As these images should show you, not very. I spent the better part of 15min handling this spider to prove to people just how safe most spiders are. I want people to know that the very common garden spider.. Araneus diadematus also called the "cross spider", is quite harmless. Although any spider can be dangerous if you by chance have a rare allergic reaction. Like taking medication. Spiders should never be handled mainly because it is so dangerous for the spider. It is very easy to expend all there energy or silk and kill the spider without knowing it. So PLEASE DONT TRY THIS! I just want people to know how safe they are. So I took these shots in the hope that people will respect them and not spray or kill them when they see these webs in there yard.
This shot was taken with my Fuji S1500 digital camera (10mp) and edited with digikam for Linux.
She did not want to bite me despite all the stuff I did to her. Indeed she did not bite even once nor did I feel she came close to biting me despite wanting to get away really bad! I had to capture her and then had her walking on me for at least 15 min. That is allot of stress.. yet no bite reaction at all. She clearly knew when she was on me and in contact with me yet she never bit. That is how non temperamental they are. I chose a healthy female for this test and returned her safely to where I found her.
This is the same species but of a slightly different race and thus color. What people should know is simple.. this spider is harmless and in fact very beneficial in controlling dangerous insects. I have been bit by this species back when I was a kid and a bit more careless. I did not even get a welt.. just slight numbness and about 1/8th of a beesting in pain or so.
I don't usually handle spiders because they are traumatized when you handle them and can be very easily harmed. Please do not try this at home with any spider. Even handling pet tarantulas can be dangerous to the spider. This can be of course very dangerous if done with the wrong spider and you never know what kind of allergic reactions you may have.. even though this spider is highly unlikely to bite.. please leave them in there natural environment. I can't stress that enough. I only did this to get a few shots showing how confident I am about how safe they are.
After these shots were done, she was fine and so was I. I found her at a good time when her web was already destroyed and thus she was ready to rebuild a web. Handling a spider can prove FATAL to the spider so please don't do this! If they use too much silk or get too stressed.. they will be unable to build a new web and die no matter where they are released. Also NEVER attempt to feed a spider sugar water or anything else. Pesticides are in nearly everything human. The only way to feed spiders this way takes a small lab and special sources. Also.. keeping spiders in such things as coffee cans or even some jars can lead to death due to pesticide residue. There is so much pesticides inside coffee cans that you can't rinse one out enough to make it safe for a spider. I learned this the hard way when I was a kid. And we wonder why so many people are getting cancer these days!
And of course I continue to do what I can with my compact camera and my 35mm SLR. These shots were taken with my compact digital slr and edited with Digikam for Linux.
I have been working on sunset images on the tracks near where we live. This is one of my favourite shots. I hope it's not too dark on your monitor. Some of my pictures appear too dark on some monitors due to gamma differences. I'm working on viewing my website from other computers to insure this problem does not continue. I may re-post old pics that seem to dark on other people's monitors in the future.
My wife and I wish to thank everyone who has prayed for us and helped us since the fire in 8/09. I also wish to thank the local ham radio operators who have welcomed me to Portland. Despite the steady stream of stressfully insane bills it will take most of ours lives to pay off.. we are doing ok and getting over the disaster one day at a time. My mom, dad and family have been very helpful and a very special thanks goes out to them as well for everything. Godbless.
--Gabe and Alina Beasley
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