Spiders! - DIY Chatroom

Red Squirrel · 06-30-2009, 10:28 PM

The house I just bought seems to have a spider problem. There's webs all over and I see spiders often enough. I raided the whole basement, and also got the perimeter of the house sprayed, and I even sprayed myself as well. It seems to have worked.

What other things should I do to help keep spiders away?

It's a back split with a crawl space. I believe their main spot is in the mini crawlspace under the garage. Should I throw something in there like moth balls or something? Once I move in, I'm just concerned that if there are spiders around my cat might decide to snack on them, and those arn't healthy to eat.

This is a picture of one particular spider I found in the bathtub.

gma2rjc · 07-01-2009, 01:19 AM

I rented a duplex years ago that had spiders (harmless ones) everywhere and especially in the basement. Before I moved in I set off 3 aerosol bug bombs in the basement and 3 upstairs. It worked very well.

Did you use a macro lens on your camera to get that picture? That's a scarey looking spider.

Red Squirrel · 07-01-2009, 08:36 PM

Actually the pic was taken with a point and shoot camera. Probably one of the best pics I've ever taken upclose. Really come out good. It's a Sony dsc-w210.

So far I'm still not seeing spiders after my raid frenzy and the prefessional outside spraying, so I may be good! I only saw one spider today and it was practically dead.

lilypotter · 07-15-2009, 09:08 AM

First buy and spray Raid or Black Flag, or other commercially manufactured insect sprays suitable for domestic use.

Take an old stick, such as a broom handle (4-6 feet long) and tie or duct-tape a rag or towel on one end. This will form a slight ball. If you want, you can spray the rag with Raid or Black Flag; this would kill any live spiders that you pick up. This is not always necessary, since they will get wrapped in their own web anyway.
Use a towel end up, go into the rafters, corners, ceiling edges and other areas the webs are, and spin your new tool through the edges of their webs. Remember a web has to connect on the edges, so don't just go whipping through the middle.
Using a spin motion you wrap the web on the rag, and not just leave it hanging. When done throw the rag into the outside garbage.
Repeat this about every two months.

ARI001 · 07-15-2009, 10:19 AM

I read an article awhile back that recommended against using poison for spider control. The article said that pesticides where effective against some spiders but that wolf, black widows, and recluses where able to eat other insects and spiders (yes the eat carrion) that had been poisoned. In doing so they where developing immunity to various pesticides and increasing in population in the houses that where affected. The article recommended using glue traps to control spider populations and only using pesticides when spraying directly on the spider.

white29 · 07-15-2009, 11:25 AM

Be careful. That spider in your picture looks like it could be a Brown Recluse,and they pack a nasty bite. Google them and check out some of this as well as identification help. Good luck.

white29 · 07-15-2009, 11:29 AM

Try this link -www.brownreclusespider

ratherbefishin' · 07-15-2009, 12:23 PM

No, that's not a recluse. Several other spiders have color patterns that are similar, but the key is the eyes. Recluse has six eyes, not eight, arranged in pairs, one pair in front and one pair on each side. Bigger fangs, too.

We've got a lot of the ugly little buggers here, but they live up to their name and bites aren't very common.

Red, don't tell a Cambodian that spiders aren't healthy to eat. Look it up....

white29 · 07-15-2009, 03:10 PM

Ok ratherbefishin',sounds like you know your stuff. I'm happy to say that we don't have those ugly b#@!$%^ here in upstate NY. My daughter is in VA. and I hear they are common there,so I have looked into them some.