And I almost walked right into it!!

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Anyone know what kind it is? I'm no spider expert but I know it's not poisonous so I let it be. Can someone help me with the zigzag pattern in the middle of the web?!?

Orb weaver? I hate spiders ; most are harmless though.

First thought was a brown recluse - AKA "fiddleback" - but NOT.

We always called them cotton spiders. Don't know what they're really called

Garden Spider...no problemo.

The black and yellow is sure purdy but that sucker and a twin about 2 feet away ain't little.

I think it's an Orb-weaver spider. Some think the stuff in the middle is to warn birds so they don't destroy the web.

Had one at an old house near Dallas. I thought it was kinda pretty, so I started feeding it a grasshopper a day, by tossing them into its web. I swear it doubled in size, in a week

This. We had a beast of one when we walked my youngest to elementary school when we lived in Kingwood, NE of Houston. It was there for the seasaon.

Makes sense. Thanks

great spider. makes some very cool webs. amazing to watch him build his web

They're around my house every late summer/early fall. Their webs catch wasps looking to hide under the eaves for the winter so I leave them alone.

Garden spider. When I was a kid I would throw grasshoppers in their webs and watch them wrap those hoppers up in a hurry.

Had bunches of them at our place in east Texas out back at, you guessed it, the barn. I almost walked into them several times as well since they often spun their web over the entrances. They had lots of company provided by mud dobbers, wasps and all manner of various and sundry creatures.

DEAD, with great malice!

banana spider

Who do I see about importing some of em to my shack....

Kind of like them as far as spiders go but don't like running into spider webs regardless what kind of spider made it. We usually have a few yellow garden spiders scattered around our yard and sometimes around our porch lights. Industrious critters too. I've watched them at the crack of dawn already up and busy repairing and enlarging their web. Saved an almost dead hummingbird stuck in one of their webs in the wife's flower garden once.

We have lots at deer lease up by Austin.

This time of year their webs are all over every fire lanes at the lease. I always attach a rod to each side of the front of the 4wheeler to break the webs before I get a face full .

Hate spider webs.

My grandpa called them corn spiders, my dad called them corn spiders, I call the corn spiders, my boy calls them corn spiders.

Not sure what they're called.

That is what we call them. Real sticky web, that you run into a lot hunting squirrels in the fall. Hard to get it off of your face, and kinda hard to see in the shade of the woods in early morning. miles

Garden spider.
When I was in HS many years ago, we had a bumper crop of these guys.
I filled a Gal. milk jug with the little guys, took them to HS and distributed them equally.
Put some in the drinking fountain spigots, had to squish a few.
The girls pisser got a bunch.
Great fun.

Got one just like that one on the side of my house right now. It's got the egg sack hanging like Roger's pic.

The spider in the original post appears to be a Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) aka Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Black and Yellow Argiope, Garden Spider, Writing Spider, Golden Orbweaver.

http://www.spiders.us/species/argiope-aurantia/



Locally we have what we call a banana spider. The proper name is golden orb-web spider (Nephila clavipes). It is common for these spiders to build webs that span 30 feet across bayous. They are slightly venomous, but not dangerous to humans.

The two species look somewhat similar but are different spiders.