I run Michigan Spiders and have seen it grow for four years now. I realized however, that there is one major flaw with Michigan Spiders. It is extremely limited. After all, it only helps those in one single state among fifty in the United States and that is still ignoring the rest of the world. During the Winter, Michigan Spiders will die out because spiders simply dont like our cold winters. Im sure it isnt anything personal. I dont blame them for not liking the cold. I dont either. Unfortunately, I love Michigan, so I am stuck living with the cold months. Still, this led me to realize that I needed to expand.
In the summer, I get several emails every day from people asking me to identify spiders. Most I can help, but there are always a few whose pictures just dont show enough for me to be of much help. With Summer slowly coming to an end and football starting up (YES!!!) .... sorry, I felt it was time to start putting together a blog/site where I can help people from across all fifty states and even other countries. So comes the beginning of Spiders Guide.
There will not be much on it at first. Believe me, I will continue to add to it as I get the chance. I will use pictures sent to me from readers, so please send me high quality pics okay? lol
I want to be up front from the start. I am not a trained expert. I have no degree and am not an entomologist or anything the like. Four years ago I knew very little about spiders. Curiosity about one spider got me to look it up and it bothered me how little info there was at the time. So I created Michigan Spiders and every time I found a spider I looked it up and added it to the blog. As time passed, the blog grew and more people sent in pictures. For no other reason than wishing to create a place for others to get the info I had a hard time finding, I learned a lot about spiders.
My spider identification will be from knowledge of looks and characteristics and webs. This is a flawed ID because the only 100% ID for many types of spiders is to have a real expert dissect it. That is far beyond my abilities. But if I am not confident in my ID, I will let you know. If I make a mistake and learn about it, I will post it and/or reply to the original email and clear up my mistake.
So starting right away, if you have a spider you want identified or just wish to ask a question, feel free to email me and I will help as much as I can. I still need to create a new email for Spidersguide, so for now, feel free to send it to MichiganSpiders@hotmail.com and please post what state you are from. I will answer it as soon as I can.
And please be patient as I slowly add content. It is absolutely definitely coming. Until then, feel free to check out Michigan Spiders to get a taste of what I am about.