So my GF lives on a 5 acre ranch here in west Sacramento and is absolutely terrified with spiders. She fear more for her puppies then anything since black widows are common around the ranch. Upon getting ready for bed we found this fellow climbing the walls. I'm having trouble identifying this one, first impression was a brown recluse which isn't so uncommon. But there are minor characteristics missing:


It was easily larger than a quarter.

thanks in advance!

Count the eyes if you can (easier said than done) brown recluse have six eyes instead of eight and look for that little guitar shape on their head. I agree they don't look like wolf spiders.

I think it is a common brown spider
]http://bugguide.net/node/view/542887]

they aren't really dangerous that I know of, but are creepy as hell.

we get them all over the house in the summertime. My wife hates them.

Terminate with Extreme prejudice! My weapon of choice is usually a paper towel. which can be tossed into the fireplace.

"we piled the carcasses and burned them...as is our custom"

I popped the largest Black Widow I've ever found around my place to date.  The butt section was so engorged it was more of a purple/brown than black and was blown up to the size of a marble.  Made one heck of a cracking "pop" sound when squished!

That is of the species Arachnid Muertes family of spiders. I am assuming, last known photograph?
I hate spiders. Down in the amazon, we had to dump out or boots and shake out our clothes everyday. I hate spiders.

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I fucking hate spiders. 

+1  When there's one in the house it always causes friction because my instinct is to destroy them, while she is all about relocating them safely outside.

I'll safely relocate them to their afterlife.

I cant say that I like spiders, because, well... they are creepy looking and suck blood.    But really people seem to over react like they are looking to bite humans all the time, but in reality they do not.  They live in a much much smaller world and I don't even think they can perceive what a human is, let alone stalk and bite them purposely.  I'm also a spider re-locator, (except for the HUGE brown ones like Sean mentioned, they get a shoe  ) Living in the mountains makes me have respect for them, and the good impact they have on the other bug populations.  I have been watching a Black Widow grow in my bathroom window for months now.  When we had a fly epidemic it took out like a dozen of those fuckers all by it's little self.  I dont dare tell Sara though... she will make me squash or relocate it.    I've read somewhere that even in states where the brown recluse are know to exist that hundreds of false bites are reported, and very rarely are there actual reported incidents of them biting anyone.  Most bites occur when they mistakenly take up residence in clothes, shoes, gloves, etc like people have mentioned.  But to think that a spider is going to bite you, just because you see it, is non-sense IMO.

Spiders are spiders.

These are the ones that I don't like finding in my shoes!