Does anyone know alot about spiders?

Question

And what spiders i should be aware of in bc.

And why?

Answer 1

Really, there are two spiders in British Columbia of concern.

The first is quite famous: The Black Widow.

The black widow lives in the dry central interior (The Okanagan and Thompson Valleys, for example), and are typically found in piles of wood or near to sources of water. They are easily recognized because of their shiny black bodies, very large abdomens, and red "hourglass" feature found on their ventral (belly) side.

The black widow's venom causes necrotism of the tissue around the bite, and can be dangerous and/or fatal to certain groups of people, such as the elderly, the sick, and the young.

Black widow bites typically occur by accident. The spider is not nomadic, and spends most of its life in its web. Bites are usually incidental and result from people lifting a piece of wood without any gloves, or putting on a piece of clothing that has been on the ground for a very long time. In most cases, bites result from the spider being trapped or threatened by the individual who was bitten.  They are not an aggressive spider by any measure, and you can even handle them (but take care).

The second spider is known as the Hobo Spider.

The hobo spider is an introduced funnel web spider that is frequently mistaken for a brown recluse spider. They are small, ~18mm in length, and are typically a chocolate brown in colour. The hobo spider, like the black widow prefers warm and drier climates. Because of the nature of BC's weather, the spiders are only typically evidenced as a problem for Vancouver residents during the summer, when rains have abated and the males are able to live.

The bite of the hobo spider can be quite troublesome; however, only 50% (approximately) of bites are actually wet bites - the spider injects venom while biting. Bites that do possess venom typically cause a small lesion to occur in the region of the bite. Bites located in areas of fatty tissue typically take longer to heal (as long as 2 years), but typically the bites heal in 2 weeks.

These spiders inhabit homes commonly in BC, but fortunately, they are eaten by many of the other spiders that we have here. For this reason, you must be sure to try and not kill spiders that you have not identified as being harmful, as they will often be looking to eat the ones that are.

There are other spiders that will scare you, undoubtedly, such as the giant house spider of the Lower Mainland. These suckers can get large than a toonie, and are not easily intimidated. But don't fret, they aren't harmful.

Hope that helps... and welcome to Beautiful British Columbia!

Answer 2

These sites are of great help to lot of people, hope they will be helpful to you too -

http://www.spideridentification.org/

http://www.badspiderbites.com/spider-ide...

http://www.aboutbugsbugsbugs.com/spiders...

http://www.pesticide.org/spiders.html