Harmless. It does not bite, sting or carry anything. It is a stored-food beetle that happens to be shaped like a spider, and finding one is a message about your cupboards rather than about you.
Size1.5–3.5 mm
MarkingsSix legs, not eight — it is a beetle, however spider-like it looks · Glossy, almost spherical reddish-brown to black body
WherePantries, dry stores, lofts and wall voids — anywhere with old dry food, birds' nests, or accumulated debris.
How to tell it apart
Six legs, not eight — it is a beetle, however spider-like it looks
Glossy, almost spherical reddish-brown to black body
Pale golden hairs on the head and legs, which can look like a collar
Long slender legs and long antennae held forward, adding to the spider impression
Small: 1.5–3.5 mm, roughly a pinhead
Where you’ll find it
Across the United States, and common in older buildings in particular.
Pantries, dry stores, lofts and wall voids — anywhere with old dry food, birds' nests, or accumulated debris.
How it behaves
It scavenges dry organic material — grain, spices, dried fruit, wool, droppings and old nest debris — and it does not need much of it. Slow moving and nocturnal, it plays dead when disturbed, which combined with the shape is why so many end up photographed and reported as spiders or ticks. Populations often trace back to something forgotten at the back of a cupboard or a bird's nest in the roof.
You’ve found one indoors
Look for the source rather than treating the room. Check the oldest packets in the pantry, anything spilled behind a shelf, and the loft for an old nest. Discard infested food, vacuum the shelving out, and store dry goods in sealed hard containers — they cannot get into glass or rigid plastic.
Common questions
Is this a spider or a tick?
Neither. Count the legs: a spider beetle has six, and both spiders and ticks have eight. It also has long forward-pointing antennae, which neither of those has at all.
Do spider beetles bite?
No. They feed on dry stored material and have no interest in people or animals.
Where are they coming from?
Usually one forgotten food source. Old flour, birdseed, dried fruit or pet food at the back of a cupboard, or an abandoned bird or wasp nest in the loft, will support a population for a long time.
Is the food they were in safe?
We identify, we don't give food-safety advice. They carry no disease, but infested dry goods are worth discarding on the same grounds as anything else that has had insects living in it.
Ben Jobson · CC-BY