CLOSED: Red Spider about the diameter of a penny

This guy was down in some bricks and stone we were moving today. I had to stop loading the truck and grab my camera! He was a very vivid, deep red. What is he?

Wow! Don't know but he looks mean!

gurrrrrross!

Hmmm...funny thing...the other night (very very late, maybe early morning even) I found myself brushing off my pillow and the bed...and then turned my pillow over before I went back to sleep. You see, I was having a dream that little spiders were crawling all over my pillow and I was half asleep when I brushed off my pillow...it seemed real. The next morning I woke up and asked myself "did I really do that?"...lol My wife thought I was brushing off cat hairs (that's what she told me the following morning...she didn't know what I was doing). That same night I had a dream that I was driving around a train engine as you would a car and I was running from some bad people (using the train to get away...and it wasn't on tracks either)...lol...very strange dreams I have.

i hear ya about the strange dreams! i have some interesting ones myself.

I don't know, but I don't like it.

We could be on the verge of having a forum called the
X files

Peter.

Kimberley, look here - it's very close, but your's had some color variation.
http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=4&shapeID=1022&curPageNum=6&recnum=IS0287

be careful of it, just in case.
k.

Kathleen - thanks for the info. I've not yet seen a brown recluse spider, thank goodness. This fellow had a thicker body and sturdier legs. The fella wasn't on my property, thank goodness. I've never seen a spider like it before. I sure wouldn't want to accidently disturb one in my garden, whatever it was.

Jon, you're funny. :) Reminds me of when we rented the lower in an old house and had our bedroom in the basement. Every once in a while, something disgusting like a giant centipede would end up crawling over my foot or dropping off the wall onto the bed. It was DISGUSTING!! We were so glad to move!!

did I have to read this thread before bed!! sleep tight Mark.

....don't let the bedbugs bite.

What's worse, I scratched the top of my head this morning and felt a bump. It was a TICK. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh! It hadn't gotten a hold of me yet, though. Yuck, yuck, yuck!!!!!!

Kim, here is your spider http://www.museums.org.za/bio/images/spiders/club1.jpg It's a clubionia.

Well, I'll be. Thanks, Susie. :)

Don't listen to the warning on the link to brown recluse, because the dark hardened skin doesn't always fall off. When Conor was 6 he got bitten and we had to have it cut out and almost needed skin grafting, it was so big. It started out looking like a acne pimple, then his ankle began to swell around it, the he got a big pocket of puss, which later began turning black and was the size of a small pea at emergency on Friday. The doctor said to follow up with his pediatrician on Monday, which, by then, it had increased in size to somewhere between a nickle and a quarter. Conor was immediately rushed to the hospital for surgery.

Wonder what your nasty little spider does, Calalily? Maybe it's the one who got me all bandaged up and typing one handed? Whatever it was, I felt it immediately, and made my hand swell up right away. By morning the puss pockets were thjere, and I got into the car straight for the VA.
They don'[t knhow what bit me tnough, so I'm jjust weiting to find out. The medicine is causing my esyj-hand cooredination some problems firghgt here, it lools liek, so I'[d better get of till tomorrow. sorry if this isn';t making much sense, it just hit merand i need to go to ged know...wow...sorry@

Meiyu, we have 2 spiders in the US that are poisonous, the brown recluse and the black widow. Lots of spiders bite and will make a place, but the BR and BW bite destroyes skin tissue. Spiders are important to ecological balance, they eat lots of bugs(including the earwigs that ear my brugs) and spiders are food for wasps, it's a cycle of life.
I'm sorry you got bitten and hope your hand gets better. My friend got bitten by a brown recluse while she slept. It made a terrible place on her side that took months to heal. I too am afraid of spiders in the house and we use the total-release aerosol sprays to kill them while we are out of the house.

Great picture of this little spider! I dont think I've ever seen a red one before.

Yeah, I know, Cala...I just gotta remember to wear my blasted gloves!! I noticed today that's the only gardening supply Peter didn't hide from me (4 pairs of them...haha). They're sure scary, but I leave them alone (when I can see them).

Meiyu, I too forget the gloves. I also hate to be walking and run into a web. I run to DH and make him check my hair and back for spiders. I'm so afraid they are on me. I like to look at spiders but don't want them in the house or on me.

Hahaha...do you scream while you're running, making jerking motions with your whole body, while swatting imaginery spiders out of your hair and off the rest of your body? Someday someone's gonna catch me on video doing that, and send it into Funniest Home Videos...I'll be we all do that. When is someone gonna tell me what the heck a DH is?

DH--dear hubby(or any other "D" word you prefer to use). Meiyu, I think you must have seen me when I've run into a spiders web. I run from bees too. I fell down once and was muddy from head to toe. It had rained and the grass was slippery, fell flat on my face.

LOL!!!!! I think we all do the same thing, just hope no one sees us, or worse, gets it on video...hahaha!!!
I'm glad someone finally told me what it meant. Last night, as my insomnia kept me awake, I realized that my first two marriages must've influenced my thoughts for all the "D" words I had come up with. It wasn't till I laid down next to number 3, that I sparked..."oh, maybe it stands for 'Dear'!!!
Now, Cala...I really need you to go to tropicals forum, PLEASE! and read my help thread, being the seasoned gardener that you are, k??? Thanks!!

Hi garden wife! Did you ever find out what the spider was with the vivid red head and grey body in post #28814? I live in NJ just back from a camping trip in Lake George N.Y. I found the same exact spider crawling across my 5 year old son's bedroom ceiling last night as he lay asleep! 4 foot from his head! Unfortunately it went buy buy as I crunched it and flushed it. I heard the little toughie crunch but as he dropped into the bowl he began to swim so off he went! I am still freaked out about it and can't find any info about it.

This spider is in the family Dysderidae; it is Dysdera crocata, known as the woodlouse spider, as it often preys on these crustaceans, piercing the hard exoskeletons with their long, sharp fangs. They can give a painful bite, but it is not dangerous. See http://tinyurl.com/6qovbz for detailed information.

WOOT!
i have a school bug collection due tomorrow, and I needed to classify one more bug. So i go and (knowing that i'll be hunting for the spider for hours) type "red spider" into google and this link is what pops up. I scroll to the bottom and there's a link to the exact spider I have! yay! thanx so much suunto!

This message was edited Oct 8, 2009 2:01 PM

He looks like he could be what's called a Running Spider





Characteristics: Running spiders, or sac spiders, do not form webs. Instead they hunt their prey with quickening speed.

The reddish head and abdomen are in contrast from the lighter legs. Hind legs are lightest, appearing almost white.

General Adult Size (Length):
3mm to 10mm (0.12in to 0.39in)

Identifying Colors: red; brown; white

North American reach includes (may not be limited to): Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama,


Category: Spider
Common Name: Running Spider
Scientific Name: (Trachelas sp.)

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Corrinidae
Genus: Trachelas
Species: sp.

Spiders in the genus Trachelas are indeed quite similar in appearance to woodlouse spiders, and I am embarrassed to have overlooked that fact in my earlier posting. The principal difference is in their chelicerae ('fangs'), which are much larger in the woodlouse spider than in the running spider. Unfortunately, that feature cannot be seen clearly in the image provided. The bottom line is that neither spider would pose a danger to humans.