Spiders, spiders everywhere!! Or, well, maybe not everywhere, but in more places than they need to be in my house. I’m not generally creeped out by spiders at all, but I was bitten on Sunday night, and last night I actually found the squashed spider lurking in a sheet. I’m washing every single sheet, pillow, pillowcase, mattress cover, blanket, curtain, rug (okay, you get the idea) in the bedroom, and I set off an insect fogger and closed the doors and left the house (over at my brother’s house right now.) so, two questions, actually.
Is it actually safe to sleep in a bedroom that’s been foggedearlier that day? The packaging doesn’t say anything about it NOT being safe, and it just says to not go in for three hours and then air it out, but… well… I do worry about these things…
What’s the best way to get rid of spiders? I’ve never really had a spider problem before, but this is a big spider area, and pretty much Brown Recluse Central (Tennessee, I mean). I saw a couple of spiders in corners in my house and didn’t kill them right away, and I guess this is what I get… (I kept the squashed spider, but it’s so squashed that there’s no way I can tell what it was.) No more spider welcome mats for me!!! I’ve heard mock oranges can work really well, and in about a month they will be everywhere, but it’s not quite the right season yet.
Yes, it’s safe to sleep in your house… after you air it out well, that is. I would wash the dishes, though.
Regarding the brown recluse, here is an interesting article regarding the aggressiveness (or rather lack thereof) of the little guys. It’s actually more about the lack of brown recluses in CA, but about halfway through he goes into how WAY overstated the danger of them really is.
I’m airing it out as well as I can, considering that most of the windows are stuck shut and almost none of them have screens on them. The fogger was in just one room, and the door was closed, as the packaging directed. There weren’t any dishes. I will wash every surface in the room with Murphy’s Oil Soap tonight.
That was quite the black widow spider story…
Interesting article, although it mostly seemed to be a weird rant about people in California obsessing about brown recluse spiders. There’s all KINDS of brown recluse paranoia in Tennessee, and there are good reasons for it here, so it doesn’t have to be irrational. Note about picking up brown recluses with your fingers: do NOT try this at home!!
Hate to break this to you, but the fogger was way more dangerous than the spiders. Research has proven that you can live in a house with thousands of brown recluses and never be bitten. And the vast majority of real brown recluse bites clear up on their own with minimal medical intervention. The horrific serious cases you hear about are practically all cases where the person never actually saw the spider that supposedly bit them, but just believed in the widespread superstition “if you didn’t see what bit you, it was a spider.” Sound familiar?
The fact that you found a spider near where you got the “bite” means nothing. You can always find a spider anywhere you really look for one. The idea that spiders will bite people in bed is just another one of the many urban legends about them. For a spider to bite a human the spider has to be standing on the human because the spider’s fangs are on its underside! Rolling over on top of a spider = probably no bite for you.
The vast majority of reported or diagnosed “brown recluse bites” (even in states like yours where the spiders really do exist) are really something else, often something more serious. Medical journals are full of reports on the epidemic of “spider bite” misdiagnosis. Here’s a popular summary on the problem from the American Medical Association.
Now to get back to your original question. Insecticides really don’t have that much effect on spiders because (surprise, surprise) spiders aren’t insects and these poisons aren’t formuated specifically for spider toxicity. Most household products will kill a spider that’s directly sprayed but beyond that, not much residual effect. What actually works if you want fewer spiders in your living spaces is physical modification of the structure: weatherstrip under doors (not just those to the outside but also or especially those to garage and basement), stuff rags around pipes where they penetrate walls and floor, seal cracks along baseboards, screen over vents, etc. etc.
All this is also good advice. Sticky traps will kill a lot more spiders than pesticide, but physical modification is still the more permanent solution. Having a cat is always an excellent thing (you can tell I’m a cat lover :)) but don’t predicate that on spider control; no more than half the cats I know show any interest in spiders. Of my two, Mistress Tina lives a life of idle ease while Macavity largely specializes in hunting roof rats.
I can say from experience that Ortho Home Defense Max works very well against spiders and creepy crawlies.
Ortho Home Defense is odorless (great for me!) and is safe for pets and kids after being allowed to dry for an hour. Stuff works indoors for up to a year and outdoors for at least 4 months.
And, it really WORKS! I spray a barrier anywhere I think bugs will try to get in and this stuff kills 'em for as long as the bottle says. It even works after a heavy rain! I still reapply it (no sense in taking chances on spiders!) but I probably don’t have to.
The last place I lived had a HORRIBLE spider problem and I used this stuff there and got rid of the spiders. There are some that seem to be able to get around the barrier, but all of them that did were those awful jumping spiders, so they probably jumped over the barrier. Once I saw them, though, I sprayed them and they would die quickly.
I would also be far more worried about being in a space which has been filled with pesticide than I would be of the pests. The fear of spiders is irrational. I’ve been there, studied them, and discovered that they are incredible, and that my fear was never justified.
The spiders will come back. You can’t get rid of them - unless you want to live permanently in a poisonous fog. Given your chance of ever suffering due to their presence is very small, the obvious answer is to learn about them and thus discover that your fear is not justified. Go back to the way you were before the bite. Even better, learn to love them and enjoy your mini wildlife!
I live in a 160 year old Tennessee farmhouse and have plenty of spiders (useless cats aren’t interested). I pretty much leave them alone. Sometimes I’ll see them in the bathtub and relocate them outside before I accidently drown them. THere was a black widow with a big eggsac beneath my mailbox, so I moved her and the sac to some tall grass in the field across the road. She didn’t threaten me and tried to hide to get away from the Stick of Doom.
Fleas, on the other hand, will be killed if at all possible. Miserable things.
Can I recommend hedge apples? There’s some disagreement over how well they work, but they really seem to keep my house spider-free. I went from finding a spider at least every other day to one every few months.
I don’t know where you live, but at least in the midwest and mid-south, you can find them (hedge apples, not spiders) growing in the country in the fall, or you can buy them online. I just put them in little pie tins under the bed and behind furniture, and they work great. No need to worry about dangerous pesticides, either.
My cats are useless when it comes to spider control. They just meow at them. Trying to make friends, I guess.
I used to live in a spider-infested apartment - they came in from the garden outside. I put bayleaf (dried bayleaf that you buy in any food store) in little pouches where the spiders entered, like windows and vents. Didn’t see one single spider after that. Supposedly, bayleaf and chestnut contain a chemical that spiders really don’t like.
People will tell you it’s safe. Thalidomide was doctor-recommended for pregnant women. Love Canal passed building inspections. The Titanic was called unsinkable.
Keep in mind many pesticides build up in tissues over time. Safe at one dose level may be different after a few years of accumulation, and you never know who else sprayed what chemical next door.
Air it out, wash dishes, bed linens, and clothes, and I personally would shampoo the carpets.
Ever hear of the placebo effect? Few spiders show any sign of being able to smell any airborne odors whatever, and none have been shown to be able to detect aromatic plant products like these. Spiders make webs on fallen “hedge apples” and on the osage-orange trees they come from.
But to be sure, any product whatever, be it fruit, leaf or pesticide, that is supposed to “keep spiders from coming in” will work just fine — because spiders (with the occasional exception) don’t actually come in from outside! House spiders and outdoor spiders are different species, at least in North America. 95% of the spiders in a house have been in or under the building since they were eggs. I’m not totally unsympathetic to people who can’t stand seeing spiders around, but I’m telling you for your own good, what actually works is physical modification (see my first post in this thread) as a permanent solution, and sticky traps as a stopgap measure.
I am, however, totally unsympathetic to the “nuke 'em from orbit” folks. If you had a magic wish, would you wish for all spiders to suddenly disappear? Be careful what you wish for! Watch this video if you dare (warning, not for the squeamish). This is real, not a horror movie. This is what would happen everywhere, all the time, in real life (involving thousands of insect species that, among them, can eat literally anything organic) if it weren’t for spiders. Spider populations are all that stands between us and the probable end of all land vertebrate life on earth. Respect them!
In all seriousness, though, I heard this right after I got a bunch of hedge apples. I don’t doubt it. I have done no controlled experiments, so I can’t say either way. But, it makes me feel better, and does seem to have an effect. Plus, I enjoy driving around the countryside looking for them (hedge apples, not spiders.) Maybe I should stop preaching my placebo to others, though.
My main problem in my house is wolf spiders. Are they house spiders? I’ve seen them outside, too. I respectfully request that if they’re indoors, they stay under the house, or in the shed. Bed and shower are strictly off-limits.
About the respect and not nuking them from orbit (I think that’s a joke.) I totally agree. The easiest thing for me to do would be to take a shoe to any monsters I find in my shower, but I don’t want to do that. I know spiders are good, and I’d really rather not kill any living thing. I’m trying, in earnest, to get rid of my fear of them. Until I get to the point where I don’t mind them sleeping on my pillow, though, I’m going to have to stick with hedge apples and a prayer.
Yes, nuke 'em from orbit is a joke. I know spiders play a mostly beneficial role in the ecosystem and I usually leave them alone but if I find one of those giant wolf spiders in my bathroom all bets are off!
I am mostly spider phobic but I do think the spiny orb weavers look cool, but they aren’t very spidery looking and have the good sense to never come into my home.
If you have spiders on your bed, and this will creep you out, they didn’t crawl up on your bed. Most likely they were on the ceiling and then they spun a web from the ceiling and lowered theselves down.
Spiders don’t want you. They want bugs. This is why they like screens, because bugs come in through holes (tiny holes) in screens. They put their web there, they get bugs and you get a fly free house.
I saw a study once about brown recluses in St. Louis. They found recluses in 80 % of the houses they checked. But it is still rare to be bitten.
On the other hand, a guy I play racketball with was bitten years ago. He has flare ups. Every couple years he develops a redness that looks much like the bite he had recurring. That process has going on for 10 years.
When I was a kid a quarter inch long wooly looking spider climbed up on my hand. It worked it’s way along my arm until it got near my elbow. Then it gave me an extremely painful bite. I threw it off and went to the bathroom and washed it off with cold water for a couple minutes. Then I went back and hunted that prick. he was going to be squished. Never found him, but small brown wooly spiders that cross my path have been paying the price for him ever since.
The fogger was in just one room, and the door was closed, as the packaging directed. There weren’t any dishes. I will wash every surface in the room with Murphy’s Oil Soap tonight.
