Several different spiders are called 'banana spider', hence the reason for unique scientific names.

today we had to clean up a mineral oil spill
from a regulator. anyhow there was a spider like that
it had a web going from the fence to the power pole.
I asked my foreman what kind they call it, it was
like that one but i didnt know what you call it. he said garden/banana spider too. Also saw about half a dozen maybe seven
other spiders come out of the ground where we had to do
some excavating.

Used to run through those webs all the time when I was a kid in Ks. Was mowing the yard last year and didn't notice this one until I turned to the right, it was about 6" from my face. I about dirtied my draws.

Also I think an actual Banana Spider is brown and deadly. At least that's what I remember from the discovery channel.

most us coutry boys did

I also call them bannanner spiders...use to run into them when I'de hit my golf ball in the OB.

I had one of those on my screen near my pool. Scared the hell outta me when I first ran into it while putting mulch down. It stayed there for about a month, and it had that unique web as well.

i saw this one in frisco a few weeks ago, it was about as big as a baseball

I found out they were harmless after walking into one's web one day. I was brushing the web off my shirt and I looked over at my shoulder, and one about as big as a dinner plate was on me right next to my face! I know I screamed like a little girl and ran a faster 100 than Usain Bolt trying to get away from it! Found out from a co-worker they were harmless when I was drying the pee stain.

Definitely a garden spider; however, a lot of old timer's would refer to them as banana spiders or a "write-your-name" (always pronounced write-cha-name) spider because of their ornate web making ability that is said to be able to form letters and even words (doubtful). Anhyoo, the real banana spider, the infamously poisonous kind, is known as a Brazilian Huntsman spider...luckily it isn't found here in TX. Like someone else said above, I used to shoot a lot of these with my Daisy bb gun and make their abdomen ooze out a mustard like substance. Either that or feed them big grasshoppers and watch them do their thing rolling them up in their web and bite them to liquefy their internal tissue...ah the joys of the animal kingdom.

banana spider. harmless if you leave it alone.
they catch alot of bugs.

I like getting close to those spiders and watching them swing/shake their web violently to scare me.

I have walked headlong into many a garden spider's web in the south texas brush country while deer hunting. I know they're harmless but still jump around, flail my arms and squeal like a 6 year old girl on a water slide, every time!

Oh, and the reason I've done it repeatedly is because, when I'm moving, I've always got my eyes on the ground for rattlers.

spiders cause sharts.