To ask you to help identify this spider?

[TheBoots]

Is this a false widow? It's guarding its eggs by the back door!

Not sure but marking my place to find out!

If it was by my back door it would be a dead spider that’s for certain.

Hard to tell from that angle. Can you get a photo from above it to show its markings on its back?

Yes, difficult to tell from the angle.

False widows tend to have a 'skull' patter on their backs.

Either way I just remove them and their webs.

No it isn’t a false widow

Even if it was, they aren’t inherently dangerous. The venom actually only damages you if you’re allergic to it.

If you can leave her, please do.

It’s not a false widow. Garden spider?

What a cutey. Looks like a Janice to me

I had one like that walk across my garage floor in the manner of Ray Winstone, rolling swagger, shoulders back, if it could have spoken it would have said awwight. Yikes! Obvs I ran away.

It’s a ‘common crab spider’

Like this one. If you see it moving , it may move sideways ie in a ‘crablike’ manoeuvre.

It looks like a crab spider. She's harmless, just guarding her babies. Please leave her alone. She'll be gone soon enough.

The photo is taken so the back is directly facing the camera, it's legs are crab like so it might look like the angle is a bit odd!! I don't intend to move it unless it's likely to bite, my toddler is at the "fascinated by bugs" stage and will probably try to poke her.

Aww please leave it alone, it's not doing any harm and will go away on it's own.

I'm not huge fan of spiders (they still give me the heebie jeebies) but they dont deserve to be squashed for just being alive. I get loads in my house due to living in a rural location but I find if I just leave them alone they disappear on their own quite quickly.

Dd got bitten by a false widow when she was about 2 (after I told her to leave it alone, not knowing what it was) The 111 people told me to take her to the hospital to get checked over, I did and she was fine.
If I see one of them I'll put it outside but all others just get left to do their thing.. I havent been in my outhouse for years because of them 🤣 theres tons!! 😱

Crab spider! Totally harmless, your new friend. Honestly the worry about false widows is massively overblown, these awful leg falling off stories are secondary infections that could be caused by any type of small injury or very rare allergies, really not something to be genuinely concerned about on a day to day basis it's vanishingly rare to have effects. Good story though and the Fail love it so unfortunately we're all worried about them, but really no need 🕷->pals

I'm not planning on squashing her, just potentially moving her and her thousands of offspring away from my door, especially if they're likely to bite!

It's a garden spider Araneus diadematus, if you look at her back you'll see a white dotted cross pattern. It's legs are in the crab like posture because it's egg guarding. She's beautiful and totally harmless, don't hurt her.

They definitely don't bite, unless you're a fly

Update: she moved.

False widows can vary in colour but have a characteristic skull like pattern. They are also much glossier than this.

99.9999% of spiders in the UK won't bite. They just want to be left alone to scrabble about on your washing hanging on the line overnight.