Q&A for How to Identify a Barn Spider

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  • Question
    What do barn spiders eat?
    Stevie Keoki Waskey
    Community Answer
    Various kinds of bugs that get stuck in their web. They even eat other barn spiders.
  • Question
    How dangerous is a barn spider?
    Community Answer
    A barn spider is not very dangerous at all. They generally avoid humans, and if they do bite you, their bite isn't venomous.
  • Question
    How long do barn spiders live?
    Ilovemonday
    Community Answer
    Barn spiders typically live for about 1 year, and are preyed on by other spiders, especially other barn spiders. Barn spiders spin their webs outside near buildings, sometimes inside barns, but mostly outdoors so that they can catch flying insects. It is rare to find a barn spider inside a home.
  • Question
    How large can a barn spider grow to be?
    Community Answer
    They can get to at least 2-4 inches large.
  • Question
    How do barn spiders spin a web?
    Community Answer
    They have glands which produce the silk-like material, and for hours they drag lines across pre-existing structures in patterns until they obtain the desired web.
  • Question
    What kind of web does it spin?
    Community Answer
    A barn spider spins a web that looks like a wagon wheel. They are 3 quarters of a inch (20mm) in length and are a yellow and brown color.
  • Question
    What does a barn spider sound like?
    Community Answer
    Most spiders vibrate to communicate with other spiders but if spiders feel threatened, they will hiss like snakes.
  • Question
    How do barn spiders die, other than being eaten by other barn spiders?
    Community Answer
    They die from old age, being killed by people like you and me, other animals eating them, and of course, injury.
  • Question
    Do barn spiders poop?
    Community Answer
    Yes. They poop a lot. Once you rid the spider from your abode, clean up the mess it made.
  • Question
    Do barn spiders live together?
    Community Answer
    The smaller male barn spiders do not tend to spin webs and typically will spend most of their lives wandering, attempting to find a female to mate with. This means that most barn spiders you see in webs will tend to be the larger females. Barn spiders are nocturnal creatures.
  • Question
    What areas of the US do barn spiders live in?
    Community Answer
    They are most commonly found in the Northeast United States.
  • Question
    When do barn spider hatchlings leave the sac? Do they hatch in the sac, stay there for the winter and then leave in the spring?
    Sara Gerber
    Community Answer
    Barn spider hatchlings hatch in the fall and winter, but stay in their egg sac until spring, then they leave their mother's web.
  • Question
    How many spinnerets does a barn spider have?
    Community Answer
    Most people say that all spiders have one spinneret, but most spiders actually have multiple spinnerets. Each one does an important job to make the web as strong as possible. In this case, barn spiders have four spinnerets.
  • Question
    How do I identify gender in a barn spider?
    Community Answer
    The male spider has an enlarged pair of pedipalps, sometimes resembling a pair of arms with boxing gloves on.
  • Question
    How many points does a barn spider’s web have?
    Community Answer
    Barn spiders spin large webs. They typically spin them to have around 14-16 points on their webs.
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