lived in Alberta, we got tons of these. I used to catch moths and feed them.

[pacres 0]

 

 

 

[fly time 0]

I have those things in my yard too, and I hate spiders, I hate em, I hate em, I hate em, they make me cry like a little girl!!!

[bugcam 0]

They eat the BAD bugs! It's OK if you don't like 'em Flytime, they is a wee bit scary! I take the ones that my neighbors don't want and put them in my yard!! I hope that I can find a pattern that I can adapt to tie one of them up!

[Inconnu 0]

Apparently this was a bumper crop year for Jewel Spiders in Alberta. I had several living on my porch and wherever I went they were hanging out. They do bite, but they have to be sorely pressed and their venom is pretty harmless to humans. I'm like Pacres (okay not physically just psychologically) I feed them moths, though the one that built her web under my porch light was probably sick of them by summers' end.

[Faster Fish 0]

I have those things in my yard too, and I hate spiders, I hate em, I hate em, I hate em, they make me cry like a little girl!!!

 

 

I'm with you man. They completely freak me out. My sister had a big spider when I was a kid. The bad thing is it escaped up under the cubards in our house and we never saw it again. I don't sleep real well in my parents house.