Can anyone tell a Spider by its web?

[SinLA]

Finally got nice enough to have my tortoise outside during the day. He's started going into his dog house on his own at night (which is great because he figured out the "doggy door" on his own!). For those who may remember I had a cricket infestation in the dog house when I had been heating it, so no more heat. Now, he just burrows in before I collect him to bring him inside at night and discovered a pretty good size web and spider in one of the corners (and Fezzik likes corners, tho fortunately he was in the opposite corner tonight). So yay for eating the crickets, I just don't know how worried to be, otherwise. We have a lot of brown recluses and black widows in our area, but I don't know much about them. It skittered out of sight before I could get a photo, but it had a web where I could see the beginnings of a tunnel, if that makes sense... I would say at a glance it was about the size of a black widow and it did look black to me, but I only saw it for a second...

This is the best I could do of the web itself, in case helpful...

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Have you seen the spider?
I'm not familiar with that web.
Maybe @Tom
He has kept a lot of them

 

[SinLA]

Have you seen the spider?
I'm not familiar with that web.
Maybe @Tom
He has kept a lot of them

Not enough to see anything tho I’ll keep checking

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Not enough to see anything tho I’ll keep checking

Trap door spiders and Wolf spiders make webs on the ground. But I really have no idea.

 

[Tom]

Black widows make messy unkempt webs like that. We don't have the brown recluse here. There are about a half dozen spiders that look like a brown recluse and people have made a myth of that. It like the myth that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults, or that camels spit, etc...

Wolf spiders are common too, but they are more brownish and their webs are more like a funnel.

The spiders pose no danger to your tortoise. I have all sorts of spiders in everyone of y outdoor boxes. Always have.

 

[SinLA]

Black widows make messy unkempt webs like that. We don't have the brown recluse here. There are about a half dozen spiders that look like a brown recluse and people have made a myth of that. It like the myth that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults, or that camels spit, etc...

Wolf spiders are common too, but they are more brownish and their webs are more like a funnel.

The spiders pose no danger to your tortoise. I have all sorts of spiders in everyone of y outdoor boxes. Always have.

Yeah but I have to reach my hand in there and get him for a couple of months yet before he can be outside full time ☹️. My fear is indeed it’s a black widow…

out of curiosity are they no threat because they *won’t* bite a tortoise or it doesnt poison them if bitten? I can’t see why a spider wouldn’t bite if their space got burrowed into, and I don’t know why their bite would not be poisonous if it did get bitten…

 

[TortCalledBoris]

Hey there, I am new to the tortoise keeping, but coming from South Africa, I sure do know my spiders. That is a black widow web due to the long string ends and the messy, un neat design. What you can do to test this is spray some water on top of the web, like with a misting bottle, not too much pressure. If the web starts to break, then the spider is not venomous. If the water sticks to the web, then yes indeed you have a black widow. Try to put like a thermometer down there so I can see size comparison to your hand (if you are too scared to put your hand there which is fine, just put something that I can tell the size of in a picture). I wouldn’t be too worried about black widows attacking your tortoise, I would be worried about wolf spiders though. Wolf spiders burrow and are mostly ground dwellers. Even if they don’t attack your tortoise, they may attack you. Wolf spiders suck….especially being bitten by then. It’s not fun. Here is how to get your garden wolf spider free.

Step 1. Run and hide in your home with salt and vinegar solution around any possible entrance to your home, windows, doors, vents, drains and everything else.

Step 2. After trying the first method above, this works for the first few days, but then the spiders start to get comfortable in your nice spacious garden, they believe that they have won. You cannot let this happen for your pride. Buy a bee keeper suit online, stick bubble wrap to the outside with duct tape. Wrap the bee keeper torso and leg area with reflective aluminium tape. Soak any other area (not covered in aluminium tape) in vinegar for a day before use. Let the suit dry and then go and attack every single piece of dead foliage you see, and lift up rocks. You need to use some kind of dish soap, or you can buy the laundry detergent balls and crush them into a powder, add dish soap to that and put that in a misting bottle. Power spray any area that has dead leaves, dead wood like branches or sticks, underneath rocks etc. If you do not see one, you either lucky or unlucky. If you are lucky, there are no spiders, or the spiders that were there, are now simply dead/burning alive. If you are unlucky, they have hidden in a burrow or somewhere else, safe from the chemicals and are now royally pissed off. I have had both of these scenarios…..sometimes it does start to feel that the spider has called in their allies and are plotting to raid my home.
If this all fails, call an exterminator. One showed up in my bed the next week and ran up my leg because I obviously didn’t kill them all. They hurt, I would say more than widows. If you go with the chemical area, try to just not let your Sulcata in there, it would need daily hosing down and your Sulcata can not go back outside into that area for 90ish days. A bit aggressive and possibly unnecessary but it works for me, I mean, it kind of did? I got a few of them. Lol hope it helps.

 

[TammyJ]

Just try to protect yourself when you take the tortoise out of his house. Wear long sleeves and gloves and inspect yourself and the tortoise when you have him out.

 

[Tom]

Hey there, I am new to the tortoise keeping, but coming from South Africa, I sure do know my spiders. That is a black widow web due to the long string ends and the messy, un neat design. What you can do to test this is spray some water on top of the web, like with a misting bottle, not too much pressure. If the web starts to break, then the spider is not venomous. If the water sticks to the web, then yes indeed you have a black widow. Try to put like a thermometer down there so I can see size comparison to your hand (if you are too scared to put your hand there which is fine, just put something that I can tell the size of in a picture). I wouldn’t be too worried about black widows attacking your tortoise, I would be worried about wolf spiders though. Wolf spiders burrow and are mostly ground dwellers. Even if they don’t attack your tortoise, they may attack you. Wolf spiders suck….especially being bitten by then. It’s not fun. Here is how to get your garden wolf spider free.

Step 1. Run and hide in your home with salt and vinegar solution around any possible entrance to your home, windows, doors, vents, drains and everything else.

Step 2. After trying the first method above, this works for the first few days, but then the spiders start to get comfortable in your nice spacious garden, they believe that they have won. You cannot let this happen for your pride. Buy a bee keeper suit online, stick bubble wrap to the outside with duct tape. Wrap the bee keeper torso and leg area with reflective aluminium tape. Soak any other area (not covered in aluminium tape) in vinegar for a day before use. Let the suit dry and then go and attack every single piece of dead foliage you see, and lift up rocks. You need to use some kind of dish soap, or you can buy the laundry detergent balls and crush them into a powder, add dish soap to that and put that in a misting bottle. Power spray any area that has dead leaves, dead wood like branches or sticks, underneath rocks etc. If you do not see one, you either lucky or unlucky. If you are lucky, there are no spiders, or the spiders that were there, are now simply dead/burning alive. If you are unlucky, they have hidden in a burrow or somewhere else, safe from the chemicals and are now royally pissed off. I have had both of these scenarios…..sometimes it does start to feel that the spider has called in their allies and are plotting to raid my home.
If this all fails, call an exterminator. One showed up in my bed the next week and ran up my leg because I obviously didn’t kill them all. They hurt, I would say more than widows. If you go with the chemical area, try to just not let your Sulcata in there, it would need daily hosing down and your Sulcata can not go back outside into that area for 90ish days. A bit aggressive and possibly unnecessary but it works for me, I mean, it kind of did? I got a few of them. Lol hope it helps.

Good lord man... I've been to the RSA twice, lived there for 5 months the last time, and there is no need for all that drama. Your giant aggressive wolf spiders are like no others anywhere on earth, and all I had to do was occasionally put a drinking glass over one and escort it outside after sliding a bit of cardboard between the wall and the spider now contained by the glass. Man, those things got pissed when I did that. Your countrymen, and women, did the same thing with the baboons. Everyone there is terrified of animals, it seems. My first trip to the RSA was with our trained baboons because all the SA trainers told them it was impossible to train or handle baboons and they were too aggressive to be on a film set. We overnighted them a video of Roxy doing a few of her behaviors, and I was on a plane importing 2 baboons in to the RSA a few days later. As I sat with a troop of wild baboons, who joined me by choice, and marveled at their social structures, my SA girlfriend was literally shaking with fear.

Our local wolf spiders here are a COMPLETELY different species. They are totally mild mannered, harmless, and very beneficial to have around. We don't want to drive them away, or spray dish soap or chemicals everywhere. There eyes reflect light at night, and I see dozens of them every night in summer as I walk around my ranch costing tortoises and closing up their doors for the night. They do a fine job of keeping the pest insects to a minimum and they do nothing to me or my tortoises.

 

[Tom]

Yeah but I have to reach my hand in there and get him for a couple of months yet before he can be outside full time ☹️. My fear is indeed it’s a black widow…

out of curiosity are they no threat because they *won’t* bite a tortoise or it doesnt poison them if bitten? I can’t see why a spider wouldn’t bite if their space got burrowed into, and I don’t know why their bite would not be poisonous if it did get bitten…

Black widows, contrary to the lies you've been fed your whole life, are not man eating monsters out to end humanity. You can pick them up and handle them. Look it up on YT. This is true of many spiders. Jumping spiders are gaining popularity now for their intelligence and personalities now too, and I have been playing with those since I was knee high. About the only way to get a black widow to bite you is to smash it with its fangs up against your skin. They don't bite our tortoises because they are fearful and cautious, and because our tortoises are covered with armor. They run from any disturbance. They are not defensive, territorial, or aggressive in any way. They don't "defend" their sites in any way. Again, I see about 50 of them every night in summer all over my ranch, and I am not looking for them.

If their presence bothers you, its fairly easy to simply remove them or smash them. There are literally billions of them al over our area, so you won't be driving them to extinction.

Sounds like one of the books I used to read to my child might be in order here:

Be Nice to Spiders

When Billy left his pet spider, Helen, at the Zoo, the …

www.goodreads.com

If you don't like flies, mosquitoes, crickets, roaches, and other insects pests around, then spiders are your friend.

 

[Yvonne G]

A black widow web is VERY strong. If you try to move one strand of that web and it's real, real strong, you have a black widow. If it breaks easily, it's NOT a black widow.

 

[TortCalledBoris]

Good lord man... I've been to the RSA twice, lived there for 5 months the last time, and there is no need for all that drama. Your giant aggressive wolf spiders are like no others anywhere on earth, and all I had to do was occasionally put a drinking glass over one and escort it outside after sliding a bit of cardboard between the wall and the spider now contained by the glass. Man, those things got pissed when I did that. Your countrymen, and women, did the same thing with the baboons. Everyone there is terrified of animals, it seems. My first trip to the RSA was with our trained baboons because all the SA trainers told them it was impossible to train or handle baboons and they were too aggressive to be on a film set. We overnighted them a video of Roxy doing a few of her behaviors, and I was on a plane importing 2 baboons in to the RSA a few days later. As I sat with a troop of wild baboons, who joined me by choice, and marveled at their social structures, my SA girlfriend was literally shaking with fear.

Our local wolf spiders here are a COMPLETELY different species. They are totally mild mannered, harmless, and very beneficial to have around. We don't want to drive them away, or spray dish soap or chemicals everywhere. There eyes reflect light at night, and I see dozens of them every night in summer as I walk around my ranch costing tortoises and closing up their doors for the night. They do a fine job of keeping the pest insects to a minimum and they do nothing to me or my tortoises.

Haha I was joking. I thought it was obvious sorry.

 

[TammyJ]

Haha I was joking. I thought it was obvious sorry.

It was 🤣 crazy.

 

[TammyJ]

It was 🤣 crazy.

No Tammy. You were enthralled, and you got a nice Baboon story from Tom out of it, to boot!

 

[SinLA]

Black widows, contrary to the lies you've been fed your whole life, are not man eating monsters out to end humanity. You can pick them up and handle them. Look it up on YT. This is true of many spiders. Jumping spiders are gaining popularity now for their intelligence and personalities now too, and I have been playing with those since I was knee high. About the only way to get a black widow to bite you is to smash it with its fangs up against your skin. They don't bite our tortoises because they are fearful and cautious, and because our tortoises are covered with armor. They run from any disturbance. They are not defensive, territorial, or aggressive in any way. They don't "defend" their sites in any way. Again, I see about 50 of them every night in summer all over my ranch, and I am not looking for them.

If their presence bothers you, its fairly easy to simply remove them or smash them. There are literally billions of them al over our area, so you won't be driving them to extinction.

Sounds like one of the books I used to read to my child might be in order here:

Be Nice to Spiders

When Billy left his pet spider, Helen, at the Zoo, the …

www.goodreads.com

If you don't like flies, mosquitoes, crickets, roaches, and other insects pests around, then spiders are your friend.

Ok lets settle down on the drama here. I have never thought they are "man eating monsters" but I do know people who a) have lost a cat bitten by one and b) had an incredibly painful experience being bitten by one because they did accidentally touch (squish?) it when moving planter where one had taken up residence under the rim. Given my tortoise is 1 pound, its not an unreasonable question...

I'm not "anti" insect (I used to collect them as a kid), but not spiders and definitely not poisonous ones. I definitely prefer spiders to crickets in my tortoise house, but again not where I'm shoving my hands. Fortunately the top comes off my doghouse so I can navigate it well enough, but I am regretting the outdoor humid/cool hide I built for him now, not thinking it would be an ideal home for black widows and the only way I can get him out is to reach my hands in and pull him out of it...

 

[Yvonne G]

Haha I was joking. I thought it was obvious sorry.

I knew it was tongue in cheek!!!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Black widows, contrary to the lies you've been fed your whole life, are not man eating monsters out to end humanity. You can pick them up and handle them. Look it up on YT. This is true of many spiders. Jumping spiders are gaining popularity now for their intelligence and personalities now too, and I have been playing with those since I was knee high. About the only way to get a black widow to bite you is to smash it with its fangs up against your skin. They don't bite our tortoises because they are fearful and cautious, and because our tortoises are covered with armor. They run from any disturbance. They are not defensive, territorial, or aggressive in any way. They don't "defend" their sites in any way. Again, I see about 50 of them every night in summer all over my ranch, and I am not looking for them.

If their presence bothers you, its fairly easy to simply remove them or smash them. There are literally billions of them al over our area, so you won't be driving them to extinction.

Sounds like one of the books I used to read to my child might be in order here:

Be Nice to Spiders

When Billy left his pet spider, Helen, at the Zoo, the …

www.goodreads.com

If you don't like flies, mosquitoes, crickets, roaches, and other insects pests around, then spiders are your friend.

My only encounter with a black widow in person was when I found one inside a hollow tree. (Looking for snakes) I ended up with one on my shoulder. It proceeded to walk down my arm to my hand and then off of my finger. Back on the same tree.
It was not aggressive at all. And very small.