# Garden Spider (*Araneus diadematus*)

The Garden Spider is a friendly little creature that spins beautiful webs in gardens. They help catch pesky insects, making them great helpers for plants!

- **Category:** [Invertebrate](https://www.snappit.app/explore/categories/invertebrate)
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Danger:** 2/5 · Low
- **Habitat:** Gardens, fields, and forests
- **Also known as:** Araneus diadematus

![Garden Spider](https://res.cloudinary.com/drieglelr/image/upload/v1771426919/objects/5575.jpg)

## Appearance

The Garden Spider has a large, rounded abdomen, typically brownish-grey to orange, often marked with a distinctive cross pattern of white spots. Its legs are usually banded with lighter and darker shades, making it stand out from plain spiders.

## Taxonomy

- **Kingdom:** Animalia
- **Phylum:** Arthropoda
- **Class:** Arachnida
- **Order:** Araneae
- **Family:** Araneidae
- **Genus:** Araneus

## Garden spider, up close

The European garden spider or cross orbweaver (Araneus diadematus) is an orb-weaving spider named for the cross of white blotches on its abdomen. Found from Europe across Asia to Japan, and introduced to North America, it spins upright orb webs on herbs, bushes, forest edges, gardens and buildings. It is most noticeable in late summer and autumn, when the females are fully grown at 10–22.5 mm long; males are much smaller.

Also called: European garden spider, Cross orbweaver, Cross spider, Diadem spider, Crowned orb weaver.

The cross-backed orb weaver of European gardens: it eats and rebuilds its web, feels prey through its legs and has even spun webs in space. Spin it, tap it, then test yourself.

### Special abilities

- **Orb Builder** (25–30 spokes in one web): The female builds a fresh orb web every day: dry spokes from the centre out to a frame, then a sticky spiral laid round and round. [4][5][6][12][11]
  - A typical adult web has 25–30 spokes set 12–15° apart. Young spiders' webs often have many more.
  - Spokes and frame are dry silk from the major ampullate glands. The catching spiral is coated with tiny glue droplets.
  - In a breeze of 0.5 m/s, garden spiders built smaller, rounder webs with fewer spiral turns. When it was cooled from 24 °C to 12 °C, they spaced the spiral more widely.
  - Webs strung between swaying supports took the same time to build as webs on fixed ones.
- **Web Telegraph** (8 legs feeling the web; still debated): The web works like a giant ear. Sitting at the hub with a leg on each of eight spokes, the spider feels the buzz of a trapped insect. [8][15][16][13]
  - Computer models of garden spider webs suggest that comparing the vibrations reaching each leg is enough to work out the direction and distance of a buzz. How real spiders use these clues is still being tested.
  - The spider can change how vibrations travel by tightening its web, and through the stiffness of its dragline silk.
  - Vibrations can travel through dragline silk over a wider range of speeds than through any other known material.
  - To study this, scientists tap webs with a tiny 3-millisecond pulse and measure how it spreads.
- **Silk Recycler** (25% of young spiders' food is pollen): Before building a new web, the garden spider gathers up the old one and eats it, so the silk can be used again. Pollen stuck to the threads gets eaten too. [17][14][4]
  - In tests with labelled silk, the protein from an eaten web turned up again in the next web.
  - A study of young garden spiders and a relative found that about 25% of their food was pollen and 75% was flying insects.
  - The pollen grains were too big to swallow by accident, so the spiders were eating them as real food.
  - Because the web is rebuilt every day, this recycling happens every day too.
  - What young orb weavers eat (Whole diet): Pollen: about 25%
- **Cross Check** (4+ white blotches in the cross): The white cross on its back is the garden spider's name badge. The colour around it can be anything from pale yellow to almost black. [1][2][3][18]
  - Four or more white blotches across the top of the abdomen form the cross.
  - Abdomen colour ranges from yellow through orange and red-brown to almost black.
  - Younger and smaller spiders tend to be darker. Grown-up females are usually lighter.
  - In Belgium, city spiders turned out no different in colour from country ones (a 2026 study, not yet peer-reviewed).
- **Signal Line** (1 signal thread to the hideout): Most of the time the garden spider waits on the hub. When the hub is a poor spot, it hides in a leaf retreat and keeps a claw on a signal thread. [1][13][8]
  - The female hangs head down at the centre of the web, or hides in nearby leaves with one claw hooked on a signal line.
  - Scientists think it builds a signal thread out to a retreat when conditions at the hub are not good for listening.
  - Its relative, the missing-sector orb weaver, normally watches from a retreat like this.
  - Waiting in a hideout gives extra protection from predators.
- **Egg Fortress** (300–900 eggs in one sac): In late September the female leaves her web, finds a sheltered crack and wraps hundreds of eggs in a dome of yellow silk. [2][4][3]
  - She picks a protected place, such as under bark, and lays 300–900 eggs.
  - First she spins a silk wall that grows to about 5 mm high in two hours. Then she lays the eggs and wraps them tightly.
  - She stays close for a few days to mend the threads, then dies. The eggs spend the winter in the sac.
  - A bigger mother makes a bigger sac, but not always more eggs.
- **Sky Sailors** (4 km height where ballooning spiders were found; still debated): In spring the spiderlings leave the egg sac, let out fine silk threads and float away to new places. This is called ballooning. [4][19][20]
  - The young garden spiders come out in spring and release threads from their spinnerets to be carried off.
  - Ballooning spiders of many kinds have been found 4 km up in the sky, and some travel more than 1,000 km.
  - Wind was long thought to do all the lifting. In 2018, tests showed that weak electric fields like those in the open air can also set off ballooning and lift spiders.
  - Those tests used other small spiders, so how much wind and electricity each help young garden spiders is not settled.
- **Space Weaver** (59 days on Skylab 3): In 1973 two garden spiders, Arabella and Anita, flew to the Skylab space station to find out whether spiders can build webs without gravity. They could. [21][22][10][23]
  - The idea came from Judith Miles, a 17-year-old student from Lexington, Massachusetts. Hers was one of 25 student experiments picked from more than 3,400.
  - After some muddled first tries, both spiders built almost Earth-like webs once they had got used to weightlessness.
  - On Earth their webs are lopsided. The best Skylab web was more even, as if the spiders were missing gravity as a guide.
  - They were the first spiders ever taken into space, in July 1973. Anita died in the last week of the 59-day mission.

### Body parts

- **Abdomen** (4+ white blotches make the cross) [1][2][3]
  - Four or more white blotches across the top of the abdomen form the cross that gives the spider its name.
  - The background colour can be yellow, red-brown or almost black.
  - Females are at their biggest in late autumn, when the abdomen is full of eggs.
- **Jaws** [1][4][2]
  - Prey is wrapped in silk first, then bitten. The bite stops it moving and starts to digest it.
  - The garden spider is shy and only bites people if it is cornered or handled.
  - Confirmed bites are rare. They can cause pain, swelling and redness.
- **Palps** [4][3]
  - Two short palps sit beside the jaws.
  - In grown-up males the palp tips are swollen bulbs, which they use when mating.
  - Males are also smaller and slimmer than females.
- **Spinnerets** (2–3× tougher than nylon or Kevlar) [5][6][7]
  - Silk glands inside the abdomen feed the spinnerets at its tip.
  - The safety line and the web's frame come from the major ampullate glands. Tiny protein crystals make that silk stiff, strong and tough.
  - The catching spiral is a thread coated with glue droplets. Their recipe changes when the spider goes hungry.
  - Weight for weight, spider silk is about as strong as steel and 2–3 times tougher than nylon or Kevlar.
- **Legs** (8 vibration sensors) [1][8][9]
  - An orb weaver's legs are built for spinning orb webs.
  - At the hub, each leg rests on a spoke and works like a vibration sensor.
  - In a close relative, the wasp spider, males smell females with tiny pores on all of their walking legs.
- **Hub** (12–15° between spokes) [1][4][10]
  - The female hangs head down at the hub, the centre of the web, waiting.
  - A typical adult web has 25–30 spokes meeting here. Young spiders' webs often have many more.
  - On Earth the spokes are closer together below the hub than above it.
- **Frame thread** [11][12]
  - Frame and anchor threads set the overall shape of the web.
  - Garden spiders fit their web to the space they have, whether small, tall or wide.
  - Webs built between swaying supports took as long to build as webs on fixed ones, and came out much the same.
- **Retreat** [1][13][2]
  - Some garden spiders wait in nearby leaves instead of on the hub, holding a signal thread that runs to the web.
  - A hideout gives extra protection from predators.
  - In autumn the female leaves her web for a sheltered spot to lay her eggs.
- **Prey** (75% of young spiders' food is insects) [14][4][1]
  - Most prey are small flies, bees and wasps.
  - A catch is wrapped in silk first and may be kept in the web for later.
  - When the spider is full, it attacks and kills fewer of the insects that land.

### Stats

| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Female body | 10–22.5 mm | body length, legs not included; A big female is about twice as long as the biggest males [24] |
| Male body | 4–11 mm | slimmer than females, with long legs [24][3] |
| Eggs per sac | 300–900 | laid in late September in yellow silk [2] |
| Spokes | 25–30 | in a typical adult web; young spiders use more [4] |
| Spoke angle | 12–15° | between neighbouring spokes [4] |
| Pollen in diet | 25% | of young orb weavers' food, eaten with the old web [14] |
| Egg-sac wall | 5 mm in 2 h | the first step in building the egg sac [4] |
| Wind test | 0.5 m/s | a breeze that made spiders build smaller, rounder webs [12] |
| Days in space | 59 | Arabella and Anita on Skylab 3, 1973 [21] |
| British records | 11,606 | sightings logged in Britain up to 2015 [3] |

### Photos

- [A female on an oak leaf in Estonia: note the white cross](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Araneus_diadematus_-_Keila.jpg) (photo: Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [A grown-up female, the one that builds the webs](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Araneus_diadematus_female-1230-2.jpg) (photo: Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [A mother with her egg sac in autumn](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Araneus_diadematus_female_with_cocoon.jpg) (photo: Gg. Any, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [A male: smaller and slimmer, with long legs](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Araneus_diadematus%2C_male_(7615222604).jpg) (photo: Peter O'Connor (anemoneprojectors), CC BY-SA 2.0)
- [A male on goldenrod in Germany](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gartenkreuzspinne_Araneus_diadematus_male_4747.jpg) (photo: NobbiP, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- [Spiderlings bunched together in spring](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Araneus_diadematus_spiderling_cluster.jpg) (photo: Wizpip, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [A ball of spiderlings, just out of the egg sac](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ball_of_spiderlings_(Araneus_diadematus)_(14206953319).jpg) (photo: marsupium photography, CC BY-SA 2.0)
- [An orange female in Poland: same species, different colour](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Araneus_diadematus_orange_female.jpg) (photo: Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [The pale cross that gives the spider its name](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garden_cross_spiders_(Araneus_diadematus).jpg) (photo: James Johnstone, CC BY 2.0)

### Questions

- **Are garden spiders dangerous?** No. Garden spiders are shy and bite only if cornered or handled, so don't pick them up. Confirmed bites are rare and cause pain, swelling and redness. If one does bite, tell an adult and wash the area with soap and water. Get medical advice if it swells a lot or you feel unwell. [1][2][35]
- **How do you identify a garden spider?** Look for a round abdomen with a cross of four or more white blotches, hanging head down in the middle of a big, upright orb web. The background colour can be yellow, orange, brown or almost black. [1][2][3]
- **How big do garden spiders get?** Females are 10–22.5 mm long, not counting the legs. Males are 4–11 mm and slimmer. [24]
- **What do garden spiders eat?** Mostly flying insects, especially small flies, bees and wasps. Young orb weavers also get about a quarter of their food from pollen caught on the web, which they eat when they recycle it. [14][4]
- **Why do you see so many garden spiders in autumn?** They are fully grown from late summer to autumn, when numbers peak and the females are at their biggest, full of eggs. Dew on autumn mornings also makes the big webs easy to spot. [3][2]
- **When and where do garden spiders lay eggs?** In late September the female leaves her web for a sheltered spot such as under bark and lays 300–900 eggs in a yellow silk sac. The young hatch the following spring. [2][4]
- **How long do garden spiders live?** Females die soon after laying their eggs in autumn. In Britain the young spend a winter growing before they become adults, so a whole life can stretch across two years. [4][3]
- **Did spiders really go to space?** Yes. In 1973 two garden spiders, Arabella and Anita, flew on the Skylab 3 mission for a student experiment. After some muddled first tries they built almost Earth-like webs without gravity. [21][22][10]

### Garden spider myths and facts

Eight things people say about garden spiders, checked against the science.

- "The garden spider is an insect." **Myth!** It is an arachnid, like all spiders: four pairs of legs on a body in two main parts. Insects have six legs. [4]
- "Garden spiders are dangerous to people." **Myth!** They are shy and bite only if cornered or handled. Confirmed bites are rare and cause pain, swelling and redness that can last from a couple of days to a few weeks. [1][2]
- "A garden spider eats its own web." **Fact!** It eats the old web before building a new one, and the silk protein turns up again in the next web. [17][4]
- "Garden spiders only eat insects." **Myth!** Young orb weavers get about a quarter of their food from pollen that sticks to the web and is eaten along with it. [14]
- "A female garden spider always eats her mate." **Myth!** It happens only now and then, just before, during or right after mating. [1]
- "Putting cobwebs on a cut stops germs." **Myth!** A careful 2021 test of silk from seven kinds of spider found no germ-killing effect at all: bacteria lived on the silk. Keep cuts clean and covered instead. [26]
- "Garden spiders have built webs in space." **Fact!** Arabella and Anita built almost Earth-like webs on the Skylab space station in 1973, after some muddled first tries. [22][10]
- "Baby spiders can travel through the sky." **Fact!** Spiderlings let out silk threads and float on the air. Ballooning spiders have been found 4 km up. [4][19]

### Garden spider and orb-weaver records

Record holders from the garden spider and its family, the orb weavers (Araneidae).

- First spiders in space: Arabella and Anita, two garden spiders, July 1973 (Flown to the Skylab space station for a student experiment on web building without gravity.) [10][21]
- Biggest orb web: Darwin's bark spider, a relative in the same family, 2.8 m² (Its giant webs hang over streams, rivers and lakes.) [27][20]
- Longest web lines: Darwin's bark spider, 25 m (Anchor threads long enough to bridge a river.) [27][20]
- Toughest spider silk: Darwin's bark spider, 350 MJ/m³ (On average more than twice as tough as any silk tested before it, and over 10 times tougher than Kevlar.) [27]
- Widest range of wave speeds: Spider dragline silk, No known material beats it (Vibrations can travel through it over a wider range of speeds than through any other known material.) [16]
- Longest balloon trips: Ballooning spiders of many kinds, Over 1,000 km (Sailors have found spiders on ships far out at sea. One possible trip was 3,200 km.) [20]

### A garden spider's life

From egg to egg-laying mother. In Britain the young spend a winter growing, so a whole life can stretch across two years.

- **Late September**: Eggs laid. The mother leaves her web, finds a sheltered crack and lays 300–900 eggs in a yellow silk sac. [2]
- **Autumn**: Last guard. She stays near the sac for a few days, mending threads, then dies. [4][3]
- **Winter**: Inside the sac. The eggs spend the winter wrapped in silk while the young develop. [4][3]
- **Spring**: Hatching. Hundreds of spiderlings come out of the sac together. [4]
- **Spring**: Ballooning. They let out silk threads and float off on the air to new places. [4][19]
- **First summer**: Little webs. Each youngster builds small webs with many spokes and grows. In Britain, spiders that hatched that spring spend the next winter as youngsters. [4][3]
- **Next summer to autumn**: Grown up. They become adults. Numbers peak in late summer and autumn, when dew shows up the webs. [3][2]
- **Late summer**: Finding a mate. Males are drawn to the smell of grown-up females and approach them with great care. [25][4]

### Garden spider vs house spider vs crab spider

Three common European spiders you might meet in or near the garden.

| | Garden spider | Giant house spider | Flower crab spider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific name [24][28][29] | Araneus diadematus | Eratigena atrica | Misumena vatia |
| Female body length [24][28][29] | 10–22.5 mm | 11–16 mm | 7–11.5 mm |
| Male body length [24][28][29] | 4–11 mm | 10–14 mm | 3–5 mm |
| Where to look [24][28][29] | Herbs and bushes, forest edges, gardens, buildings | Warm spots under stones, often in buildings | On flowers |
| Web [4][14][28][29][30] | An upright orb web, rebuilt every day, that catches flying insects | A funnel-web spider (family Agelenidae) | None: it ambushes bees, wasps and hoverflies on flowers and uses silk only for its eggs |
| Colour [3][31][29] | Yellow, orange, brown or almost black, with a white cross | Earthy browns, muddy red or yellow | White, pale green or yellow; can change colour in a few days |

Sizes are body lengths without legs, from araneae – Spiders of Europe.

### Is the garden spider endangered?

Very common across Europe, but it has never had an official Red List check.

- **IUCN Red List:** Not Evaluated (NE) (Trend unknown). The garden spider has no IUCN Red List assessment, so it has no official status or trend. It is still very common: Britain alone had 11,606 records of it up to 2015. [32][33][3]
- Not assessed by the IUCN (checked 2026)
- **Threat: Pesticides**: Sprays can change how helpful predators hunt even when they do not kill them. Scientists use garden spider webs to test for these hidden effects. [34]
- **Threat: City living**: In Belgian cities, garden spiders had smaller abdomens for their body size, which can mean poorer condition or fewer eggs. This 2026 study is not yet peer-reviewed. [18]
- **Helping: Leave the webs**: A garden spider rebuilds its web daily and catches small flies, bees and wasps. Leaving autumn webs alone lets females finish their life cycle and lay eggs. [4][14][2]
- **Helping: Fewer sprays**: Cutting down on garden pesticides avoids the hidden effects on web-building spiders. [34]
- **Helping: Record what you see**: Local recording schemes collect spider sightings. Britain had 11,606 garden spider records by 2015. [3]

### Reading a garden spider

- Hanging head down at the centre of the web: Waiting for prey. This is its normal hunting position. [1]
- Hidden in a leaf beside the web, one leg on a thread: Watching the web from safety through a signal thread. [1][13]
- Dashing to one spot and spinning silk round something: Wrapping a catch before biting it. [4][1]
- A small, long-legged spider edging onto a big female's web: A male approaching a female. He moves carefully because he risks being treated as prey. [4]
- A smaller, rounder web on a windy day: The spider has adjusted its building to the wind. [12]
- A plump female off her web in a crack in late September: She is about to lay her eggs. Leave her in peace. [2]

### Looks

- **Adult female**: Big, round abdomen with a white cross on a brown background. Body 10–22.5 mm long. (Builds the webs · lays the eggs in autumn) [24][1][2]
- **Adult male**: Smaller (4–11 mm) and slimmer, with long legs and swollen palp tips. (Searches for females by smell · now and then eaten after mating) [24][3][4][25][1]
- **Spiderlings**: Tiny young spiders fresh from the egg sac in spring. Photos often show them bunched in a small golden ball before they spread out. (Hatch in spring · float away on silk threads) [4][3]
- **Orange female**: The same white cross on an orange to red-brown abdomen. Colour varies a lot from spider to spider. (Same species, just a different colour · one nickname is 'orangie') [3][2][1]

### Garden spider quiz

1. What is the garden spider's scientific name? **Araneus diadematus.** Araneus diadematus. The other names belong to a house spider, a crab spider and the house fly. [24]
2. What marks the top of a garden spider's abdomen? **A cross of white blotches.** Four or more white blotches form a cross. [1]
3. How many spokes does a typical adult web have? **25–30.** A typical adult web has 25–30 spokes, 12–15° apart. [4]
4. What does the spider do with its old web? **Eats it.** It eats the old web and reuses the silk protein in the next one. [17]
5. About how much of young orb weavers' food is pollen? **About 25%.** About 25%, eaten when they recycle their webs. [14]
6. When it hides in a leaf retreat, how does the spider know about prey? **By keeping a claw on a signal thread.** A signal thread runs from the web to the retreat and carries the vibrations. [1][13]
7. How many eggs can one egg sac hold? **300–900.** Females lay 300–900 eggs in a yellow silk sac in late September. [2]
8. When do the spiderlings hatch? **Spring.** The eggs spend the winter in the sac and the young come out in spring. [4]
9. What is ballooning? **Floating through the air on silk threads.** Spiderlings let out threads and float away to new places. [4]
10. What were the names of the two Skylab spiders? **Arabella and Anita.** Arabella and Anita flew on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973. [21]
11. Who came up with the Skylab spider experiment? **A 17-year-old student.** Judith Miles, a 17-year-old student from Lexington, Massachusetts. [21]
12. How do males find grown-up females? **By smell.** In experiments, males were drawn to the scent of adult females. [25]

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25. [Fischer A, Schulz S, Ayasse M, Uhl G (2021). Pheromone communication among sexes of the garden cross spider Araneus diadematus. The Science of Nature (Naturwissenschaften).](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-021-01747-9)
26. [Fruergaard S, Lund MB, Schramm A, Vosegaard T, Bilde T (2021). The myth of antibiotic spider silk. iScience 24:103125.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103125)
27. [Agnarsson I, Kuntner M, Blackledge TA (2010). Bioprospecting finds the toughest biological material: extraordinary silk from a giant riverine orb spider. PLoS ONE 5:e11234.](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011234)
28. [Nentwig W, Blick T, Bosmans R, Gloor D, Hänggi A, Kropf C (2026). araneae – Spiders of Europe: Eratigena atrica.](https://araneae.nmbe.ch/data/241)
29. [Nentwig W, Blick T, Bosmans R, Gloor D, Hänggi A, Kropf C (2026). araneae – Spiders of Europe: Misumena vatia.](https://araneae.nmbe.ch/data/1375)
30. [Animal Diversity Web. Misumena vatia (goldenrod crab spider). University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Misumena_vatia/)
31. [Wikipedia contributors. Eratigena atrica (giant house spider). English Wikipedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratigena_atrica)
32. [GBIF Secretariat. Araneus diadematus Clerck, 1757 – IUCN Red List category via GBIF species API.](https://www.gbif.org/species/2160133)
33. [Wikidata: Araneus diadematus (Q337509)](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q337509)
34. [Samu F, Vollrath F (1992). Spider orb web as bioassay for pesticide side effects. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 62:117–124.](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1570-7458.1992.tb00650.x)
35. [NHS. Insect bites and stings.](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/insect-bites-and-stings/)

## Measurements & details

- **Size:** 4-22.5 mm
- **Lifespan:** up to 730 days
- **Leg Count:** 8

## Diet & Feeding

Garden Spiders mostly eat flying insects caught in their webs, especially small flies, bees and wasps. Young spiders also eat pollen that sticks to the web.

- **Primary Foods:** Small flies, Bees, Wasps, Pollen
- **Foraging Method:** Ambush

## Ecological connections

- **Eats:** House Fly (*Musca domestica*) — Flies caught in its sticky silk web are prey for the spider.
- **Eaten by:** [Great Tit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/great-tit) (*Parus major*) — Tits may snatch spiders from their webs, but this has not been confirmed for the garden spider.
- **Eaten by:** [European Hornet](https://www.snappit.app/explore/european-hornet) (*Vespa crabro*) — Hornets may prey on spiders, but this has not been confirmed for the garden spider.

## Traits

- [Wildlife](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/wildlife): Wildlife encompasses all undomesticated animal and plant life existing in their natural habitats.
- [Solitary](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/solitary): Solitary animals live alone for most of their lives, only interacting with others for mating or parental care.
- [Web Builder](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/web-builder): This trait characterizes organisms that construct elaborate silken webs for catching prey, shelter, or reproduction.
- [Colorful](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/colorful): Colorful describes organisms or objects displaying a wide range of bright and distinct colors.
- [Insectivorous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/insectivorous): This trait identifies organisms whose diet primarily consists of insects and other small invertebrates.
- [Forest](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/forest): Forest habitats are terrestrial environments dominated by dense tree cover, supporting a high diversity of plant and animal life.
- [Urban Friendly](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/urban-friendly): This habitat trait indicates species that can coexist with humans in urban and suburban environments, utilizing man-made structures and green spaces.

## Collections

- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects)
- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects-and-bugs)

## Safety

**Danger:** 2/5 · Low

Do not touch or pick up. Garden spiders are shy and only bite if cornered or handled. If one bites, tell an adult and wash the area with soap and water. See a doctor if it swells a lot or you feel unwell.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How to identify Garden Spider?

Compare body proportions, leg shape, abdomen markings and the web, if there is one. Eye arrangement can be decisive but rarely shows up in a casual phone photo. A web is a supporting clue, not proof of who built it. Spider Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

### How big is Garden Spider?

4-22.5 mm

### How long does Garden Spider live?

up to 730 days

### What does Garden Spider eat?

Garden Spiders mostly eat flying insects caught in their webs, especially small flies, bees and wasps. Young spiders also eat pollen that sticks to the web.

### Where is Garden Spider usually found?

Gardens, fields, and forests

### How does Garden Spider hunt?

Ambush

### How many legs does Garden Spider have?

8

## Where to spot

- [Wolf Trails Park](https://www.snappit.app/guides/places/wolf-trails-park) — Virginia, US · Park
- [Warm Springs Park](https://www.snappit.app/guides/places/warm-springs-park) — California, US · Park

## More Invertebrate

- [Coral](https://www.snappit.app/explore/coral)
- [Crab Spider](https://www.snappit.app/explore/crab-spider) (*Mecaphesa asperata*)
- [Brown Recluse Spider](https://www.snappit.app/explore/brown-recluse-spider) (*Loxosceles reclusa*)

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Source: [Garden Spider: Facts & Places to See — Snappit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/garden-spider)