Garden Pests and Diseases: is this a friend or foe?, 0 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
I like spiders, but no garden spiders for me this year. I think the drought we've had this year has not been kind to the critters.

As for brown recluse - that picture of ceejaytown's is a good one, and the fiddle can be helpful, but one of the best ways to tell if you have a brown recluse is to look at its eyes (You can put it in the refrigerator for a while to knock it out, and then use a magnifying glass). If the spider has 6 eyes that are in 3 pairs - one pair in front, and one pair on each side of the face - it could be a brown recluse. The only other major kind it could be is a spitting spider, but these will not have a fiddle and are often "striped" on the legs.

Here's what the eyes look like: