I have a garden apartment and it is filled with spiders. What should I do?
I also have a cat, but he is only interested in playing with them.
I’d eliminate the curds and whey from your diet for a while.
OK, seriously, you don’t really need to do anything. Spiders aren’t going to hurt you and they’re eating all the other insects in your apartment. But if they really squick you out, then you’re going to have to figure out how they’re getting in and what they’re feeding on. Plug up the holes and eliminate the food sources. Make sure you don’t have holes in your window screens. Caulk where it needs caulking.
Personally, I wouldn’t spray simply because the chemicals are probably slightly more harmful to you than the spiders are. But I suppose you could lay down a barrier of chemicals right outside your door and windows and along the foundation if you feel the situation merits it.
I have had 3 bites already, they itch like heck and last along time. Then I read some stuff about the Brown Recluse! :eek: I am thinking better safe then sorry. I just don’t want to wake up with a big spider bite on my face.
How about if you get one of these cute little guys? Get a young one though, they get more and more herbivorous as they age.
You know, I was thinking about lizards. I figure I would need a lot of them. The cat would eat them I’m sure.
Some how I think I would feel better waking up with a lizard on my face rather than a spider!
UMMMmmm most spiders aren’t dangerous - even though the only thing I remember from Zoology is that all spiders are toxic - but if you’re being bitten, you need to fix this problem. Sorry to tell you but you seem to have an infestation or breeding problem. Spiders can’t live long without a food source, so you’re probably growing a new crop all the time. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t attempting to use you as a food source. Next time you are bitten, catch the spider (or a similar one) and go to the doctor and let them figure out if it’s poisonous. Several spiders aren’t, but you may be allergic so talk to the doc. Or don’t wait for the next bite and just take a spider to your County Extension Office or the equivalent and let them have a look at it.
Linkety link link - Scroll down for info on how to get rid of spiders.
Rule 1 - Stop running a halfway house for spiders. Or Clean clean clean. Wash down walls and vacuum everything. Make sure everything is put away and closed up when not in use. Get rid of clutter. No more spider hidey-holes.
Rule 2 - Stop feeding them. No dishes out overnight. Garbage taken out daily. Cat food sealed and cat bowl taken up when cat is done eating.
Rule 3 - Keep them out. Re-chalk your doors and windows so they can’t sneak back in.
Good luck - I have to go have a massive attack of the willies now. <<shudder>>
Did you see what bit you?
The reason you have so many spiders is because you have a lot of prey – meaning other insects… some of which are far more likely to bite you than a spider.
I hear people complain that they have “spider bites” all the time, but none can say they actually saw the “spider” that bit them. I suggest it’s fleas or lice or mites or bedbugs.
But then, nobody wants to admit that their homes harbor fleas or lice or mites or bedbugs, so the poor spiders get blamed.
IMO, spiders are to pest insects as cats are to rodents. Be happy you have spiders!
Rule 1 - Stop running a halfway house for spiders. Or Clean clean clean. Wash down walls and vacuum everything. Make sure everything is put away and closed up when not in use. Get rid of clutter. No more spider hidey-holes.
Good advice, however I am not really that filthy no real clutter. I do not wash the wall often. Does that actually help?
Rule 2 - Stop feeding them. No dishes out overnight. Garbage taken out daily. Cat food sealed and cat bowl taken up when cat is done eating.
Do spiders eat my food and cat food?
Rule 3 - Keep them out. Re-chalk your doors and windows so they can’t sneak back in.
Good luck - I have to go have a massive attack of the willies now. <<shudder>>
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I am not so happy to have my cat sometimes (that will be another post). It will be hard to be happy about spiders.
What product would be safe and effective?
The question bughunter asked of you above is highly relevant: Is it the spiders that are biting you? Thing is, if it isn’t the spiders biting you, it could be your little arachnoid friends are saving you from pruritic Hell. Now what little buggers are out there that we know cause itchyness? Well, fleas for one. You have a cat, yes? Does the cat go outside? Do you bathe the cat and/or change its flea collar regularly?
Of course I don’t know if your cat (or you) is carrying fleas, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility. As noted above, spiders don’t live on air, and I don’t think they’re much interested in leftover food. They likes bugses, precious. Sweet, juicy bugses. We thinks you have bugses, which the spiders eats, precious. Nice spiders. Wouldn’t hurt the nice bat312, would they precious? Oh no, we don’t thinks so. No, just the nassssty bugses! We’re saving them for Her*!
*spider reference…it’s a Tolkien geek thing.
As far as I know fleas etc do not leave bite marks the size of these. I do not see any bugs, just spiders.
I think it is spiders, not bugs.
What is the deal with all you spider lovers anyway?
It’s not so much that we love spiders as it is that we hate rain.
I have at least a dozen spiders outside my window that I can see while typing on my computer. They are really cool: fighting each others, capturing food, sucking up juice from captured insects, making those nice spiderweb. They really like it there because there is a lamp and it attracts the bad bugs to the window. I just wish they could be more of the bigger ones. When I capture spiders in my house, I release them in the wild and wish them good luck 
.
What is not to love in eight legs, eight eyes and fangs???
Although I appreciate the worthiness of spiders in the circle of life, and I have a very large spider right outside my window that I watch with great interest and affection, they are NOT welcome in my home.
I kill spiders and all other creatures that enter my house uninvited. I simply don’t want them near my kids. Remind me sometime to tell you the story of the snake that I beat with a hoe and ran over with my car after it slithered into the hallway outside my daughter’s room.
My advice: capture, torture, and kill as many spiders as you can, and put their heads up on toothpicks in the ground outside as a warning, in true “Heart of Darkness” fashion.
Bug-bomb your apartment and THEN clean it and caulk it thoroughly. If the bug-bomb doesn’t kill the spiders, it will at least kill the bugses…err…bugs that the spiders like to eat.
It is unlikely that a spider bit you since their fangs are too small to penetrate your skin. When a spider does bite you, you tend to get sicker than you seem to have been. You can check this site to see if your bites look like these. Warning, these pictures are gross.
If you actually see a spider on you, biting you, put it in a jar and take it to your doctor to find out if the bites are really a health risk. However, if you think about it, spiders have no reason to bite you unless you are aggressing them. They can’t eat you (unlike fleas, mosquitoes, etc., who have something to gain by battening down on you), and envenomating you is a waste of their biologically precious toxins. Two little itchy bites that you have described are probably not from spiders.
It’s also pretty hard to kill spiders with pesticides. Apparently you have to spray the eggs or the spiders themselves to have any effect on them, since they don’t nest and can’t be lured by food the way other pests can. I have to recommend you check our your house to see what all these spiders are eating. Remember, you and the spiders have the same goal: eliminating the bugs in your house. Work with them!
Emphasis added above.
Spiders are NOT insects; they’re arachnids. The only spiders which do not exclusively prey on insects are biiiig ones (like tarantulas, frex).
Like most everyone has said, there must be some kind of insects - even if they’re only dust and hair mites - in fairly generous quantities - living in your apartment. If you “flea-bomb” the apt, you will probably get rid of both predators and prey.
When I was a kid, I was scared of spiders, and that didn’t wear off until I was in my 30s somewhere… About the time I realized the role the spiders played vis a vis bugs (which I have never gotten over hating). I’ll kill spiders if they get in my way, but not if they’re just going about their business.
I personally have had good luck with just knocking down the spider’s webs. They seem to go someplace else (like outside my house into my garden) if they have their creations destroyed on a daily basis. I have two cats and they never kill a spider either but quite often they do catch one and play with it; several times I have found a limp, damp item on my carpet which at first I think is a thread, but upon picking it up find it is a spider that’s been played nearly to death…ugh.
Mites aren’t insects either. In fact, like the spiders, they’re arachnids.
Growing up in a house full of spiders (my mom actively encourages them), I did occasionally get what we presumed to be a spider bite: They certainly weren’t flea or mosquito bites, as we all got plenty of those and recognized them. But that was perhaps a half-dozen bites over the course of about 20 years. A small price to pay, I think, for all the bugses they ate in that time.
And Loopydude, that was friggin’ hilarious.
Thanks! 
It seemed appropriate, somehow…