What is this Spider?

Question

i live in York Pennsylvania and have had this spider with its web in my back yard for about a month now. Its body is dark brown and almost the size of a fifty cent piece. Its legs are are short and stocky in comparison to its body and are a sort of red color. It looks really nasty and I want to kill it but was wondering what it was before I do, in case its poisonous. Is there anything I can spray on it that will kill it? i looked up Pennsylvania spiders but it doesn't look like any of them, what the h**l is it?!?!?!?

Answer 1

It's not a black widow or a brown recluse and those are the only venomous spiders for hundreds and hundreds of miles around.  It's living outside right where it should be.  Leave the poor thing alone.  He's just catching bugs for you.  Winter comes and he'll be gone soon enough.  See how big he gets before then and take pictures.

Answer 2

It's a Mahog-Recluse spider. A rare one which can cause nausea with its venom. Hisses when provoked but bug spray will kill it within a minute.  

Answer 3

Possibly a heckledmesh weaver (female likely given the time of year): http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsh...

The type of web (orb, sac or mesh) is a big help in identifying spiders.

PennState has an Entomology department you can contact: http://www.ento.psu.edu/FacDirectory.htm...

Answer 4

Learn to ID  it with the help of these sites and even if you do not find what you are looking for you will be able to ID any other in the future -

http://bugguide.net/node/view/1954

http://www.arachnology.be/pages/Pictures...

http://www.spideridentification.org/

Answer 5

recluses have long legs so im sure this is not what you have.

Im not sure what it is, but once i found a scary looking bug and wrote the Smithsonian Museum DC (they have a great bug dept.) and gave them the description and they told me I found a Dobson fly! It was really cool. that would be a great source to find out more...

A ton of big spiders with huge webs have decided to surround my house for some reason..we dont keep the lights on at night ususally so Im not sure why...

Answer 6

it is an european black widow spider an it is very dangerous kill it before it kill you