Banana Spider vs. Garden Spider: How To Spot The Difference!

Рет қаралды 11,796

10 ай бұрын

Two of the largest orb weaving spiders in the U.S, the Yellow garden spider (writing spider) and Golden silk spider (banana spider) are often confused for one another where their ranges overlap. In this episode of The Wild Report, we catch these two titanic orb weavers and learn about the similarities and differences between these amazing arachnids.
If you enjoyed this video, please be sure to leave a like and share it with your friends. If you didn't, please leave a comment telling me what I could improve on. For more educational wildlife content, subscribe to my channel. New videos go up on Thursday mornings at 10 AM!
/ thewildreportofficial
Also, check out my social media pages for more wildlife information:
Instagram/Twitter: @thewildreport
I owe a big thanks to my top Patreon supporters:
Will Mogtader
Ndrael
Eli Parker
Patreon Link: patreon.com/thewildreport
Vlad Gluschenko - Forest
Promoted by Music-Library.net
Music: Summertime by Hotham is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Stream: linktr.ee/hothammusic
Free Download: hypeddit.com/hotham/summertime
Support by RFM - NCM: rb.gy/203v0
If you've made it this far in the description, remember to be safe when creature adventuring! Most wild animals can cause injury if harassed, and I do not recommend attempting to capture any creatures without purpose and practice. The reason that I interact with wildlife is to produce these educational videos, and I have years of zoology experience under my belt. Also, I always ask permission from a land owner before exploring on their property, and you should do the same.
Keep adventuring everywhere, and keep your adventures safe at all times!
-Ben Zino
"How many are your works, Lord? In wisdom you made them all, the earth is full of your creatures."
Psalms 104:24
#spider #wildlife #orbweaver

Пікірлер: 80

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Okay I was planning to feature a snake in todays video, but then when I went herping I accidentally found cool spiders so now here we are. Hope you don't mind too much and I promise you'll actually get a snake feature in the next episode. See you then!

@theresagreene7234 10 ай бұрын

Enjoyed it, Ben ! Plenty of spiders around us and nice to find out about them ! Thanks !

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

@@theresagreene7234 Thank you, glad you enjoyed!

@matthewp3049 10 ай бұрын

Enjoyed this episode! Informative and now can tell the difference between the two. Loved the analogy, "...drain out the insides of the insect like a little smoothie".

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

@@matthewp3049 Thanks Matthew, it is one of my favorite spider analogies haha

@raterus 10 ай бұрын

I live in eastern NC in the woods, and had a massive fly problem around our home early summer due to raising meat chickens. One of each of these spiders moved in outside our back door, and our fly problem ended! :-) They've been hanging out there for months and are huge, and we just leave them alone and let them do their thing. Also one thing to note, is the smaller spiders you see in the webs are the males.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Glad that you're coexisting with your new roommate, they definitely are insect-eating machines! Yeah this was the first time I'd observed males of either species before...I assume because they'd been eaten already in other encounters haha

@srqlisa7881 10 ай бұрын

I had a big web that I left on my deck and only one mosquito bit.

@jorasparents 10 ай бұрын

I love, love, love this channel, and when this young man holds these spiders, they almost -- ALMOST -- look cute. But they still make me feel nauseous. And if I walked into one of those webs, I really believe I'd have a heart attack.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for the kind words. I would argue that they *are* cute, all you need is to hold one for the first time and you'll be convinced!

@arottie4097 9 ай бұрын

Their webs are crazy strong! I've had two occasions this summer where i've had to free a hummingbird from their webs! Here in Atlanta Ga these ladies thrive. I have had a few territorial disputes when they start building webs in my fig tree! Ha!

@TheWildReportOfficial 9 ай бұрын

They really are, in fact they have a higher tensile strength than steel!

@iyeste Ай бұрын

"Drinks the insect like a smoothie...." I'll never look at my smoothies the same way, sigh...

@Grincheypoo 10 ай бұрын

Totally adore spiders, graden spiders are my favorite!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

They are so beautiful!

@bowiegirl5662 Ай бұрын

You're CRAZY to touch them. I'd simply die if that thing touched me!

@jorospiderappreciation 5 ай бұрын

People mistake these for the Joro spider as well. Great video!

@TheWildReportOfficial 5 ай бұрын

Thank you! Yes, I want to film a Joro this year!

@douglas1982b 10 ай бұрын

I have many different spider species in my yard where we have a lot of woods and trees. I try to avoid thier webs and even have a few that I visit each time I go outside. I always miss them in the winter.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

That's fun, it's always cool to see them spinning webs in the morning too!

@MyWildBackyard 10 ай бұрын

Love it! Great little highlight of two of my favorite orb weavers!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Thanks Spencer, glad we both decided to give the orb weavers some love recently. They're just so cool!

@blackie1of4 10 ай бұрын

I was on vacation last week in the Outer Banks and came across a few Garden Spiders! They're extremely beautiful ❤️ I was on the lookout for anything creeping or crawling! Caught a bunch of fiddler crabs.. the grandkids loved them! We'd head down to the beach once the sun went down with nets buckets and flashlights.. a lot of fun 😊 That being said.. my favorite capture was a Eastern Glass Lizard! So docile and well behaved!!! It was an educational opportunity for the grandkids ❤️ It didn't matter how many times I told them that it was a legless lizard.. they kept talking about the snake 🐍 It was too hot last week for critters during daylight! Evening and night time is the best time.. unless it's raining! I usually have the BEST luck right after a storm 😊 Thanks for sharing this Ben.. I love ALL animals.. except mosquitos ticks and leaches!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Oh cool, this is such a beautiful time of year to be on the coast. Nice work on the glass lizard catch, they can be hard to snag but I do love catching them to show the differences between snakes and lizards haha

@blackie1of4 10 ай бұрын

@@TheWildReportOfficial I got lucky with this one! He was in a little depression that had a board blocking his exit! It was in hunt mode.. and one of the grandkids yelled.. SNAKE! I happened to be two steps behind them :)

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

@@blackie1of4 Haha that's fantastic

@claressalucas8922 10 ай бұрын

I have always DETESTED spiders! Your reaction to catching that golden silk spider almost made me reconsider my position. Almost.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Hey that's awesome, they really aren't hard to handle!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

@@Ferro_Equus I just looked up a picture of one and holy cow they are beautiful!

@CWRU 7 ай бұрын

We had an Argiope that size by our barn in West Virginia. I also saw some of that size when I was out at Fort Sill years ago. They were so big that there colors literally startedd wasing out. Thank you for the fascinating report

@TheWildReportOfficial 7 ай бұрын

Wow, those must have been huge! Glad you enjoyed.

@ianbond1505 2 ай бұрын

I called them both banana spiders. I figured they were different species of the same genus or something. I grew up in Louisiana and saw the garden spiders more around our house and the golden silk spiders more in the woods. I have seen some HUGE garden spiders (5-6” diameter with legs) easily as big as the golden silk spiders

@TheWildReportOfficial Ай бұрын

I'd love to see a garden spider that big, I think both of these species are fascinating!

@ItsDannyBoy 10 ай бұрын

This content is really well made. I'm glad I found it bro

@TheWildReportOfficial 9 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoy it, welcome to the channel!

@TheWildlifeBrothers 10 ай бұрын

I didn’t realize that NC gets golden silk orb weavers, that is super cool! Argiopes are among my favorite North American spiders, and the same is true of the golden silk spiders as well. They’re definitely easy to confuse, and this video was a great little comparison that I think people will find very useful. Great work as always!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Yeah they don't get any further North than us (yet). Definitely glad we have them, big yellow spiders are just fun to work with and I think a great way to introduce people to the ecological benefits of spiders.

@kiapandora2094 10 ай бұрын

love your videos. greetings from Burnsville NC

@justinjacobs1501 2 ай бұрын

I appreciate how polite Garden Spiders are when they make their large warning stripe on their webs. I don't get web on my face, and they get to keep their web in one piece. Everyone wins.

@TheWildReportOfficial 2 ай бұрын

For sure, they are such polite spiders!

@smetlogik 10 ай бұрын

Nice comparison, Ben. Those golden silks sure are pretty. Curious about what the source is of the range map shown at 4:32?

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Thanks Rob! Yeah it's from this publication in SE Naturalist: www.researchgate.net/publication/262567444_Nephila_clavipes_Araneae_Nephilidae_A_Model_Species_for_Monitoring_Climate_Change_in_the_Southeastern_United_States

@smetlogik 10 ай бұрын

@@TheWildReportOfficial Thank you!

@B_COOPER 8 ай бұрын

One of these beauts set up shop on my porch one day. To say I was excited was an understatement, mind you i will almost always jump outta my skin when a spider is tip toeing their way towards me. To make a long story short, a rainstorm had spent the entire day and night pouring and when to check on her and she was just holding onto what was left of her web. But she was alive and looked like she will see another day. The next morning as I’m walking out of my house…. I was probably an inch away from being face palmed by the last thing I want on my face at 6 am…. I had to get to work and was running behind so I gently gave her a push with a broom, more of a tap even. I have no idea what happened to her after that because spiders just vanish.

@TheWildReportOfficial 8 ай бұрын

That's so cool, love when they set up their homes around ours. Glad you didn't get face palmed though haha

@slowpoke4557 10 ай бұрын

South Central area of NC here, I love finding the writing spider, just not unexpectedly running into a web though lol. Never have seen the other one here though

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Yeah the webbing is not easy to remove once you are entangled, but it's a worthy trade off for the reduced mosquito nuisance in my opinion.

@jamiebaldwin1043 10 ай бұрын

Really enjoy these videos.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Glad to hear that!

@jordancroft9961 Ай бұрын

I'm pretty sure we have them here in Florida I was under the impression that they bit that's cool that they don't

@annjones3672 10 ай бұрын

That looks like a Copperhead snake! I heard that they like to burrow in pine straw? Great and informative video! As usual!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Haha you might be onto something there. Thank you for the kind words!

@metalhead9397 9 ай бұрын

Ahhhhhh orbweaver spiders gotta love them during land nav

@bob-cat 10 ай бұрын

Mid to late summer best time to find them too.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Yep, it's when the females are at maximum size!

@AntLab 10 ай бұрын

Nice! Those are some great spiders!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Thanks Dr. Smith, now it's time to go find some big Dolomedes!

@amberbugge9006 6 ай бұрын

Help Ben!! I live in South Texas. I had a beautiful black and yellow garden spider on our from porch. I went to check on her since it’s so cold!! She had fell off the web and was lying half dead on the concrete!!! I brought her inside to warm her up. How can I help her!?!?

@tkreitler 10 ай бұрын

Spiders are very cool and, like snakes, so misunderstood. It is so hard to tell a species from a silhouette. It looks to be venomous from the head shape but that could just be a defensive posture from a non-venous, like perhaps a nerodia. Then again, it looks to have a slightly upturned snout so it could be a hognose. I'm guessing the next species is a Cottonmouth- final answer.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

Yeah very true! You might be onto something with your guess, definitely looking for the right ID features.

@BeyondThisAfterlife 9 ай бұрын

I live in Louisiana and the Golden Boys are everywhere

@Isaac-px1jx 10 ай бұрын

I am hatching an egg sac the black and yellow garden spider!

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

No way, I bet it's gonna be so fun to watch them hatch!

@ericgilliam9902 9 ай бұрын

Come to North Georgia, especially around Buford to Gainesville! We have an invasive spider called the Joro Spider, they are everywhere and making a mess of things because they reproduce at a high rate! They make giant 3-D layers webs and they are strong! They look between a cross of the banana spider and the garden spider! Researchers say they came from shipping containers from Asia! They love trees and power lines! They look real creepy at night!

@jacoblott1617 7 ай бұрын

I wonder if they're as friendly to humans as the garden and banana spiders in this video are

@DesertNebula 10 ай бұрын

👀💫 I would faint They look really cool tho

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

They are cool!

@xthee_0nly_1x11 10 ай бұрын

I know most spiders are pretty reluctant to bite, but have you ever had a spider unexpectedly bite you after handling it?

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

I have not (yet), but Spencer had that happen to him once so it can happen, just rarely.

@billbolton7108 10 ай бұрын

What about the other spider the invasive species from Asia

@TheWildReportOfficial 9 ай бұрын

I haven't found one yet, but I'll try to this season!

@goatcheese4me 10 ай бұрын

With snakes, you can usually tell when they're about to strike. How do you handle spiders and know they won't bite? I'd be freaked out about letting a spider roam on my hands/arms.

@TheWildReportOfficial 10 ай бұрын

It is a little bit trickier, for me I typically pay attention to how willing they are to freely crawl around vs. tensing up or running around. It's also species specific though, just like snakes!