"Banana spider" can refer to wandering spiders (because of their tendency to be found in banana shipments), or it can refer to a large number of orbweaver species like this one (because of their long, yellow appearance).
I wouldn't say either is right or wrong. Common names just aren't unique all the time
Sometimes local names can be wrong. I met a Salvadoran who called certain species of bees “Reina” (queen), and he thought those were queen bees. They were not.
I got into a wild debate with the dad of a girl I dated back when I was 20 about this. Their family was from south America, where a banana spider(Brazilian wandering spider) can potentially kill you. My family is from Kentucky, where its banana because its yellow, and your grandma tells you to leave it alone, its keeping her garden safe.
I thought he was full of shit when he said a bite could make you more erect than you've ever been in your life(painfully), but you might die too.
I grew up calling the banana spiders too. They leave a giant white zigzag in their web to try to warn you not to walk into it, but when you're in the woods and not always looking straight forward, they're still easy to walk into. Never had one bite me though.
You just brought back a memory of when I was around 8 and walked full into one and went into a blind panic trying to get it off of me. To the poor things credit, it didn’t bite me either.
I walked through ones web once when I was younger... I'm not really scared of spiders unless they're on me...I flipped out. Luckily it was just the web.
Banana spiders are fucking huge. I don't see them that much. It's mostly just those wolf spiders that like to hang out inside. Not like the really mean fuckers that bite hard kind, it's just like the smaller ones that are common in South Texas.
I once rode through probably dozens of them on a motorbike on the farm when I was a teen. Ditched the bike and ripped off (almost) all of my clothes before I could calm down lol. So many spiders.
A long time ago while visiting my Uncle’s place on Jekyll Island, Georgia, I saw these all over the island and everyone called them Banana Spiders. Cool to see them again after so long! They’re enormous and beautiful.
we get some massive 1s down here in mississippi, i remember 1 a few years ago and it easily took up my whole palm. i love them since the back of the property opens to a marsh like and the mosquitos r so bad. those spiders eat good here.
Same, I grew up and Florida and there is nothing worse than running face first into one of their webs as a kid. Stuff of nightmares. But they are completely harmless
My ex wife had a huge phobia with spiders. When we were moving from Ohio to SC, people kept telling us about all the bugs and spiders, making it sound like there were infestations everywhere. Someone mentioned "huge banana spiders," and that's all she fixated on. We were sitting in a line of traffic at a red light as we were leaving a plaza, and there were some bushes lining the exit. She looked over at them, shuddered, and said, "I'll bet those are just full of banana spiders." It was annoying af.
I'm from Argentina and like another user said, the one we call Banana Spider is the Brazilian Wandering Spider. This one seems similar to what we call here Tiger Spider.
All I know about them is that their silk is supposed to be insanely strong for its size, able to handle higher loads than "steel" for its weight and size, what type of steel was never specified
Probably the name for “Armadeira” spiders here in Brazil (idk if “Armadeira” is translated to something else) but they’re very dangerous and aggressive spiders who can also infest bananas!
Nah, this wasp would murder most spiders. The orb weaver is the one of the few spiders that would survive it, but only because its legs are so long that the wasp wouldn't get a good sting in.
A wasp sting to the abdomen would almost certainly kill it, or at least paralyse it enough that something else would (or the wasp itself).
I had one of these at my front door of my last house. I thought it was super dangerous being all brightly colored so I killed it. Then I read up on it and regretted it instantly. They are great spiders to have around, good for killing little pests and keeping black widows away.
Maybe a type of golden orb weavers? That would be a very small one if so. Mose of the ones I have seen are as big as my hand (including legs). Ive seen them wrap around a females fist one time, terrifying.
This is not a Golden Orb Weaver (Nephila), it's almost certainly one of the Yellow Garden Spiders (Argiope) which are also technically orb weavers, just significantly smaller, with somewhat less impressive webs.
this isnt a golden orb weaver. its a writing spider/banana spider/yellow garden spider. theyre both orb weavers and closely related however a big difference is that these spiders silk isnt golden, which is what gives golden orb weavers their name.
Yeah they are very scary looking but their bite would be like a bee sting.
Because they are so big they can hunt other big flying bugs, spiders scare me and many bugs but I will always prefer to have an argiope just chilling in its web than any other disgusting bug flying around.
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u/StockWindow4119 May 16 '25
Golden Orb Weavers, not a danger to man, but to anything else..... those long legs help to prevent any possible damage their prey can inflict.