The hobo spider is also called the aggressive house spider and is a common spider in the Pacific Northwest. Outside, the hobo spider will construct a snare or funnel web, which is a trampoline-like, horizontal web constricting back into a funnel or hole. The web is typically found in a crack between bricks or under wood piles, stones, or vegetation. Inside our homes or structures they build funnel-shaped webs in dark, moist areas such as basements, window wells and under low lying furniture. It is a large (1 to 1¾ inch, including legs), fast-running brown spider with a herringbone or multiple chevron pattern on the top of the abdomen. The hobo spider range from the Pacific Northwest to northern Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. Although once common in Bellevue, the hobo spider apparently is being competitively displaced by another European Tegenaria (TEJ-in-Er-ee-uh) species so that it is now difficult (but not impossible) to find hobo spiders in Bellevue. Hobo spiders are more common in eastern Washington.
Spider Habits
Even though spiders are beneficial due to their role as predators of insects and other arthropods, they still are a common Northwest pest as many people fear or dislike spiders because of their looks, speed of travel and sometimes reactive bites. Most spider bites occur as a reaction or for protection at night when spiders are more likely to move about in our structures and when we may roll over them during our sleep or sit on one in a piece of furniture. This can be a disconcerting thought which is why many people like to control their populations inside while allowing them to perform their role of insect population control on the outside.
Biology of Spiders
Spiders resemble insects and sometimes are confused with them, but they are arachnids, not insects. Spiders have eight legs and two body parts: a head region (cephalothorax) and an abdomen. They lack wings and antennae. Although spiders often are found on plants, they eat mainly insects, other spiders, and related arthropods, not plants. Most spiders have toxic venom, which they use to kill their prey. However, only those spiders whose venom typically causes a serious reaction in humans are called “poisonous” spiders.
