Spiders

[theoldwizard1]

They sell "bug bombs" at all of the big box store. 2-4 in a large open building (garage/shop). Close the windows open them up and LEAVE THE BUILDING. Stay out for at least 12 hours. This will only last 3-6 months.

 

[Max78]

We were down in Mexico at the beach house sitting on the back porch one night. We are about 4 hours away from any real hospital. My wife got got blurry vision in one of her eyes, took her glasses off wiped them clean and we continued to sit there. Blurry vision again and she felt something between her face and glasses right around her eye. She freaked out, threw her glasses off and ran away. I grabbed the flash light and searched the area and found the biggest black widow I have ever seen climbing back up its web into the palm leaf porch. . . . I'm all for the daddy long legs and let them be, but the widows recluse spiders get dead immediately.

 

[FrancisJ]

Brown recluse is a dangerous spider and will bite if you cross their paths - been there done that in OK and TX. Have not seen any here in NC and VA. Not fatal, but you will end up in a hospital. Snakes in garages, barns, etc are worse - I’ve been dealing with copperheads, rattlers (e.g. canebreak) and cotton mouths recently — the latter WILL even strike tires on big *** tractors when provoked, chase same if you enter into their “territory”. Unbelievable seeing/experiencing it “live action” , in person, up close.

 

[Ricky Joe]

I live in Australia and the brown recluse sounds way scarier than anything we have here, except maybe funnel webs. The last confirmed death from a spider bite here was in 1979.

Personally I don't really like spiders but only the big ones really freak me out, like Huntsman's *shudder*

Brown recluse is a dangerous spider and will bite if you cross their paths - been there done that in OK and TX. Have not seen any here in NC and VA. Not fatal, but you will end up in a hospital. Snakes in garages, barns, etc are worse - I’ve been dealing with copperheads, rattlers (e.g. canebreak) and cotton mouths recently — the latter WILL even strike tires on big *** tractors when provoked, chase same if you enter into their “territory”. Unbelievable seeing/experiencing it “live action” , in person, up close.

I live in Roanoke and have seen brown recluse spiders. The son of the fiddle player in our band was bitten by one on the leg. It rotted the flesh away to the bone. Terrible thing to see.

 

[glentre]

The spiders themselves are not as much a problem as the droppings they produce. When that **** gets on the floor or shelves, it is about impossible to remove. Anyone have a trick to clean that stuff up?

Glen

 

[CombatNinja]

Baby wipes take spider poop off most anything easily.

 

[mogandave]

I was bitten by an eyerly spider, almost lost a finger.

Cat's are good at getting spiders...

 

[Jackfre]

I went out to the shop the other day to open the doors and get a little cool air in there. It was about 5AM so very low light and I turned on only one bank of lights. As I swung one of the doors in I saw a large BW on the bottom panel of the door. Impulsiveness being one of my most used traits I lashed out at it with my foot. I had half socks on and Birkenstocks. In the low light a black target on a black sock I could have sworn that spider jumped onto my foot. Now, normally a Birk will fall off. Not this time. The damn thing was welded to my foot. I returned to the house and my wife asked what i was doing out there as she had seen me careening around the shop through the window. She got a good laugh as I described my “dance of death” as I panicked trying to get a spider off my foot. it was largely a question of whether I was killed by a spider or from the equipment I was bouncing off. So very proud as I prove once again that life is a humbling experience. This morning I got the mate in the same spot but I was smarter this time. I used the other foot.

 

[engineer2]

In late summer we get barn spiders, not every year and some years are worse than other. Scary looking, they supposedly bite, but it's fairly harmless.
They are orb-weaving spiders and colors may vary by region.

 

[PassnThru]

I went dove hunting with a friend on his land one day and I was looking for a good place to set up in the tree line. I found a good spot - slightly recessed with a bit of tree overhang. Only problem was - there was a huge garden spider that beat me there. I'm not deathly afraid of spiders - I go in my crawl space all the time knowing they are there. But putting my back a few inches to that spider just didn't sit well with me.
So I've killed a spider with a 12 gauge.
It's kind of funny to tell people that without the whole story since the joke is to burn the house down if you see a spider.
Why would you burn your house down? You don't have a shotgun?

 

[aggie113]

In the house I have one spider rule: "I seez you, I killz you". In the garage I just lay down sticky pads that collect various things including some spiders, but rafters are at 18ft so no way they aren't living the high life.

 

[RPH]

Just get a bigger one and it takes care of the little stuff.

 

[2mJps]

I was at a machine shop along time ago when there were alot of people getting bite by brown reciuses. A older guy walked in and was ask were he had been he said he filled his bath tub and started to get in . He was about to set down. when he felt some thing there was a spider on top of the water it bit him on his test.. He drove him sell to the hospital i dont think he had much problems with the bite.

 

[engineer2]

I have a new garage pet. Beautiful orb web. It's going to be slim pickings for food inside my garage, so I might relocate it.

 

[zippyslug31]

When we built the house and barn we saw a ton of Widows. Enough to make us really pause and ask ourselves if moving to our location was smart or not. That first summer I had Widows in the barn, around the foundation of the house, in the wood pile, inside the house, garage, etc. It was a nightmare. After some research, I started applying Talstar PL granular insecticide around the entire structure (both barn and house) using a hand-held lawn spreader. After the granules, I blast the foundations and every door opening with Bifen IT (mixed per the directions). I do this treatment every few months during the warmer times of the year.
My results: night and day. I might see a couple male Widows (small and light colored) around but almost no females (normal black one with the distinctive markings) somewhat close to the buildings, but none inside.
I've also noticed that our friendly Western Fence lizard population is pretty healthy around here and can only assume they eat Widows, but not sure about that.
What I also assume is part of the reason for fewer numbers: simply because we aren't building anymore. That first year was really bad but the disturbed grounds seemed to stir them up. Now with things much quieter - and with the insecticide plus lizards - we hardly seem them anymore.