How to Identify & Get Rid of Hobo Spiders (Complete Guide)

Hobo spiders are arachnids in the class Arachnida,order Araneae, in thefamily agelenidae, meaning funnel web builders。Funnel-web spiders build funnel-shaped webs around wood piles and rocks, in tall grass, and the crevices and borders of retaining walls and house foundations.

The funnel is shaped like a tornado with an exceptionally wide mouth. The narrow end of the funnel is back down in a hole or hidden by the grass, logs, rocks, or other obstruction. When an insect becomes entangled in the web, the spider darts out of the narrow end and bites its prey to envenomate it, then pulls it back down to feed at its leisure.

The hobo spider was introduced into the United States in the Pacific Northwest, in the 1930s by accident. In North America, it is mainly limited to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, along with a scattering of sightings in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana.

Life Cycle

A female hobo spider may live as long as 2-3 years but the males generally die after mating. During the summer the males will seek out the females, mate with them, then die before October arrives. They are nocturnal so most of their activity will be at night.

The females will lay their eggs in September, producing 1-4 egg sacks over a period of about 4 weeks. After laying their eggs, most females will die in late autumn but some may survive the winter to mate again the following year.

In the spring, the eggs will begin hatching to start the cycle all over again.

Interestingly, hobo spiders are poor climbers. Flat painted surfaces, smooth metal, porcelain, glass, fine-sanded or lacquered wood will defeat them if they try to climb them. They can only climb rough surfaces such as stone, brick, fabric furniture, and drapes.

Read More:Common House Spiders: Everything You Need to Know

Hobo spiders are brown, long-legged, fast-moving spiders. It has a brown cephalothorax, the front part of the body, that is wider than the longer and narrower abdomen. The cephalothorax is where the legs attach to spiders.

According to the Burke Museum,identifying a hobo spider without a microscope is very difficult。

The abdomen has yellowish markings on a gray background, but without a microscope, it just looks yellowish-brown in appearance. They don’t have any bands or dark stripes, so if you see a brown spider that has stripes of any kind, you know its not a hobo spider.

If the legs have dark bands around them, that’s also not a hobo spider. Also, if the legs and cephalothorax are shiny or have a dark orange color to them, that’s not a hobo spider either.

A hobo spider’s body length is under three-quarters of an inch and the female is slightly larger than the male. Unfortunately, any species-specific identifying marks are too small to see with the naked eye. The only way to reliably identify them is with a microscope.

As noted earlier, they’re fast. They can move at speeds of 17 inches per second up to 40 inches per second. That’s over 3 feet per second. Good luck catching one to ID it!

Due to their lack of noticeable markings,hobo spiderscan easily be mistaken for other species of spiders. According to Vetter,coloration alone is the “least reliable” methodof identifying a hobo spider. Here are just a few of the other species they look like.

• Hobo Spider Vs. Giant House Spider (Eratigena duellica)

The giant house spider is virtually identical to the hobo spider. There is some evidence they may even mate with each other from time to time. The only difference between them is their size. The giant house spider is somewhat larger than the hobo spider.

However, this won’t always help because spiders grow continually throughout their lives, so a young giant house spider may be physically smaller than an older hobo spider.

• Hobo Spider Vs. Grass Spider (Agelenopsis hololena)

Grass spiders are also funnel-web spiders who, as the name implies, live mostly in the grass. They’re normally found out in the yard rather than in the house. They’re nearly identical to hobo spiders except for theprominent bands on their cephalothorax。

Like hobo spiders and wolf spiders (also a member of the funnel-web spider family), grass spiders are very fast. Unless you can catch a glimpse of the dark bands on the cephalothorax, you could easily mistake them for a hobo spider.

• Hobo Spider Vs. Barn Funnel Weaver (Tegenaria domestica)

Another spider commonly mistaken for a hobo spider is the barn funnel weaver spider. These spiders are normally found in Ohio in basements, barns, sheds, and other buildings. They are also known as house funnel weavers.

They are medium to large in size, like hobo spiders, and with light brown coloration. They have two dark lines that start at the eyes and continue down their back. There is also a light “chevron” pattern on the abdomen.

The most noticeable difference between barn funnel weavers and hobo spiders is simply their physical location. Hobo spiders are confined almost entirely to the Pacific Northwest. They have never been found in Ohio.

Like most spiders,hobo spiders will eat insects and in this way, they are actually beneficial。流浪汉蜘蛛会吃昆虫,变成了trapped in its web. There are no reports of them refusing any insect that is offered to them.

How to Handle Your Hobo Spider Problem?

We’ll start by admitting that most insecticides won’t touch many spiders. This is especially true for hobo spiders due to their speed. They simply don’t stay in contact with any pesticide long enough to absorb a lethal dose.

However, because they are poor climbers, they normally enter a house at ground level through the cracks under doors, soweather striping is the answer。

Installing a solid floor sweep that completely closes the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor is the only reliable way to keep them out. Seal around all the windows if your house has a rough exterior that they can cling to.

How to Get Rid of Hobo Spiders (Most Popular)

The most popular way to get rid of hobo spiders that have moved into your house is to useDelta Dustin all the tight cracks and crevices where they might be hiding. You’ll need abulb dusterto apply it.

If you see their funnel web, don’t remove it. Instead, give it a light coating of Delta Dust and every time they run across the web they’ll get more of it on them and eventually pick up a lethal dose that will kill them.