After almost a year of growing and molting, palm-sized females of the golden silk orb weaver have reached their challenging maximum size.
As described in a Newsweek report, one of the largest spiders in the United States is getting ready to lay its eggs throughout the Southeast.
According to outreach coordinator Marianne Gauldin for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, people will find large golden silk in a deciduous or swampy Alabama or the Southeast woodland at this time of the year orb-weavers about to enter the next phase of their life cycle.
Such species can be discovered in close proximity to humans, especially in areas of the southwest where people have their houses close to the wood lot.
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The bodies of the female golden silk orb weaver can grow up to three inches long, excluding their legs.
Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders
The bodies of the female golden silk orb weaver can grow up to three inches long, excluding their legs. Their tubular abdomen is typically bright orange with white specks, not to mention curved like a banana, explaining why they are sometimes called banana spiders.
Their large orange legs are striated with bands. Then, their golden, orb-shaped webs can be up to three feet in diameter.
Gauldin also said that when the spiders hatch out in early spring, they are very small. They spend all the spring and early summer months growing and molting. This month, they have reached their complete adult size and are much easier to notice.
While the females are growing to the size of a hand, the males are typically only roughly the size of a fingernail.
Do Banana Spiders Bite?
While the golden orb-weaving spiders seldom bite, they are typically non-aggressive. Additionally, the spider species' bite is low-risk or non-toxic to humans.
Symptoms of such a bite may include numbness, swelling, and pain. Occasionally, nausea and dizziness can take place.
According to the Spiders.com report specified that it is essential to be careful not to walk into these species' webs at night.
Moreover, the fright of this spider crawling over an individual's face can be terrifying and may lead to heart attack, specifically to the vulnerable more than 40-year-olds.
Toxicity and Danger of These Spiders
According to ANT Pest Control, orb-weaving spiders have a bite that is not poisonous and carries a "low risk to humans." These spider species hardly ever bite. More so, they are not an aggressive spider species.
People are discouraged from walking into these species' sticky web late at night. Should the spiders crawl across the face, it may frighten them to the point when they might cause a heart attack in humans.
Essentially, orb-weaver spiders are a suitable spider species in the garden. They are eating other pests and insects that could be hazardous to them.
Typically, they are not aggressive and timid spiders. When these species get startled, they're running from any signs of threat or danger. They may not be a threat to people or pets, but these spiders eat many pest-like insects in the garden.
Lastly, a garden orb weaver is hesitant to attack a human. Nonetheless, on rare occasions, they indeed bite.
Typically their bite results in a mild, localized pain that causes swelling and numbness. If such signs continue, people are advised to go to the doctor and have their signs checked out.
Related information about golden silk spiders is shown on Life's Wild Adventure's YouTube video below:
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