This black widow spider lives at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Jamie R D Pearce
June 23, 2025 - 4:00 AM
Love them or hate them, arachnids are all around us in our homes and gardens, and although there are hundreds of species in BC each one has unique features and behaviours.
Some of the more common spiders in the Kamloops and Okanagan regions are the shiny black widows, the tiny jumping spiders, orb weavers, colour changing crab spiders, hairy wolf spiders and trapdoor spiders.
Spiders play an important part in ecosystems by eating insects and becoming lunch for wasps, parasites and other insects.
The black widow spider is distinguished by the red hourglass marking on its abdomen and named for the female’s habit of eating the male after mating. The female has a venomous bite and after biting its prey it will puncture it, fill it with digestive enzymes and sucks out the contents, according to Britannica.
These spiders are not aggressive and rarely bite humans but when they do, the venom can cause muscle spasms and paralysis of the diaphragm, and be fatal to very young children and elderly people.
A goldenrod crab spider is camouflaged on a yellow flower in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Crystal Ronan
The goldenrod crab spider can be hard to find because it perches on flowers and can change colours to blend in. Instead of making webs to catch prey, this fascinating spider waits for a bug to come by and attacks it, according to Spider Identifications. Diet and the environment impact the spider’s colour which can vary from yellow to pale green to white. Over the course of a few days the spider can change colour to better match the flower it is sitting on.
The wolf spider is named for its wolflike method of chasing and pouncing on prey, according to Britannica. Most species build tube-like nests in the ground and conceal the opening with litter. Some species hunt for prey while others wait for prey to pass their nest.
This spider is distinguished by its long, hairy body, fast running speed and thick legs. It can be identified by its eye arrangement, having four small eyes in the lowest row, two large ones in the middle and two medium ones on the top.
This wolf spider was spotted in Kelowna.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Trisha Conway
The trapdoor spider is distinguished by its large, bulky body, round abdomen and short, thick legs. This spider is known for digging a burrow into the ground and covering the opening with webbing. The timid spider hunts by grabbing insects as they pass its burrow opening and ducking back inside.
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Known for its ability to jump, the jumping spider is a tiny spider distinguished by two giant eyes on the front of its head and the ability to jump into the air and pounce on prey. This spider has better vision than most spiders and actively hunts during the day. Most kinds of jumping spider have very few hairs on their brightly coloured bodies.
The orb weaver spider is part of a large and widely distributed group of different spiders distinguished by their orb-shaped webs and bulky bodies. This spider is also known as a cat-faced spider and is the same kind of spider Charlotte is in the beloved children’s book Charlotte’s Web.
The orb spider is harmless and gentle, and can be seen in autumn building nests around porch lights.
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A trapdoor spider is found in Kelowna.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Tammy Anderson
This jumping spider was spotted in the South Okanagan.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Jacqueline McDonald
An orb weaver builds a web in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Lisa Larson
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