Amazing looking spiders in my back garden

There are a lot of these spiders in my back garden (in the South of England) at the moment. They make large webs. These handsome creatures are about a centimetre in length plus legs and each have an individual white 'design' on top of their abdomens. I doubt they are harmful, of course.

I'm no expert, anyone know what kind of spiders they are?

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i would say it's a cross spider, they are very common here in denmark aswell

I thought they were common garden spiders tbh. I don't know the latin or anything. They are always abundent in Autumn and are quite beautiful in their own right.

I was once bitten by one, it was big. I still respect them.

I saw one the other day with a pebble hanging from its web, god knows how it got there but it was swinging on a piece of silk. Fascinating.

I haven't seen any pebbles but one did catch a big fly, had it's fill and unceremoniously threw the husk from the web. These things are born killers!

reply to post by mithrawept


They are.

They also have a nasty habit of building webs at head height, so you walk face first into them...

Quite an uncomfortable experience.

Originally posted by Wide-Eyes
reply to post by mithrawept

 

They are.

They also have a nasty habit of building webs at head height, so you walk face first into them...

Quite an uncomfortable experience.

have you ever walked into one and freaked out only to have people around who have no idea that you just walked into a web? talk about uncomfortable.

reply to post by Wide-Eyes


Wow, I didn't think about that. All of the webs are indeed at head height!

The lady of the house wanted me to get rid of them, until I pointed out that they eat all the other creepy crawlies!

We have these in Ireland too. They have only been seen as of the last 2-3 years, especially in the last year there has been a dramatic increase. People are actually talking about it at the dinner table.

We didn't really get spiders this big, and there are bigger ones that we also get. None of these have been really seen in the past though, it is strange.

We get these really big jumping spiders by the way, really long legs on them too. Big increase in the last few years of tropical looking spiders here in Ireland. I know a few people who walk around with a Tarantula spider in their pocket while standing with their mates in a woodland area between roads) in the suburbs where I live. They just walk around with it, and what I think is that maybe one escaped, or a few; and bred with local irish spiders to form new spider types.

*dead link
*can't post pictures

I know this is an old thread.

I want to try this tho

Originally posted by sykickvision
I know this is an old thread.

I want to try this tho

edit on 13-10-2010 by sykickvision because: I figured out how to post a link!

That's one big spider!