When it comes to spiders, there are basically 3 types of people. First there are those that are perfectly cool with spiders to the point that maybe they even have a pet tarantula at home. Then there is the second group of people that aren’t that big of a fan of spiders but are ok with them if they keep their distance. And then there is the third group of people that even the mention of the name “spider” causes them to head for the hills. Just for the record, we only have two spiders in Oklahoma that are considered dangerous to humans: the brown recluse and the black widow. We’ll talk about those in a minute but let’s first talk about spiders in general.

Spiders are members of the Arachnida family which also includes ticks, mites, scorpions, and others. All the members of this family have several things in common. They have 2 major body parts (cephalothorax and the abdomen), 8 legs, no wings, and no antennae. Most spiders don’t bite humans and are considered valuable predators in that they can help keep insect populations in check. So, having a few spiders around isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless of course your home is playing host to a brown recluse or a black widow.

Most of us probably have a passing familiarity with these two spiders but are also not above mis-identifying a harmless spider as a brown recluse or a black widow. Brown recluse spiders (aka fiddleback spiders) are fairly easy to identify with their dark, violin shaped marking that is found behind their eyes. They are called a brown recluse because they are brown and because they like to keep to themselves in quiet, undisturbed places. These places might include basements, closets, cellars, attics, and under furniture. They can also be found behind wall hangings, storage boxes, barns, storage sheds and garages. And unfortunately, they can also be found in old clothes or shoes you haven’t worn in a while (my apologies to the third group of spider people, I know this isn’t going to help).

Luckily for us, they are not aggressive creatures. However, if you accidentally disturb them and apply physical pressure to them, they can bite as a defensive action.

The other spider we need to have on our spider radar is the black widow spider. While brown recluse spiders tend to be only about 1/2 inch in diameter, the black widow spider can be quite a bit larger, running somewhere between 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Male black widow spiders tend to be smaller than the females and usually have three light colored streaks on their abdomen as compared to the female black widow that has the identifiable red hourglass shape on her belly. It’s also the female black widow whose bite we want to avoid. Again, they are not aggressive spiders unless disturbed or guarding their egg sack.

Black widow spiders like to live under the eaves, around trash cans, under boxes, in shrubs, crates, or wood piles. As temperatures cool down, they might seek shelter indoors. This summer at our Seed to Supper farm, we learned that black widow spiders can also live under plastic mulch sheeting, which was a little un-nerving for a bit, but we recovered emotionally fairly quickly…at least most of us did.

A bite from a black widow can be painful and accompanied by some other unpleasant symptoms. The mortality rate from a black widow spider bite is usually less that 1% as most bites get better in 1 to 5 days.

Now that we know the two spiders we need to be on the lookout for, let’s talk about some of the other spiders you can find in Oklahoma.

Tarantulas are pretty common in Oklahoma. If you haven’t seen a tarantula in real life, you have probably seen a photo. They are large, brown, and hairy spiders that can grow to more than 3 inches in diameter. Tarantulas diet consists of insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, and other arthropods. On occasion they can also eat small lizards.

Typically, we don’t see tarantulas during the day because they are nocturnal hunters. Their days are spent under rocks, in abandoned tunnels, or other places where they can find shelter.

It seems like each year we see photos and see stories of hundreds of tarantulas migrating together. While this image is the thing horror movies are made of, it is primarily believed that these migrating tarantulas are males in search of female mating partners.

Interestingly, tarantulas can also use their rear legs to launch barbed hairs from their abdomen in the direction of potential danger. It’s not unusual to find these projectiles on the nose of a dog that got too close.

Next up are wolf spiders. Wolf spiders are often confused with the brown recluse spider but are easy to tell apart since wolf spiders don’t have that distinctive brown violin shape on their back. Wolf spiders do not build webs since they are predatory hunters and can be good partners to have around in that they eat crickets, cockroaches, beetles, and other insects.

Orb spiders are a large, colorful spider and are great partners to have in your garden or around your home. Sometimes they are known as garden spiders. Female orb spiders can grow to between 2 and 6 inches in diameter while the males tend to be smaller. These spiders build webs to capture their food. They do have one interesting behavior in that they rock their webs back and forth which is either a defensive move if disturbed, or a strategy they use to further entangle newly caught prey in their web.

If you think you have been bitten by a spider, it’s a good idea to contact your physician and capture the spider in a container to take with you for positive identification. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Black widow spider - James O. Howell, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org