Types of Spiders in the Texas Hill Country: How to Identify Them and What to Do

Adult female black widows are typically black, and the underside of the abdomen often has two reddish triangles that form an hourglass. They hang upside down in the web, which puts the hourglass on show. Males and young spiders look different: they can have orange, red and white markings on the back and sides, and adult males are much smaller. Penn State Extension measures the female's body at 8 to 13 millimeters, about a third to half an inch, and 25 to 35 millimeters with the legs spread.

The web is strong, sticky and irregular, nothing like the neat wheel of a garden spider. Texas A&M lists where they turn up around homes: wood piles, garages, cellars, crawl spaces, shrubbery, rain spouts, and gas and electric meters, the protected spots outdoors or in buildings open to the outdoors. They are shy, and Texas A&M says widow spiders most often bite when they are threatened or pressed against the skin.

The bite can feel like a pinprick, if it is noticed at all. Widow venom affects the nervous system: within 1 to 3 hours there can be moderate to intense pain through the body, and other symptoms include tremors, nausea, vomiting, leg cramps, abdominal pain and heavy sweating. Texas A&M notes bites can be more dangerous for children, older adults and people with health problems.

A brown recluse is light to dark brown with long, slender legs that have no spines. Its body is only 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, but walking, body and legs cover about the area of a quarter to a half dollar. It has six eyes arranged in three pairs, and usually a dark, violin-shaped mark on the front body section with the neck of the violin pointing back toward the abdomen. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialist Wizzie Brown notes the mark can be faint and look like markings on non-venomous spiders, so size, color and eye pattern are the better tells; only one other spider group in Texas has that eye pattern, and it is not venomous.

Brown recluses are found inside and outside throughout Texas. Outdoors they hide in stacked firewood, under stones and in rock ledges; indoors they live in attics, crawl spaces, closets, stored boxes and behind baseboards. They hunt insects at night and do not use a web to catch prey. Bites are usually accidents: someone rolls onto one in bed or puts on clothes that have hung undisturbed near where it was hiding.

Recluse venom breaks down skin and muscle tissue at the bite. The bite may be painless at first, then become mildly to severely painful 2 to 8 hours later; a blister usually forms about 24 hours after the bite, and a slow-healing sore within a week. AgriLife Today, reporting Texas A&M's guidance, says there has never been a confirmed death attributed to the brown recluse.

Wolf spiders are hairy, their drab color mottled with brown, gray, black, yellow or creamy white markings, and they often have two dark stripes running lengthwise on the front body section. Texas A&M gives them a range of 1/2 to 3 inches long. They have eight eyes: a front row of four tiny ones in a straight line and a larger pair above.

They are among the most common spiders in fields and backyards, and Texas A&M says hundreds to thousands may live in the average backyard lawn, which is why they so often come in under gaps in doorways. They hunt after dark and have good night vision, and their eyes reflect a flashlight beam, so a light shone into grass at night picks out dozens of tiny points of light. A female carries a round silk egg case and then carries the spiderlings with her until they can hunt on their own.

They are easy to mistake for a brown recluse. The differences: wolf spiders usually have dark stripes on the front body section, no violin mark, and a large pair of eyes on top of the head. Texas A&M says they do not pose any danger to people or pets.

This is the big black-and-yellow spider that hangs head down in the center of its web. Females have a body more than 1 inch long with even longer legs, while males are often under 1/4 inch. The front of the body is covered in silver hairs, the abdomen is marked in black and yellow and sometimes orange, and the legs are black with short bands of orange, yellow or red. It is also called the writing spider.

Its web is a round, vertical orb with rings of sticky silk, often with a white zigzag stripe down the center that Penn State Extension calls the stabilimentum; what it is for is unclear. Webs turn up in fields, on fences and around homes, in sunny spots near flowers, tall plants and shrubs, and many orbweavers tear their webs down and rebuild them every day. The spiders mature in late summer, which is when most people first notice them, and lay round, brown, papery egg sacs then too.

Texas A&M calls them harmless to people, though their webs can be a nuisance when they are built where people walk. Penn State notes people are not likely to be bitten unless they handle a female with an egg sac in the web. They catch and eat insects as big as grasshoppers.

Texas has 15 tarantula species. The common Texas brown tarantula can have a leg span of more than 3 inches when fully grown, and Texas species can reach up to 6 inches from the tips of the front legs to the tips of the back legs. They are blackish to brownish, and darker after they molt. Texas A&M AgriLife says you are more likely to meet one in the rockier areas of Central and Southwest Texas.

They live in burrows in well-drained soil or under rocks and logs, line the burrow with silk, and wait near the entrance for prey to come to them: insects, other spiders, and small lizards, frogs and snakes. The ones you see crossing yards and roads, sometimes by the hundreds along Texas highways, are males out looking for females, mostly between May and August. Females stay in their burrows.

Tarantulas are shy. They are not venomous to humans, but they can bite, and Texas A&M compares the bite to a bee sting. They usually warn first by rearing up on their back legs or showing their fangs, and they can flick hairs off the abdomen that irritate the skin, eyes and nose.

Jumping spiders tend to be stocky and brightly colored. Some have bold black and white bands on the body or legs, and the colors run from browns, grays and black to brilliant red, yellow and metallic or iridescent greens. Males are especially ornate and use their colors and mating dances to attract females. They have eight eyes, including one large pair in front.

They are territorial, hunt during the day and, as the name says, are excellent jumpers. Each leap trails a line of silk, so after a missed jump you may see one dangling from its thread.

Texas A&M says jumping spiders are unlikely to bite unless cornered or handled.