What is this spider and is it dangerous

[Phage]

Need some help here.
Doing some "spring" cleaning and found this scary thing. It is about an inch long and has a huge body. It was not too keen of being photographed.

Does anyone know what this spider is, and is it dangerous, and should it be in a food storage area? Sorry about the quality of the photos.

 

[chfite]

It is just one of many spiders. I see them and many others in my garage, wood pile, and such. If you mean food storage to be the pantry in your house, it should not be there. If you mean around where you keep the chickens' feed, it it just a spider and not to be a worry.

They won't hurt the chickens who may well just eat them. Only the black widow and brown recluse spiders are considered to be dangerous to humans in the United States.

Throw a little diatomaceous earth around, and that should take of them.

Chris

 

[Triple Willow]

Need some help here.
Doing some "spring" cleaning and found this scary thing. It is about an inch long and has a huge body. It was not too keen of being photographed.

Does anyone know what this spider is, and is it dangerous, and should it be in a food storage area? Sorry about the quality of the photos.

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I can't tell for sure from the picture but it looks like a Black Widow which is very venomous. Did it have a red spot on it? Black Widows do but I'm not sure if it is males and females or just females with the bright red spot. It would have to go, no spiders allowed in my house! lol

 

[suebee]

Can't tell by the pics but I get Black Widow look-a-likes all the time in my steel feed box. They aren't poisonous. You'll mostly find Black Widows in wood piles or dark corners where they're not disturbed. What did you do with it? Under your shoe?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

It really can't be identified beyond family (Theridiidae) from the picture. As mentioned earlier, you could look for the hour-glass shape on the ventrum to determine if it is a black widow. Even so, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Blue CopperHen]

I can't tell for sure from the picture but it looks like a Black Widow which is very venomous. Did it have a red spot on it? Black Widows do but I'm not sure if it is males and females or just females with the bright red spot. It would have to go, no spiders allowed in my house! lol

Black widow X2

 

[Triple Willow]

Spiders are nothing to play with. I know one man who lost his whole leg due to a Brown Recluce bite on the upper leg/hip. I know a woman who was bit on the leg by a Brown Recluce and it took MONTHS and a whole lot of treatment and therapy and I'm not sure if she ever fully recovered from it. Also there was a young boy that got in a nest of them and died from the bites. Then there are the lucky one who just have a big hole rot out of their skin. I don't play around when it comes to spiders! They scare me worse than snakes do.

 

[aart]

A huge body could well mean it's carrying eggs. Whenever I see one that I wonder about, I get it into a lidded jar so I can observe and research.

 

[flyboy129]

That shape coupled with a shiny, jet-black body alone give me red flags of a probable black widow. Not all black widows have a red hourglass. Some have red dots/other marks, and some have red and yellow markings. It depends on location in the country as there are variants on the species. The red can be on their back, where easily visible as they walk, or even underneath, where you can't see it as easily. Most here in TN are the latter, and are only seen after I scrape them from my shoe. Here is more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow

 

[littlechicklet]

I agree with those who said it looks like a black widow. I can't tell positively from the pics but the body shape is the same as a female black widow.

Also like flyboy129, I too live in E. TN and find female black widows at least once a year. We have a lot of stone in retaining walls, landscaping, etc and they LOVE to live in the walls. I just killed one the other day when I was tearing out stacked stones from around the mailbox area.

In my experience they love dark, damp & rocky areas to live in. Is your pantry damp? I have never found one in the house or any dry area. They also build low to the ground, have what I call "crack head" looking webs, not all have the visible red hourglass shape and cause me lots of stress.

If its a brown spider then we have those and I don't think they are venomous. They look, to me, exactly like a black widow in shape but are kind of a dull brown color and build webs in just about any area.

If you caught it and put it in a jar take it to your local Ag office and see if they can help identify it.