Yellow garden spider
This spider often weaves a bold zigzag ribbon of extra thick silk through the center of its web, a structure researchers still cannot fully explain.
| Where | Sunny gardens, meadows and field edges |
|---|---|
| Size | Female 19 to 28 mm, male 5 to 9 mm body length |
| When | May to October |
The Yellow garden spider carries a large, blunt oval abdomen marked with bright yellow or orange patches on black, above a mostly white front body section. Legs are mostly black with red or yellow near the body, and females are far larger than the small, plain males that share the edge of her web.
A single large, mostly permanent orb is built low in sunny, tall vegetation, with only the sticky spiral usually rebuilt each day. The female sits head down at the hub through daylight hours, and her papery egg sac overwinters outdoors, hatching the following spring.
Traits
Habitat
Garden
Colour
Yellow, Black
Active
Day
To people
This large spider is not aggressive and bites only if trapped against the skin, causing brief local pain but nothing lasting; it is generally considered beneficial for catching garden pests.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Transverse silver, black and yellow banding running across a more pointed abdomen, rather than the blunt oval abdomen with large solid yellow and black patches of the Yellow garden spider.
Questions
Is the Yellow garden spider dangerous to people?
This large spider is not aggressive and bites only if trapped against the skin, causing brief local pain but nothing lasting; it is generally considered beneficial for catching garden pests.
When can you see the Yellow garden spider?
The Yellow garden spider can be seen from May to October, by day.
Plate retouched from a photo by Shiva Shenoy, CC BY 4.0, iNaturalist Licence
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Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.