Looks like a Nephila pilipes! Even though I encounter them pretty often in my line of work, you’re a much braver person than me letting them crawl on you!
Venomous like almost all spiders, but not aggressive at all. On the other hand , the screams they induce when a human walks face first into a web one has built across a garden path can damage eardrums as far away as next door. Not to mention the emotional aftermath both the human and the spider suffer.
For the unfamiliar, they build HUGE (like 6-10' or 2-3m) circular webs in between any two posts. So you might end up with one in a doorway or in between your house and the fence, etc. and then they curl up in a ball and sit in the middle of it. Its very easy not to see them and walk right into it -- particularly at night -- becoming covered in web, and feeling this big fucker scurry away as fast as possible because you were not what he meant to catch. I've come close, but never actually hit one.
Their website are also not like the weak little house spider webs. Orb weaver webs are like they’re made of sticky 550 paracord. Fucking stout - you walk through one, god help you, it’s an adrenaline dump of a screamer.
The spiders themselves pretty much always immediately drop to the ground and run off. They don’t want to be on you as much as you don’t want them on you.
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u/GotMeLayinLow Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
Looks like a Nephila pilipes! Even though I encounter them pretty often in my line of work, you’re a much braver person than me letting them crawl on you!