as i write this, there is an ugly spider somewhere on the left side of this desk. i tried to kill it, but it ran away, as they usually do.
this might not sound scary to most people, but i have a serious phobia to spiders and most insects. finding one of the little and not so little critters can cause serious distress to me. (no offense to spider lovers intended.)
what’s the best way to kill spiders and better yet, what can i do to make sure that they stay away from my house? (i live in an apartment… you get away from the country-side but the country always finds you :mad: ). any product recommendations? would spraying something like raid onto them work? and please don’t say hit it with a shoe, i can’t usually get that close to them without a lot of shouting involved, especially not with a big ugly spider like this one. please help, i know that spider is around here lurking and it scares the jeebees out of me, especially because i have to work in this room. thank you very much for any input.
I feel your pain. RAID does work, but I find it usually takes a LOT of it sprayed directly onto the bastard to kill it. It’s also slow – takes forever for it to actually kill the spider.
My way? I use a Swiffer [TM]. Not a Swiffer sheet, the whole damn pole/flat thingie apparatus. It’s long enough to whack them from about a five foot distance, and the flat piece squashes them quickly and effectively. If it’s on your desk or a piece of furniture, you can knock it onto the floor and then squish it.
a) it slows them down (so you can squish 'em) and
b) if they do escape, they’re gonna end up stiff in no time flat when the spray dries, and either suffocate to death (if I’m lucky) or else starve to death 'cos they can’t move. Either way, it’s a win/win.
Any of these outcomes make me, as a complete spider-phobic, a much happier individual.
Obliquely, what helped me: reading about spiders and learning about them, made them more fascinating and less scary; getting cats, which like to eat them up for me if they can get to them. I don’t know what I ever did without cats when it comes to annoying insects.
lol, i do use the swiffer thingie! it’s good when the spiders and whatnot are on the ceiling, but this one was on a tricky corner, between the desk and the wall…
i WILL try the hairspray tip, thank you! unfortunately, i haven’t seen the spider again. i just know it’ll jump on me or that i’ll find it when i open a drawer or something. the horror… the horror…
and i love cats, but right now i can’t have one around because i fear it might eat my 11-year old canary :o
spider education is worthless on me, if i take one look at a spider photo i start to get all itchy.
i was wondering if there’s some poisoned product that you can leave around for spiders to eat? i’ve read that there are some spider glue traps, but… ick!
If your phobia is too severe, this may not work, but you might try my method for removing wasps. I get an Old Fashioned glass and an index card, trap the wasp under the glass, slide the index card across the mouth of the glass and take the card-covered glass outside to release it. Could you do the same sort of thing using a quart jart instead of a drink glass?
I’ve been stung by grabbing a bale of hay at the place where a bald-faced hornet or other was was nestling. I’ve been stung by wasps and hornets when I have run a walking lawn mower over their nest sites. I have never been stung by any of the dozen or two dozen wasps I remove from my home each summer.
Indeed, I used to assume that a wasp is likely to sting you if you come to close until, during a summer camp, the place were we would eat outdoor was invaded by wasps, probably coming from a nearby nest, and attracted to our marmelade and other foodstuff. After some days, we would ignore the insects, and happily eat our breakfast while the wasps were flying around and crawling on the table. Nobody was stung. Since then, I’m not very annoyed by wasps.
On the other hand, I’m still cautious with hornets, due to their large size, though I’ve never been stung by any. From what you’re saying, they seem to be much more agressive than wasps.
While we’re at it, I’ve would have an hijack : as a child, I believed that bumblebees don’t sting, and as a result didn’t care about them and even occasionnally handled them. I’ve been told since that actually bumblebees do sting. So, do they or not?
Bumblebees can and do sting, but they generally have to perceive a serious threat before they will do so. The first sting I ever received was from a bumblebee when I fell as a small child and my thumb landed on top of one. (That traumatized me for more than a few years.) However, I know people who actually catch them in the early morning on a chilly day before they warm up enough to fly and proceed to pet them and I have never head of any of those (odd) people being stung. Last year I was inspecting a water main installation where the trench was dug just a few feet from a really active nest and none of the workmen were bothered by them in any way.
Sorry. The only critters I will kill are various embers of Diptera. (I have reluctantly sprayed some wasps when their nest presented a safety hazard to postal workers or painters, but I do not make it a point to kill them–and I NEVER kill spiders.)
A boot is always best.
Hair spray with a Bic lighter is second best. (recommended for outdoors and rocky areas.)
A can of Raid is third best.
Hair spray by itself is fourth best.
A strong and thick rubber band and a steady aim is fifth best. (As you get better, the ranking will no doubt improve to second or third best.)
Everything else is a waste of time.
thank you very much for the ideas (raid + bic lighter… nice but i don’t want to burn myself or the furniture ;)). i sprayed the whole room with raid and a few hours later found the spider all shrivelled up in a corner! gross, but my mind’s at ease now, i should’ve tried this earlier, even though using chemicals inside the house is a bit… bleh.
i do get the occasional wasp and other flying insects, but usually i manage to get rid of those by forcing them out the window. wasps are a bit stubborn in this respect though! but spiders are probably #1 on my creepy list. with centipedes and scorpions as #2 and #3, but i’ve very rarely seen those in this area and never found any inside the house (knock on wood!!! :()
My experience is slightly different from chatelaine’s. I keep a bottle of Raid Max around and I find it very effective against the spiders.
I spray it directly onto them – lots of it, enough so that you see a big white puddle of Raid-goodness around them – and the spider twitches and dies within a few seconds. Then I pick the corpse up with a large wad of paper towels and throw it into the toilet. The Raid puddle is easy to soak up with paper towels, too, but unfortunately the smell lingers for quite a while. It’s probably not the healthiest option, either, but at least the spider’s gone.