Spiders aren't exactly popular. They are beneficial insects and can help you fight aphids and other pests. Annoying flies are also prey for spiders. Some specimens look dangerous because of their coloring, especially in conspicuous red or yellow tones. However, concerns about these spiders are only justified in the rarest of cases.
Domestic spiders
Among the native spiders there are only a few species that are more or less clearly marked black and yellow. The most conspicuous of them is probably the female wasp spider, which immigrated from southern Europe.
Wasp spider
- Scientific name:Argiope bruennichi
- Further designations: Zebra spider, tiger spider, silk ribbon spider
- Appearance: Female wasp-like drawing, yellow-white-striped abdomen with black transverse bands, silvery-white hairy fore-body, males light brown with indistinct dark markings
- Size: Male approx. 6 mm, females up to 25 mm
- Origin: Mediterranean area, now also native to Germany and to be found in parts of North Africa and Asia
- Occurrence: open, sunny areas with low to half-height vegetation and lots of grasshoppers, wet meadows, dry grassland, patchy wasteland
- Dangerousness: Bite only possible on thin-skinned areas of skin and relatively harmless, symptoms: slight pain, redness, swelling
- Particularities: feeds mainly on grasshoppers, bees and wasps, females are extremely cannibalistic, poisonous claws are very short
Vierfleck-Zartspider
- Scientific name:Anyphaena accentuata
- Appearance: Abdomen with four black triangles on a yellow or brown background, yellow-brown, black piebald legs
- Size: Male approx. 4 to 7 mm long, females approx. 5 to 9 mm long
- Origin: Central Europe to Central Asia
- Occurrence: on trees and bushes, in the bushes
- Dangerousness: harmless
- Particularities: overwinters under tree bark, spends the day in a rolled up leaf, hunts small insects and aphids at night, mating can take several hours
Introduced or immigrated spiders
Some spider species are spreading further and further into new areas due to the change in the climate, others are introduced through fruit boxes or through imports of plants. The widow bottle, for example, likes to spread out in garden centers and also find its way into domestic houses and gardens.
European black widow
- Scientific name:Latrodectus tredecimguttatus
- Further designations: Mediterranean black widow
- Appearance: Depending on the species, red, yellow or lilac-colored, light-rimmed spots on the abdomen, completely black color possible
- Size: Females up to 4 cm tall (leg span), body length a good 1 cm, males about half the size of the female (body length approx. 5mm, leg length up to 17 mm)
- Origin: South and Southeast Europe, North Africa, Middle East
- Occurrence: Steppes, grasslands
- Dangerousness: Less poisonous than the southern black widow (Latrodectus mactans), but not harmless, local swelling the bite site, symptoms (muscle pain, abdominal pain and headache, cramps, high blood pressure) can last for days, rarely more fatal exit
- Particularities: can even catch small lizards, is not aggressive or aggressive
Fake widow
- Scientific name:Steatoda nobilis
- Appearance: black abdomen with a light / yellow transverse band
- Origin: Madeira, Canary Islands
- Dangerousness: Bite painful but not dangerous
- Particularities: can be confused with the European black widow, but is less dangerous, distributed through garden centers in Germany
Gold Wasp Spider
- Scientific name:Argiope aurantia
- Appearance: black-brown to black abdomen with irregular whitish to yellowish spots, white or light gray, densely hairy fore body, males rather plain, light brown, indistinct drawn
- Size: Male approx. 5 to 9 mm, females approx. 19 to 28 mm, up to 7 cm leg span
- Origin: southern Canada, USA, Mexico, Central America
- Occurrence: Savannas, open prairies, wetlands, open forests
- Dangerousness: harmless to humans
- Particularities: need bushes to harness their cunt, does not live at high altitudes, nets can reach a diameter of up to 60 cm, males die after mating, females with the first frost
Similar colored spiders
There are a few other species of spider that are not colored in the classic yellow-black, but look quite similar. The washed-out black-and-white drawing of an older zebra jumping spider looks yellowish-black at times. The water spider, on the other hand, is more yellowish-beige and the wet nurse's thorn finger is mostly orange-red.
Nurse Dornfinger
- Scientific name:Cheiracanthium punctorium
- Further designations: Thorn finger
- Appearance: Red-orange front body, jaw claws red-orange above, black below, relatively long brownish-yellow legs, yellowish to olive-colored rear body
- Size: up to 1.5 cm, males slightly smaller than females
- Origin: Central Asia, the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, relatively rare in northern Germany
- Occurrence: extensively used areas with tall perennials and tall grass, forest clearings, meadows, fallow areas, dry areas rather than wet meadows
- Dangerousness: sometimes quite aggressive animals, poisonous and painful bites, comparable to bee or wasp stings, but the pain spreads to the entire affected limbs Sensitivity to pressure of the lymph nodes, rarely severe course with circulatory problems, mild fever, chills or vomiting, but be careful if you are allergic to Insect bites
- Particularities: is nocturnal, spends the day in spherical webs of rest, does not build safety nets
Water spider
- Scientific name:Argyroneta aquatica
- Further designations: Silver spider
- Appearance: Females brown, males beige-yellow with dark red legs
- Origin: Europe to Asia
- Size: Females 0.8 to 1.5 cm, males 1.0 to 1.5 cm
- Occurrence: slow flowing waters or clean lakes
- Dangerousness: Bite is uncomfortable, comparable to the sting of a wasp
- Particularities: lives under water, strongly declining population, is under species protection (red list of endangered species)
Zebra jumping spider
- Scientific name:Salticus scenicus
- Further designations: Harlequin jumping spider
- Appearance: abdomen with black and white stripes, white spots on the foreleg, short, irregularly spotted legs, darker with age
- Size: 4 to 7 mm, males slightly smaller than females
- Origin: Europe, North America, Northern Asia
- Occurrence: sunny, windless places, stony dry grass, preferably on fences or dry stone walls
- Dangerousness: harmless to humans
- Particularities: jumping locomotion, conspicuously large front eyes
What to do with a spider bite
As a rule, spider bites are rather harmless, because most spiders have such short or fragile poisonous claws that they cannot penetrate human skin. Only the water spider or the wet nurse's thorn finger are able to inflict relevant injuries on humans. The bites are roughly comparable to bee or wasp stings. It is best to rinse a spider bite with water. The symptoms usually go away on their own within 24 to 32 hours. However, as a precaution, allergy sufferers should consult a doctor after a spider bite.
