Common House Spider, Cobweb Spider

The common name of Common House Spider suits this arachnid well. This spider is native to the United States and Canada.

I have countless of these pest control agents around my home AND one is inside my kitchen at the window. If it ends up being a female and she lays an egg, I might think about transferring her to the outside, or if too cold, then the basement.

This spider builds a messy web to catch its prey and is able to subdue insects three times larger than itself. This encouraged me to keep the spider in the kitchen when I saw it wrestling, then eating a fly.

The female will either lay her egg sacs one at a time, waiting until the young disperse to lay another, or up to four at once. As long as she lives, she stays close to these eg... read moreg sacs, guarding this and the hatching spiderlings. She does not stray far to eat, but her location seems well chosen as there is plenty of food available to her.

There is a purpose to her standing guard! If she become prey herself, or dies of other causes, when the spiderlings start coming out of the sac, an older "sibling" will start eating them. I tried moving one of the spiders away when it became too much for me, but then another took its place. Such is the way of nature, there is a balance.

The genus has been revised, the correct name is now: Parasteatoda tepidariorum