
A Couple Of Spider Identification TipsĪs I said, these two spiders are similar, and the differences between them are very subtle. Here are a few:ġ-Hobo Spiders do not have darker color bands on their leg joints as most spiders (like the Giant House Spider) do.Ģ-If you are brave enough to turn it around and look at its sternum, a Giant House Spider has round markings on it, and a Hobo Spider does not.ģ-A Hobo Spider does not have distinct stripes on its back (technically called the cephalothorax).

Can you tell the difference? FYI, the one on the bottom is the Hobo Spider, and the one on the top is a harmless Giant House Spider. These Giant House Spiders look so similar to a Hobo Spider that you have to look under a magnifying glass to tell the difference.

You might have a Hobo Spider doppelganger called a “Giant House Spider” (I know, they had to get creative to come up with that name, huh?). But wait! Hold off on that conclusion for just a minute. If you were to find a big brown spider in your home and start to do some research, you might have already come to the conclusion that you have Hobo Spiders in your home. However, we do see Hobo spiders occasionally, so it is essential to know what they look like. Hobo spiders are probably rarer than you think, and other poisonous spiders like a Black Widow or Brown Recluse are even rarer.

We get calls all the time from customers wanting help in identifying if they have hobo spiders or just a spider that looks similar. Let me put your mind at ease a little. Many homes will not need to go all out in their Halloween decorating because of all the creepy spider webs that are now covering their porches. There really has been a lot of spiders this year, and people are always pretty creeped out, but they are particularly so when it comes to Hobo spiders. Spiders are seemingly everywhere this year in Portland and Vancouver.
