Can anyone help me ID this spider?

Question

can anyone help me ID this type of spider? Its web has been growing greatly in my backyard where I park my car. I'm not sure if those balls are food or eggs, since I don't know much about spiders. I know that the big one must be a mom because it was the only one there at first and then there was more and she won't leave the web, she just stays in the corner. I also live in the southern California area if that helps. If anyone know what sort of spider this is and if it is poisonous to humans, please let me know.

both the large and small spiders, along with web and balls which I don't know what they are...if someone can also tell me what those are that would be cool too.

http://i24.tinypic.com/15quurd.jpg

close-up of big spider

http://i23.tinypic.com/vdlnqq.jpg

another close-up of big spider.

http://i23.tinypic.com/vdlnqq.jpg

the small spider compared to a pencil eraser

http://i22.tinypic.com/2h4deog.jpg

big spider compared to a pencil. I had to hold it further away though because she went behind the pole and there was a web in the way, too (plus I don't know how venomous it is). So she really is slightly larger than this size comparison.

http://i34.tinypic.com/ru1grt.jpg

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but the spider has a pattern of dots running along its abdomen (I believe four on each side, they get larger in the middle and smaller on the ends).

Answer 1

You shouldn't say harmless when you can not identify the spider but there are only 2 really harmful spiders in the US and she isn't either.  Here is a poster for all harmful spiders.

http://www.termite.com/spider-identifica...

Your spider looks more like an orb weaver than any other, but your picture is not very clear.  Those are egg sacs and I am surprised to see so may sacs and so many mature spiders sharing the web.  Perhaps they are males.  You should get rid of the egg sacs unless you do not mind having a large family around.

All spiders are venomous but in most either the venom is too weak or the spiders can not penetrate our skin so they are considered harmless.  If you know someone with a camera that can get a better picture you could post it again.  There are many people on this site that can identify spiders.

http://www.termite.com/spider-identifica...

If you find your spider on this site, click on the spider for a larger picture and its identification.

Answer 2

The spiders are Brown Widows, and are venomous to humans. As Paul said, the spiky things are their egg sacs.

Brown Widows look similar to several other spiders, but they can be identified by those egg sacs. The spiders, at least the ones in the U.S., that look similar to Brown Widows have smooth ones.

It's up to you what you do with them. Where I grew up, we always had a few Redback Spiders in the house (the Aussie version of Black Widows). They normally stay in dark corners and the chances of getting bitten are very low. That said, yours do seem to be breeding a bit too well, so you might want to get rid of at least some of them. Maybe you could carefully catch them and let them go in a hollow log or something like that, away from your house.

Here are some pic's of Brown Widows and their egg sacs.

http://images.google.com.au/images?gbv=2...

Hope that helps.