Garden Spider

[Kia]

Is this the giant orb weaver/giant garden spider?
His body is about 15mm long.
He's spun a web about 10" diameter just below my OH's wing mirror. There are some very long "guy wires" from the web to the ground.
The pic is from "underneath" (so-to-speak, as he is hanging vertical), the ones I took from "above" over exposed unfortunately (I will get the hang of this camera lark one day).

Edit to add: This is in the midlands UK

[Dogghound]

I dont think there is a species known as a giant orb weaver in the UK. Although its easier if the photo shows the other side, I would say with some confidence that this is Araneus diadematus the garden spider.

[Kia]

This is the (rather poor) shot of the other side.

[aeshna5]

Agree with Dogghound it's a female A. diadematus.

[Kia]

Thanks,
She's still there, OH is off work right now and so hasn't had to move his car. Overnight she has respun the web.

[Venger]

They respin their web everyday, eating the old one, it takes them around an hour or so, fun to watch if you have an hour to spare

[Kia]

The last two days she has spun her web perpendicular to the car with long "guy wires" (probably in excess of 1 metre) to the ground.
Unfortunately, yesterday her web got damaged, although she hung out on the wing mirror instead.
Today she has spun it on an angle between the wing mirror and car door (much more stable).

When we went out earlier she had herself a good meal of a fly. She raised her front legs at us, when she sensed us nearby, so we left her be and went to the shop.
When we got home she was still chowing down and I got a couple of pics.


Now, as a spider-phobe, I'm strangely quite attached to this creature, and I have a couple of concerns and a lot of questions.

First my concerns are that we are supposedly getting 10 days worth of rain tomorrow. Will she be OK? Is there anything we can do to help protect her?

Then my questions:
How long is she likely to live?
How long is she likely to keep re-spinning her web in the same location?
Could I handle her? What is the best/correct way?
Can/would she bite me?
Can I keep her? How?

[Venger]

She'll be fine with the rain, they always have a retreat to go back to, she can survive without feeding for quite a while.

1: In normal conditions she'll die with the first winter frosts, though some survive quite late depending on their retreats (some can be quite snug and cosy)

2: She'll alter her web placement depending on prey capture (as I mentioned earlier, she'll make a new web everyday - if the prey capture is good she'll hang around the same area for a while, though not always)

3: For handling I'd leave her be, you'll only stress her out (she's more likely to view you as a predator, that's when bites happen)

4: She can bite, but only in self defence. They aren't really interested in us at all, her venom is for insects not people.

5: You can keep them in your greenhouse or conservatory, they'll need plants to build on of course and you'll have to provide food for them (flies, beetles and such) - don't let them get to hot though, or you could encourage it onto a large outdoor pot plant and build a framework with netting (don't forget to remove the netting to allow feeding to happen.)

Hopefully, you'll be able to observe them for a while - you might be able to acquire an egg sac later on in the year and keep that in the conservatory - the spiderling's will stay snug during the winter and will hatch in spring.

[Kia]

Thank you.

There she stays then, as we live in a ground floor flat, thus no garage/conservatory/etc.
If she moves off on her own before OH goes back to work, then so be it. Otherwise, if she's still here, we'll try and get her to move to the large bush in the front garden.