EEK! Need Spider Identification Help!

[liznboys]

I just spent 15 minutes searching the internet trying to identify a spider in our house, no luck. In the past week we've found 3 of these spiders in our house, walking around during the day. They are black, hairy, thick bodies and short legs. They have a bluish hue near the eyes I think (I didn't look TOO close at them!). They don't jump, but they are "shifty" and walk fast. They are 1-1.5 cm long. I live in Maryland. Any ideas? We rarely see spiders in our house, and now 3 of these in one week. I guess a nest hatched somewhere in our house....ewww.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Originally posted by liznboys
.....hairy, thick bodies and short legs. They have a bluish hue near the eyes I think (I didn't look TOO close at them!). They don't jump, but they are "shifty" and walk fast....

Sounds like some of the writeups I have seen here on the DIS of the Sopranos. We don't have HBO, so I can't personally confirm.

Anything here??

http://www.agnr.umd.edu/MCE/Publications/PDFs/EB241.pdf

Adobe reader needed to run this file

 

[HollyJoy]

Sounds like a jumping spider... even though you said it doesn't jump.

Spiders in Maryland

 

[DukeStreetKing]

Originally posted by liznboys
I just spent 15 minutes searching the internet trying to identify a spider in our house, no luck. In the past week we've found 3 of these spiders in our house, walking around during the day. They are black, hairy, thick bodies and short legs. They have a bluish hue near the eyes I think (I didn't look TOO close at them!). They don't jump, but they are "shifty" and walk fast. They are 1-1.5 cm long. I live in Maryland. Any ideas? We rarely see spiders in our house, and now 3 of these in one week. I guess a nest hatched somewhere in our house....ewww.

Uh oh, you have just run into the rare East Coastus Shiftus spider. If you were to look closely at them, you would see tiny bandaleros strapped across their chests and little hand-rolled cigarettes dangling from their mouths.

They are usually accompanied by whistling noises and teeny, tiny tumbleweeds blowing around the floor.

Be very careful if you run into them again. It's best to just let them pillage your house and steal your women. They'll move on, eventually.

 

[liznboys]

Thanks to both of you, yes it does look like the jumping spiders which I also found pitcures of during my search. But I assumed it wasn't one since they never jump, but I saw in that second link that they can run fast and not jump. So I guess that's what it is. I hope we don't see too many more, I am not scared of spiders, but these ones are just really gross. My poor 4 yr old had one on his chair at the kitchen table this morning, he just about hit the ceiling! I threw it out the front door. (I flushed the first one I found a week ago and it tried to crawl out of the toilet while the water was swirling around! Freaked me out! lol)

 

[liznboys]

Originally posted by DukeStreetKing
Uh oh, you have just run into the rare East Coastus Shiftus spider. If you were to look closely at them, you would see tiny bandaleros strapped across their chests and little hand-rolled cigarettes dangling from their mouths.

They are usually accompanied by whistling noises and teeny, tiny tumbleweeds blowing around the floor.

Be very careful if you run into them again. It's best to just let them pillage your house and steal your women. They'll move on, eventually.

LOL

 

[my3kids]

One lives in my mailbox. We replaced the mailbox(no, not because of him) and low and behold....he came back to his new, larger home. I have also seen some of his cousins inside the house. I guess I never thought he might be a dangerous spider. If anyone can tell me differently, there will be an eviction on my road today!

 

[cynsaun]

It sounds like a wolf spider! I am not sure if it bites or not.

My daughter is extremely allergic to all spider bites. She gets a secondary infection every time where the site swells and then she has to go on antibiotics!

 

[liznboys]

Originally posted by cynsaun
It sounds like a wolf spider! I am not sure if it bites or not.

My daughter is extremely allergic to all spider bites. She gets a secondary infection every time where the site swells and then she has to go on antibiotics!

It doesn't look like a wolf spider though. I think it is indeed a jumping spider...that doesn't jump. lol

That's too bad about your dd! My 2 yr old has allergies and I always worry about him reacting badly to things. He's never been bit by a spider that we know of.

 

[cynsaun]

It is very scary! When she was two (and my husband was in ITALY!!!) she was bit by a brown recluse spider and actually had to have surgery on her leg!

 

[liznboys]

That's horrible! Poor girl! I don't think we have brown recluse's here in Maryland. We do have black widow's, but I've never seen one here.

 

[cynsaun]

I know it! It was so scary! She still has a huge crater in the side of her knee where she had the surgery! Now, of course, she is proud of it and tells EVERYONE she meets!

If you don't mind me asking, where in Maryland do you live? We are needing to move next year, and are looking at Maryland as an option. We were thinking of Westminster, Fallston, or Elkton to the east, or Hagerstown or Frederick to the west. My husband flies out of BWI and the commute from Raleigh, NC is SO hard!

 

[my3kids]

I looked at the Jumping Spider photograph.....Hey! How'd you get a picture of the inside of my mailbox?? That's him, but not sure how many flies get delivered into my mail box each day. He might be hungry.

 

[liznboys]

Originally posted by cynsaun
I know it! It was so scary! She still has a huge crater in the side of her knee where she had the surgery! Now, of course, she is proud of it and tells EVERYONE she meets!

If you don't mind me asking, where in Maryland do you live? We are needing to move next year, and are looking at Maryland as an option. We were thinking of Westminster, Fallston, or Elkton to the east, or Hagerstown or Frederick to the west. My husband flies out of BWI and the commute from Raleigh, NC is SO hard!

We live 15 minutes south of BWI actually! Our area is pretty expensive as far as new housing goes though. We got lucky and bought our house (a single family) right before the prices skyrocketed! We know several people who live in Westminster and really like it there. And in all those areas you mention the housing is much less expensive than closer to Baltimore/D.C. where I am.

 

[liznboys]

Originally posted by my3kids
I looked at the Jumping Spider photograph.....Hey! How'd you get a picture of the inside of my mailbox?? That's him, but not sure how many flies get delivered into my mail box each day. He might be hungry.

So will you bring him little fly treats then?! lol It's funny, when I was doing my search on spiders this morning, I came across a post on some message board where people were talking about keeping black widow spiders as pets!!!!!!!!!!!!! ICK!!!!!