Spider identification
The big brown long legged spider sitting in a flat web in the corner of the basement, the window well or the garage is the barn funnel weaver. It is the spider people photograph and ask about, wanting to know whether it is a hobo spider. It is not; the hobo spider does not occur in Ontario, and this one is harmless.
Brown with a striped head, a mottled or chevroned abdomen and long banded legs, about 1 cm in the body and up to 4 cm across the legs. The web is the tell: a flat sheet of silk in a corner or along a wall with a funnel at one end leading into a crack, where the spider waits. It runs out across the sheet when something lands and back into the funnel when disturbed. It is very fast but does not jump and does not wander far.
Basement corners, window wells, behind the furnace and water heater, under stairs, in garages, sheds, crawl spaces and the bottom of exterior walls under the siding. It likes undisturbed corners near the floor and can occupy the same web for years.
Year round indoors, with males wandering in late summer and fall looking for females, which is when they are found in bathtubs and on floors. Outdoors it is active from spring to fall at the base of walls.
Not a concern. It retreats into the funnel at the first disturbance, and a bite would need the spider to be trapped against skin. The hobo spider reputation it gets blamed for has been dropped by health agencies even where that spider lives. Most "spider bites" in Ontario are never confirmed; see the bite section of our guide to common spiders in Ontario for what a real one looks like.
Indoors, vacuuming the web, the funnel and the spider is the fix, and we quote indoor work separately for existing customers. Outdoors it builds the same funnel web in window wells, the gap under the bottom course of siding and the foundation line, and those are areas we clear and, where they keep refilling, treat on every visit. Keeping window wells clear of leaves and sealing the gap under the siding removes most of its habitat. Every visit ends with a written summary of what we found and where product was applied, if any. Our spider control service and 60 day guarantee pages have the details and pricing.
Grass spider, Wolf spider, Dark fishing spider. The grass spider is its outdoor relative with the same funnel web but on the lawn and in the foundation plantings. Wolf spiders are hairier and stouter, build no web and wander the floor. The dark fishing spider is much larger and found on docks and boathouses. The full list with photos is in the common spiders in Ontario guide.
Good to know
No. The hobo spider does not live in Ontario. The big brown spider in a funnel web in the basement is the barn funnel weaver, which is harmless.
Not the one from the news stories, which is a European relative found in the Pacific Northwest. The barn funnel weaver is the same family and the same shape, and equally harmless.
Window wells are ideal habitat: dry, undisturbed and full of insects. Clear them of leaves and debris each spring and fall. We clear and treat them on our visits.
Related guides: Why spider webs keep coming back, Do you need to spray for spiders. Service areas where this spider is found: Sarnia and Bright's Grove, Goderich, Bayfield.
