Spider identification
The large hairy brown spider that appears in a fresh web beside the porch light every evening in August, and is gone again by morning, is very often the spotted orb weaver. It is almost identical to the barn orb weaver in size and habit, and for your house the difference does not matter.
Fat and hairy, 1 to 2 cm in the body, reddish brown to grey brown, with a mottled or spotted pattern on the abdomen and clearly banded legs. There is no white cross. The web is a large orb, often 40 cm or more, strung from a light fixture, the eaves, a porch post or between shrubs and the wall. It builds in the evening, hunts all night, and takes much of the web down at dawn before retreating to a curled leaf, a gap in the trim or the top of a shutter.
Under eaves, around porch and garage lights, between shrubs and the house, on fences and in the garden. Anywhere a light draws moths and a frame gives it two anchor points.
Small and unnoticed until July; large and obvious from August to the first hard frost. The female lays an egg sac in a sheltered spot in fall and the spiderlings emerge the next spring.
Only if squeezed against skin, and then mild and local. It drops from the web and hides when disturbed. 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.
Because it hides by day, removal has to cover the retreat as well as the web: we check the light fixture, the trim and the shrubs against the wall and vacuum the spider and the egg sac, not just the orb. Where one light fixture draws a new spider every week through August we treat that site. A warmer bulb or a motion sensor on the porch light removes most of the reason it is there. 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.
Barn orb weaver, Cross orb weaver, Marbled orb weaver. The barn orb weaver is the same size and habit and is told apart mainly by a plainer abdomen; the two are routinely confused even by people who know spiders. The cross orb weaver has the white cross and sits in its web by day. The marbled orb weaver is bright orange and lives in shrubs and tall grass in October. The full list with photos is in the common spiders in Ontario guide.
Good to know
The spotted orb weaver eats most of its web at dawn and spins a new one at dusk, so you see a fresh web every evening and a bare frame by day.
No, but they are near identical in size and behaviour and are found in the same places. For identification purposes on this site we treat them together.
No. Its bite is rare and mild. It is a useful spider in an inconvenient place.
Related guides: Keeping spiders away from windows, eaves and lights, The spider life cycle and why timing matters. Service areas where this spider is found: Grand Bend, Sarnia and Bright's Grove, Kincardine.
