Cellar Spider

Natural Habitat

Cellar spiders commonly inhabit dark, damp, and undisturbed areas such as cellars, basements, crawl spaces, garages, and attics. They can also be found in outdoor sheltered areas like under rocks or logs.

Diet & Feeding

Cellar spiders primarily feed on other insects, including flies, mosquitoes, and even other spiders. They are known to invade the webs of other spiders to eat the occupants or their prey.

Behavior Patterns

Cellar spiders are known for building irregular, messy webs in corners of rooms or other sheltered areas. They often hang upside down in their webs. When disturbed, they may vibrate rapidly in their webs, which can make them difficult to see. They are relatively docile and non-aggressive.

Risks & Benefits

Cellar spiders are largely harmless to humans. Their fangs are too small or their venom is too weak to cause significant harm if they were to bite, which is rare. They are beneficial for pest control as they prey on various indoor insects, including nuisance pests like mosquitoes and flies, and even more dangerous spiders like black widows or brown recluse spiders if they are in the same environment. Therefore, they are generally considered beneficial to have in homes.

Identified on: 8/22/2025