So many spiders
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DanCorcoran
Minister of Fire
Ram 1500 with an axe...
Minister of Fire
Roundgunner
Feeling the Heat
I have more wolf spiders this year than ever before. Got bit by one a few days ago before I even knew I pissed him off.
This guy hung around for a couple days but took off for better hunting grounds, or maybe the taxes were too high.
This guy hung around for a couple days but took off for better hunting grounds, or maybe the taxes were too high.
TreePointer
Minister of Fire
There does seem to be a bumper crop this year.
I sqished a big hairy one in the barn today--almost slipped in the remaining goo.
I sqished a big hairy one in the barn today--almost slipped in the remaining goo.
Mt Bob
Minister of Fire
Soundchasm
Minister of Fire
I guess if there are spiders, then there isn't some other creature(s) over-populating your stacks. Maybe you need some garter snakes?
A year or two back there was a spider who was a shade bigger than I'm comfortable with in the house. I stepped on it, and it looked like pepper sprayed everywhere. "What?", I thought. Then all of the pepper hauled ass out of sight. Those were her babies. Uh-oh...
A year or two back there was a spider who was a shade bigger than I'm comfortable with in the house. I stepped on it, and it looked like pepper sprayed everywhere. "What?", I thought. Then all of the pepper hauled ass out of sight. Those were her babies. Uh-oh...
Fred Wright
Minister of Fire
They have been bad this year for some reason. I'm seeing cobwebs all in the wood stacks.
My granddaddy had wolf spiders in his garage every year when we were kids. He used a water soluble mix that killed them. Put it in a portable garden sprayer and sprayed it around the garage. I don't know what it was but it worked.
My granddaddy had wolf spiders in his garage every year when we were kids. He used a water soluble mix that killed them. Put it in a portable garden sprayer and sprayed it around the garage. I don't know what it was but it worked.
Paulywalnut
Minister of Fire
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
velvetfoot
Minister of Fire
hockeypuck
Feeling the Heat
Roadgunner
A spider bit you and it can live to talk about it? You must be trying to attain Ghandi status.
A spider bit you and it can live to talk about it? You must be trying to attain Ghandi status.
Roundgunner
Feeling the Heat
No that spider did not bite me. I'm not sure what kind even got me because I swatted it before I looked, I thought it was a hornet sting but after the fact the flesh around the bite died away so I assume it was a spider bite. Still itches and looks bad, must have been a big ugly one right?
gyrfalcon
Minister of Fire
Agree. Helps to know your local spiders, too. Most are non-venomous, so learn which ones to watch out for. Other than that, I leave 'em alone outside, but I do dispatch them indoors.
DanCorcoran
Minister of Fire
If I can get to them indoors, I just put a clear drinking glass over them, slide a thin piece of stiff cardboard under the glass, and relocate the spiders outside, as part of the witness relocation program.
Same with all creepy-crawlies...I figure they're doing their job, just in the wrong place. (Of course I spray the house perimeter and openings with a food-prep area safe insecticide, which keeps my workload down.)
velvetfoot
Minister of Fire
I got bit by a spider in the basement on 7/3. It got redder and bigger as the days went by. I relied on GP for advice: mistake. From him I got two courses of antibiotics (no effect), lyme test (negative), mrsa test (negative), and finally, a recommendation to a surgeon to cut out the middle of it. The surgeon admitted that cutting was not necessary and that it probably was a spider bite. That deep wound is still oozing-nothing to do with the spider bite. Still have to put dressing on it and no swimming. Area around bite still red. I should've never seen that GP, but he's a medical professional, right? Shouldn't have had anything done. Moral of my story: mis-diagnosis is bad and, maybe, post on the Wood Shed as opposed to the Inglenook when it comes to spiders.
gyrfalcon
Minister of Fire
Good idea on the food-prep insecticide. Is there a particular brand? I've been reluctant to use even borax anywhere a critter, including one of my cats, might possibly get into.
If the spider indoors is a spider that's supposed to be outdoors, I'll relocate them if I can catch them. (Same with wasps and the like.) But if it's one of the two kinds of indoor spiders I get around here, I figure that's either self-defeating for me since they'll just come back in, or a death sentence for them anyway if they can't, and better they should die quickly.
Sounds silly to most people, but I actually do worry about this stuff. I once met somebody who'd spent time at the Dalai Lama's residence and immediately asked him what the Dalai Lama's household did about spiders and mice, and he said they kill them (snap traps only for mice) without hesitation. I felt slightly better about it after getting that information, but I still don't like it.
DanCorcoran
Minister of Fire
I use Talstar (see link: http://www.fmcprosolutions.com/Pest...miticides/TalstarProfessionalInsecticide.aspx). In addition to the house perimeter, I use it on the wooden piers under the cabin, since it is a termiticide and is also listed for carpenter ants. The label specifies it can be used on wood piles, if you allow 30 days (as I recall) before burning. I buy it either at a local feed-and-seed store or on Amazon.
My first choice, however, is always relocation of individual undesirables (including snakes, mice, squirrels, etc.). We had squirrels in the attic after first moving here...they had gotten in through a couple of vertical vents on our flat roof, which hadn't been screened. Realizing that just screening the vents would trap the squirrels and result in a horrible smell, I came up with fiendish plan: I opened one vent completely, then lowered two loudspeakers down the other vent. I played Jimi Hendrix' Woodstock version of the Star Spangled Banner at full volume for 30 minutes. No more squirrels. I sealed the vents with hardware cloth and have lived happily ever after.
My first choice, however, is always relocation of individual undesirables (including snakes, mice, squirrels, etc.). We had squirrels in the attic after first moving here...they had gotten in through a couple of vertical vents on our flat roof, which hadn't been screened. Realizing that just screening the vents would trap the squirrels and result in a horrible smell, I came up with fiendish plan: I opened one vent completely, then lowered two loudspeakers down the other vent. I played Jimi Hendrix' Woodstock version of the Star Spangled Banner at full volume for 30 minutes. No more squirrels. I sealed the vents with hardware cloth and have lived happily ever after.
gyrfalcon
Minister of Fire
Hah! That'll teach 'em. I did a much cruder version, just banged like hell on the wall where I was hearing the scrabbling before getting the little hole in the eaves patched up. My cats are not so tolerant, though, of squirrels, mice or even rats.
Thanks for the rec on the insecticide. I'll look for it at my ag store. Nice thing about being this far north, no termites. But I'm heartily sick of battling the yearly invasion of various kinds of ants into the kitchen in early summer. Maybe this will help. My house is an 1860s farmhouse, so impossible to seal up all the little cracks and crannies. Don't care about bugs in the wood stacks, though. If I see a spider egg sack on a piece I'm about to bring in the house, I just scrape it off. Otherwise, eh, the hell with it. Life is too short.
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