Yellow Sac Spider Facts & Information

What You Can Do

Yellow sac spider prevention is best accomplished by sealing holes, cracks, and gaps in the home's doors, windows, and foundation that enable the spiders to enter the home. Removing inside clutter that serves as harborage for spiders is also helpful.

What Orkin Does to Get Rid of Yellow Sac Spiders

Your local Orkin Pro is trained to help manage yellow sac spiders and similar pests. Since every building or home is different, your Orkin Pro will design a unique spider treatment program for your situation.

Orkin can provide the right solution to keep yellow sac spiders in their place…out of your home, or business.

What do yellow sac spiders look like?

• Body: The top part of its abdomen includes a dark, lance-shaped mark that runs down the middle of the abdomen from the point where the thorax and abdomen meet to about the mid-point of the abdomen.

• Color: It has a pale beige to yellow color and often has a tinge of green. Its chelicerae (fangs), and the tips of its legs are dark brown. This leg coloration gives these spiders the appearance of having dark colored feet.

• Size: The yellow sac spider is a small spider with a body length of about 1/4 inch for both males and females.

What do yellow sac spiders eat?

Yellow sac spiders usually feed on other spiders, plus agricultural and garden pest insects and their eggs. If food sources are limited, these spiders become cannibalistic and may consume their own eggs.

Where do yellow sac spiders live?

Yellow sac spiders are found throughout most all of the United States, but are fewer in number within the northern, colder climates.

Outdoors, these spiders normally are found hiding in rolled up leaves or in other debris in small, hidden locations. In addition to protection, these daytime hiding places also function as molting sites (shedding of their outer "skin" in order to grow larger), mating, egg laying, and hibernating sites. Their preferred habitats around the home are in:

• Bushes

• Gardens

• Leaf piles

• Trees

• Woodpiles

Are yellow sac spiders nocturnal?

Yellow sac spiders are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. During the day, they rest inside their silk sacs. When night falls, they emerge to hunt for food. Unlike many other spiders, they do not use webs to catch prey, and instead, they actively seek it out.

Yellow Sac Spider Reproduction

Male yellow sac spiders will hunt for females and breed with them in the early summer. Females typically mate only once but produce as many as five egg sacs, each of which contains approximately 40 eggs. Their egg sac serves to protect not only the mature spiders, but also to protect the eggs and immature stages of the yellow sac spider.

Yellow Sac Spider Bite

Yellow sac spiders can and do bite, but it's usually a last resort. They're not looking for a fight and typically only bite defensively when they feel threatened or are accidentally pressed against your skin, like when you're putting on clothes or rolling over in bed. The bite itself is often compared to a bee sting, causing a sharp, mild pain followed by some redness and swelling at the site.

If you experience severe pain, cramping, or signs of an allergic reaction, you should always seek professional medical attention.