It’s spider season! If you live in Minnesota, you might have noticed an uptick in the number of spiders in your home this summer, especially if you’re always running around the house with your kids or pets.
While all spiders can bite, there’s no reason to panic over our eight-legged friends – unless you come across one of these 20 dangerous types of spiders in Minnesota.
1. Wolf Spider
Wolf spiders have a brown carapace and are an average of 2 inches in size. These types of spiders in Minnesota can be found under logs, rocks, leaves, or near the home’s exterior walls.
In its lifetime, this spider can produce as many as six egg sacs that contain as many as 100 eggs each. Wolf spiders prey on insects, small vertebrates, and arthropods they catch in their webs.
2. Cellar Spider
The Cellar Spider is an arachnid that loves basking in the sun on our porches, sheds, and garages. But, if you are fortunate enough to have these spiders around your home, there is no need to worry.
These spiders in Minnesota will keep our nearby rodent population under control, and they aren’t known for biting humans. They also produce silk that is superior in strength to a majority of other spider webs.
3. Black Widow
The most famous of all the spiders in North America is undoubtedly the Black Widow. Even though they are not especially common, these types of spiders in Minnesota can be found throughout the United States and Canada.
However, the highest concentrations live along California, Oregon, and Washington coastal areas. The Black Widow’s hourglass-shaped design is unmistakable (it looks like a red hourglass with two black spots near its head).
They are dark brown and look like regular spiders around your home. If you see one during daytime hours, it might be that this spider feels too exposed after being knocked from its web by recent storms or is warming up because it’s getting colder outside.
As you can imagine from their name, the types of spiders in Minnesota belong to the widow family.
4. Trapdoor Spider
The trapdoor spider is usually gray or brown, and its long, slender abdomen looks like a wiggling worm.
Trapdoor spiders can be found on the sides of logs, under pieces of wood, in abandoned animal burrows, and anywhere else where insects are plentiful.
These types of spiders in Minnesota use camouflage to capture prey and hide from predators by hiding inside their tubular-shaped entrance to a burrow concealed beneath the ground surface.
Once they close the door, it can be very difficult for predators to get past these doors! The female lays her eggs in spring. If conditions are favorable, she will lay an egg case with up to several hundred eggs, depending on the size of the female.
5. Giant Lichen Orb Weaver Spider
The Giant Lichen Orb Weaver Spider is huge. The female is about 5 inches, but the male-only grows to about 3-4 inches. Their webs are flat, and their shape varies.
One common place where this spider will build its web is on telephone poles and fence posts, where it can be seen quite often.
Another place to find them would be dense ground covers like ivy or tall grass. These types of spiders in Minnesota have very distinctive markings on their abdomen, which vary depending on gender.
Males have two red stripes near the bottom half of their abdomens, and females have two orange stripes instead.
These types of spiders in Minnesota also have a yellow stripe below the blackhead area that extends across both sides of the abdomen.
6. European Garden Spider
I’ve heard a lot of hype about spiders lately, but I’m here to tell you that they’re not all scary! People find lots of spiders in their homes. One of the most common is the European garden spider.
These types of spiders in Minnesota can have a leg span of up to five inches wide, so they’re big and beautiful!
They can usually be found near windows because they like to hang out and wait for insects to visit them, giving them easy access to jump on board for lunch.
7. Running Crab Spider
While most spiders are harmless to humans, some live in parts of the home and can scare people with their size or speed. This is one of those creatures, but like most spiders, it isn’t a public health threat.
These types of spiders in Minnesota have long, hairy legs that allow them to climb around on ceilings and walls easily, which is how they earn the nickname running crab spider.
While they come in different colors (ranging from light gray to brown), they are uniformly camouflaged with gray and brown hairs to blend into their surroundings.
8. Daring Jumping Spider
One of the spiders that might be in your home is the daring jumping spider. It’s so-called because it tends to jump on people if they get too close. These types of spiders in Minnesota are usually found indoors, in dark corners, and away from light.
As they don’t spin a web to catch prey, they spend most of their time hiding out, trying not to be seen by anything bigger than them. The females can lay up to 50 eggs and then carry them around on their abdomen until they hatch.
The females also have no venom that has been proven fatal for humans and mostly feed on other small insects and arthropods.
9. Fishing Spider
According to a 2014 survey of spiders in Minnesota, one of the most common types in the state is the Fishing Spider. These types of spiders in Minnesota often live on or near water and can measure up to six inches.
They do not produce silk but instead, hunt and catch food using their front legs or fangs as fishing hooks. Their diet consists primarily of insects and other arthropods, but they are opportunistic feeders and will feed on any small animal they can catch, from worms to small birds.
10. Red Spotted Ant Mimic Spider
The red-spotted ant mimic spider is common in the Midwest and can be found throughout most of the United States. Red-spotted ant mimics are active, agile hunters.
When they sense prey, these types of spiders in Minnesota jump on it to restrain it with their front legs while holding it off the ground with their back legs.
These spiders take multiple small bites over a long period to subdue their prey so that it cannot fight back. The bites will also cause significant pain and swelling.
11. Black and Yellow Garden Spider
The common Black and Yellow Garden Spider is an orb weaver in the family Araneidae. Its bright yellow and black stripes can identify it with a white or cream-colored underbelly can be identified.
It’s about 0.4 to 0.6 inches long, roughly nickel-sized, and has eight legs. They do not build webs to catch prey; instead, they sit in low shrubs or on leaves near plants, waiting for insects to land on them.
12. American Grass Spider
Common throughout North America, the American grass spider is one of the few spiders in Minnesota that poses no threat to humans. What these spiders do threatens our other spider species, insects, and arachnids.
Found at ground level, American grass spiders can be recognized by their large chelicerae and brown or cream-colored markings on their abdomen.
They grow up to 2 inches in length. The types of spiders in Minnesota are not well known as they prefer hunting prey under stones and leaves, which makes them difficult to find without looking specifically for them.
What often attracts these types of spiders is bright lights. One might see them crawling around porch lights or inside the home near windows where there is a lot of light from lamps at night-time.
13. Furrow Spider
The furrow spider, also known as a spitting spider, is a type of long-jawed spider found in the Upper Midwest of the United States.
They live in dark and damp places around people’s homes, near or under porches or window wells. These types of spiders in Minnesota are not aggressive and will most likely only bite if threatened.
Females can lay up to 100 eggs simultaneously, producing 10-15 offspring yearly. Furrow spiders can have a yellowish to white stripe going down their backside and possess a long hind leg for burrowing holes while hunting prey belowground during daylight hours.
14. Banana Spider
Spiders come in many shapes and sizes, but most are terrifying. The banana spider is a large arachnid that can grow up to 12 inches long! When you see it, your first thought might be to call an exterminator–but don’t run out the door just yet.
It’s not nasty or harmful, but it looks imposing. Read on for more information about this fascinating creature and how to spot one near your home.
1) Size- For something that’s called a banana spider, it can grow to be a pretty impressive size. It’s typically around 10-12 inches when fully grown, though females tend to be bigger than males.
15. Bowl and Doily Spider
This web-spinning spider is light brown and has two small dark spots on the abdomen. They weave distinctive, round webs that resemble a bird’s nest with an open side facing upwards.
Bowl and Doily spiders are often found outdoors but sometimes venture inside to seek prey or escape the weather.
They make webs between rocks, woodpiles, plants, or other suitable surfaces outside. Indoors can be found near windows with a good source of moisture for their prey to enter through.
Females usually do not exceed 10mm in body length; males rarely exceed 8 mm in body length.
16. Common House Spider
The common house spider, AKA Tegenaria Domestica, is the most popular spider in your home. The Tegenaria Domestica female can grow nearly two inches in body length with a leg span of one inch in diameter.
They are usually light brown and have hairy legs with long hairs that help them sense touch. These types of spiders in Minnesota are known as barn spiders because they like to eat other insects or fly into the barns at night, where they are plentiful.
17. Broad-Faced Sac Spider
Broad-faced sac spiders build funnel webs with a retreat in the middle. They wait outside their web and then jump out to catch prey. These types of spiders in Minnesota are beneficial because they kill other harmful pests, like flies and wasps.
However, when it comes to humans, these spiders pose little threat because they prefer live prey as opposed to laying eggs. The types of spiders in Minnesota must be sprayed or touched directly.
18. Spitting Spider
The spitting spider gets its name from the arachnid’s tendency to spit silk strands of webbing as a defense mechanism. The species can be found in cool, dark places like porches and stairwells during late autumn and winter.
A spitting spider usually eats insects, but these spiders will prey on whatever small animals they encounter in their environment.
This spider species was discovered in 1881 by JH Comstock for what it is often recognized for now: its defensive spitting of acid.
Spitting spiders are not considered one of the deadliest types in Minnesota; however, their sputum is acidic, which could cause significant damage to sensitive body parts if there were an attack.
19. American Nursery Web Spider
This spider creates a cobweb-like, protective web to safeguard its egg sac and is easily recognizable due to the D-shaped scar on the abdomen.
The types of spiders in Minnesota often hide in their web during the day and venture out at night to hunt prey.
The female is slightly larger than the male, with a total length of 12mm (1/2 inch) for females and 10mm (3/8 inch) for males. Males mature earlier than females, allowing them to mate before they are fully grown.
20. Harvestmen Spider
Did you know that if they stood up, these guys would be taller than a 5-year-old? So, think twice before stepping on those twigs and leaves in your garden or house. Harvestmen can use their long legs to leap incredible distances of up to 50 cm!
The brown recluse. Often called the fiddleback for its violin-shaped form, this spider is very sensitive to disturbances and has one of the quickest bites.
It is primarily found in the southern Midwest region, where its other common name, violin spider, comes from its scientific name, Loxosceles reclusa. These spiders in Minnesota live mostly indoors in dark spaces such as closets, attics, ceilings, and corners of rooms.
