New Jersey Spiders: Pictures and Identification Tips

Residents of the Garden State will be happy to learn that with the exception of the Black Widow spider, New Jersey spiders benefit all the gardens of the state. They work free of charge as natural pest control agents. The video shows a Northern Crab Spider, helping with pest control.

Probably naming a family of spiders Ghost spiders does not lessen the degree of arachnophobia experienced by many people. Nonetheless, they are a fairly new family of spiders, spun off (pun intended) from the Sac Spiders based on physical differences such as the number of hairs on the legs.

Some of the species such as the one pictured do have a light color to the body. Other species have darker bodies, and could resemble ground spiders or wolf spiders.

The picture shows Hibana gracilis, a common garden Ghost spider in New Jersey. The brown chelicerae or jaws are the best identification clue. They are also fairly hardy spiders that can often be found early in the spring until late into the fall.

In fact, all New Jersey spiders have their seasons in the sun, some longer than others. For example, a few of he common orb weaving spiders such as the Marbled Orbweaver, appear during the summer months and are gone by early fall. Other orb weaving spiders such as the smaller Trashline Orbweaver can be found.

Sometimes the late season appearance of spider species is due to the fact that the adults do not overwinter. Instead, they lay egg sacs that survive the winter, and then produce new spiders for the season.

Many of the common house spiders, or spiders that traditionally use buildings as their principle residence, live year round, or at least regularly reproduce so that they or their offspring are present throughout the year.

An accurate checklist of New Jersey spiders might exist on some researcher’s hard drive. Like so many states, the lack of demand among naturalists in general for compiling lists and pictures of spiders means New Jersey spider identification gets short shifted.

Most interest in spider identification comes from people who see spiders in their homes and apartments and want to know if the spider is dangerous.

The set of spider pictures presented above shows a sample of common house spiders and lawn and garden spiders in state. Please press the spiders button for additional spider pictures and information. The entire spider guide covers over one hundred different spider species.

New Jersey Home and Garden Spiders

With common names such as cobweb spiders, wall spiders, cellar spiders and house spiders, it’s easy to identify many of the common spiders around the house.

Two very common cobweb spiders the Triangulate House Spider and the Common House spider frequent New Jersey homes.

Body color and patterns, along with a habit of remaining stationary in a round flat web, makes for fairly easy identification of the common orb weaving spiders in the state.

Crab spiders usually do not venture indoors. Rather they tend to the flowers around the house. The picture shows two species with white bodies and red stripes.

Three genera of so called flower crab spiders come in a variety of colors, including yellow. Eye patterns and body hair are the proper way to identify them. Less well known is the fact that a few other spider families also have crab spider as a nickname. The picture at the top of this section shows a Slender Crab Spider, part of the running crab spiders family.

Apart from the sheetweb spiders that almost no one except experts pays attention to, jumping spiders are probably the most diverse family of spiders in New Jersey backyards.

Zebra jumping spiders, for example, are very small spiders that tend to hang out on the outside walls of homes. Bold jumping spiders are early spring arrivals and late fall garden residents. Sometimes they will even wander indoors.

Two yellow sac spiders are fairly common and can be found both outdoors and indoors in residential neighborhoods. Beware, there are many accounts of a painful bite associated with the spider. Thankfully they have never been listed as a spider of medical importance.

Despite the name Western Lynx spider, it, along with the Striped lynx, can be found in New Jersey yards and gardens throughout most of the year.

Woodlouse spiders belong to the small group of spiders with six eyes. Their stout, hairless bodies grow over one half-inch in length with an additional couple of inches added for the legs.

They often live around residential areas, especially along the East Coast. Indoor shelters help them live for a few years. It also means they can live year round in many locations, although they might not be scene during the winter period.

Their large size and aggressive nature when handled by humans, makes them an imposing species. Fear not, there’s no evidence their bites cause anything other than some localized pain.