Spiders in Alaska? (homes, live, dangerous)

[ssouina]

Is there a wide variety of spiders in Alaska? I am asking because, unlike many, I adore spiders. I am in Western Washington where we have a large variety of spiders and none of them are dangerous. Luckily, I often have a couple who have taken up residence in my home. I am wondering if in order to get moose (move to Alaska) I would have to lose my eight-legged friends. Also, do you have daddy long legs (which aren't spiders)?

[bortstc37]

i've seen a bunch of different kinds.

no snakes, though.

[warptman]

You have to be careful of the Black Widows, they're huge here! I'm not even going near the tarantula!

[GrammasCabin]

And don't forget all those brown recluse spiders lurking everywhere, right next to the snakes.

[ssouina]

Did anyone actually read my post? I like spiders (seriously) so the tarantula and recluse gags aren't working. Serious responses are most welcome.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by ssouina

Did anyone actually read my post? I like spiders (seriously) so the tarantula and recluse gags aren't working. Serious responses are most welcome.

Yeah, Warp kinda gets carried away.

Most of our spiders aren't too nasty, the really bad one that we do have is the rare Snow spider, it lives here because it's blood is more like an antifreeze so the cold doesn't affect it much. There is a few frogs types that have that type of blood so they can hibernate though the winter and survive.

If you were to get bitten by the snow spider, you will develop a really bad case of frost bite, not so much from the venom being poison, but from the cold subzero venom which causes much of the problems freezing the flesh. They are very rare and are only seen in the interior forested areas.

The snow spider is active in the winter and hibernates during the summer months because of the heat, it's blood will boil over faster than an overheated car if it got too active.

The webs are more like a fine ice crystal than silky, they are really strong and mostly they set up webs to catch the smaller squirrels we have here going up and down spruce trees.

We don't have any summer snakes here, only the winter snow snakes, but that is another posts. There is some snow crabs too, but they are in the ocean and we don't deal with them much, but if you watch the "Deadliest Catch", you will see a segment on them.

The ice worms are the only critters that freeze solid during the winter and live on Glaciers in the summer, they are about a quarter inch long and look like black hair.

Ice worms in snow

Ice worm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[gobrien]

Originally Posted by ssouina

Did anyone actually read my post? I like spiders (seriously) so the tarantula and recluse gags aren't working. Serious responses are most welcome.

There might actually be recluses here. They hide so easy and sneak into cargo.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by ssouina

Is there a wide variety of spiders in Alaska? I am asking because, unlike many, I adore spiders. I am in Western Washington where we have a large variety of spiders and none of them are dangerous. Luckily, I often have a couple who have taken up residence in my home. I am wondering if in order to get moose (move to Alaska) I would have to lose my eight-legged friends. Also, do you have daddy long legs (which aren't spiders)?

Brown recluse and other poisonous spiders could be brought into Alaska by accident from the lower-48 and other places in shipping containers, ships, etc.

But we do have lots of little spiders, even in the interior of Alaska, in our homes. These usually are alive during the summer months.

[akdreamin]

Originally Posted by ssouina

Is there a wide variety of spiders in Alaska? I am asking because, unlike many, I adore spiders. I am in Western Washington where we have a large variety of spiders and none of them are dangerous. Luckily, I often have a couple who have taken up residence in my home. I am wondering if in order to get moose (move to Alaska) I would have to lose my eight-legged friends. Also, do you have daddy long legs (which aren't spiders)?

The Nearctic Spider Database: Alaska Spider Species List

and

Spider Bites in Alaska

Cheers,

[JohnPF]

I like these guys a lot too! In fact any insects or larger animals for that matter. Monkeys freak me out though I have a good friend who is an entomologist specialising in spiders, actually one of World's foremost authority on spiders. If you have any questions or want an identification of a specific critter, drop me a message!