This beautiful girl showed up on our front porch yesterday. She is huge! I was able to get some pictures while my husband kept a distance from her. My mother in law wants to move her but I told her this species is not dangerous and she'll help keep bugs off the porch. Her web takes up an entire corner of our porch and in the background you can see her babies. I think the male might be in the web somewhere. I saw a much smaller spider (in comparison to this female) with dull coloration down in the corner below the babies. He was just sitting there. From the ID site I used, it said males were much duller in color and were much much smaller than the female. So I assume this was Daddy. From the ID site, it said she is a Yellow and Black Garden spider (or Common Garden Spider) and that she is not harmful to people. Everyone else keeps calling her a Banana spider. Is this a local name for them or are they just mistaken? (Or am I mistaken?)



I love looking at spiders and I would keep them as pets if I could, but hubby is terrified of spiders. He's okay if they are outside (he stood within 5ft of this girl. I was proud of him) but I am not allowed to have any inside the house. Maybe once I have my own facility I can start keeping spiders.

A blurry pic of her many babies. What do they eat at this size? They are so tiny!!!