Just have to say: I am in CA, so it’s a totally different region from the OP. But I have seen many a black widow in my life, and they were never in a crawl space or somewhere dark and secluded. In fact, about a week ago, a friend’s bf killed one that was hanging out in the open on the front of my house.
I don’t know- it was a large, black spider, with white spots on the back, not red, which the internet informs me is possible. It was a pretty scary spider, whatever it was.
This may sound nuts but as far as the gaps and holes go, could you nail can lids over them? Especially down around the baseboards. I know they keep mice out so could work for other critters. If they’re around the windows and doors you could get a couple rolls of that strip stuff you put on the edge of exterior doors to keep out drafts. Other than the bugs, how are you all liking it? I envy you. Stroke a philadendren and call a hog for me, will ya? And go down to the store and “speak” to the old men sitting out front by giving your head a nod.
We’re really liking it, as we’re getting over the complete culture shock. It’s so weird how two sides of the same country can be so different. I’ve lived here in the past, but not for 16 years, so it takes some getting used to. It’s kind of spooky out here in the country, especially at night- the frogs and the crickets are almost deafening, but the lightning bugs are pretty cool. My son has found an 8-foot-deep swimming hole in the creek, but of course, the water is freezing. I still marvel at all the green, and the blue of the mountain ridges. Call a hog- like sooo-ie?? Ha- I need a Starbucks.
There are a few reasons I recommended a broom, spiders are scary and distance is a good thing, it is an easy way to remove their webs and spray applications are generally useless or extreme overkill, spider behavior negates the usefulness of bait.
IMIO Black spiders of any type are often mis-identified as Black Widows, thats ok just don’t go around killing every black spider because it may be a BW, remember they eat insects. A good identifier of a BW is the web unlike orb spiders the webs are irregular often lopsided with varying gaps between strands, the female(the one to worry about) will usually hang down from the top of the web on a single strand and will often drop to the ground and escape if the web is disturbed, she will not do this if there is an egg sac, so keep yer mitts out of the web and use a broom
Destroy a web enough times and the spider will go elsewhere
The Western BW is different and I know nothing about their behavior but the ones in NC and Texas tend to avoid humans
Capt Kirk
How are you on lizards? Get a few house geckoes.
The ants can be easily be taken care of. You probably have small ant hills up against the foundations of your dwelling. Take a glass full of bleach and pour it into the biggest hole in each of the mounds. Ants will be gone, but plants near your foundation will be dead too. Small price to pay.
Bobbie Gentry (of Ode To Billie Joe fame) treated this subject.
“Bugs” (circa 1968 or so?) ( lyrics here ) – relevant to Mississippi Delta region, but may work for OP too 
[QUOTE=Bobbie Gentry]
Bugs! Everywhere you look there’s another type of bug
But if ya live in the delta ya got 'em
Here’s a sure fire way to pass the time of day
Fold you up a newspaper and swat 'em
[/quote]
ETA: Thinking of moving back out to the Wild West then? Nothing out there to worry you but the rattlesnakes and scorpions! :rolleyes:
I have to disagree with this. I live in North Carolina, and one of my co-workers recently found a black widow next to the stairs in our building. It’s a public building, so a lot of people walk by those stairs every day. It was definitely a black widow. He picked it up with some tongs so we could see the bottom. :eek: Then he let it go outside, right next to the front door. :eek::eek: I’ve seen a few spiders in my house lately, and it’s making me a little nervous. They seem sneaky, like they’re up to something.
I get little ants when the seasons change, and the ant traps are usually enough to get rid of them. I start by spraying them with soapy water (maybe with a little mint essential oil to cover up the scent trail). If that doesn’t get rid of them in a few days, I put out an ant trap. It does take a few days, but it’s always worked for me.
Would one of these help? I’m moving to Seattle this September, and this is on my wishlist. [waves at Johnny L.A.] I’m also realllly nervous about spiders, but I’m hoping to turn my fear into fascination (warning: that page has a picture of a girl with a spider on her hand).
Do you have cockroaches? If not, at least you can be grateful for that. Awful little fuckers, those cockroaches. I will be glad to get away from them.
Fair enough, I was only speaking in generalities, just please don’t go on spider killing rampages. They are rather beneficial creatures
Capt Kirk
I don’t have lizards, but I did not mind them back in Arizona. Maybe I should import some.
No roaches, thank og- I’d be writing this from a hotel room if there were roaches. Spiders are bad enough- roaches I cannot abide.
The thing about spiders that bothers me so much is that I have to sleep, and I can’t get over the thought that they probably crawl on me, including on my face, while I’m innocently and unknowingly snoozing away- that seriously creeps me out. I never did catch that spider from the other night that was in my bed, so I just know that it is lying in wait, to prey upon me, as I’m sleeping- urgh. So maybe the netting idea is the best, as long as spiders can’t crawl up in it and get on me. Or the spraying. Or both.
If you see a really big, pretty, furry, red and black “ant”, don’t attempt to play with it or pet it.
They have 1/4" long stingers and really hurt.
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef442.asp
I know the link’s from Kentucky, but they’re in NC also.
I would totally trap anoles and geckos for indoor insect control. But I have a kitty. The flesh of small reptiles is about the tastiest thing to cats.
I have to qualify my previous post on how to kill ants. If it’s a normal wet year, let the ants live. They kill baby roaches. But at the first sign of drought, kill the ants.
They won’t be crawling so much on your face as they will under your blankets. Not to freak you out or anything, but late summer last year when I brought my house plants in from spending the summer outside, little did I know they were infested with spiders. Low and behold, the plants in my bedroom allowed the little fuckers to take charge of my room, including my bed. I ended up with a ton of bites on my feet, which of course then got infected. I only put two and two together when I found two huge spiders in my bed.
“What’s that crawling across my foot?” Throw back the sheets and PRESTO, there it was.
I ended up removing the plants and spraying the hell out of my bedroom (including underneath my mattress and box spring, the rails of my bed and all over my bedroom. Then, I bombed my house (with general pest bombs designed to kill bugs and spiders).
Since then, I’ve been good (knock on wood), but don’t let anyone tell you spiders don’t bite. They do–and I had the round of antibiodics to prove it.
Last weekend must have been just extra-buggy; I have not come across any spiders or bees in the house during this week, and the ants are really starting to diminish, as well. Whew! However, I reached new levels of ooginess the other night when I went out onto the back porch bare-footed and almost stepped on a slug- yuck! The country life is not for me, and after my 6-month exile out here, I am definitely moving into the city.
I’m not sold on your city = no or less bugs theory. My last apartment had a wasp nest somewhere outside the 3rd floor window, with old wooden double-hung windows that the wasps would occasionally breach and fly around my living room and kitchen.
My current apartment, during my first year here, I had: ants in the kitchen, silverfish in the bedroom, a few carpet beetles in the living room, centipedes all over the place, yellow sac spiders up in a couple corners, those little black jumping ones in the bathroom, and early spring 2011 there were two German roaches in the kitchen plus two Asian (HUGE and ICKY!!) ones at different times that my cat Nimbus (nickname: The Bug Hunter) found and dispatched. And I’m on the fourth floor! The management company sent an exterminator for me when the roaches appeared (the next day, it’s a pretty good company), and I haven’t seen any since. I took it upon myself to work on the rest, and spread diatomaceous earth under the baseboards in the kitchen and bedroom, plus those little ant baits.
Since I started my little regimen, everything is drastically reduced. Ants and silverfish and beetles are gone, spiders inside are gone, but there are always one or two living on the outside of one of my kitchen windows, with HUGE webs and HUGE, juicy looking round bodies. I see an occasional yellow sac spider, but I know they’re beneficial, so as long as they stay tucked along the ceiling and leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone. Same with those centipedes. They squick me out, but I know they eat everything else, so as long as they stay scarce and don’t let Nimbus find them, and as long as they don’t run across the ceiling where they might fall on me, same policy as the sac spiders. Everything else must go, but it’s been over a year so far.
That’s exactly what I did. I moved to the Australian bush into a house overloaded with spiders. There’s no way you’re going to beat them, so I started studying them to overcome the fear which was getting waaaay out of control. I overdid the cure and am now totally obsessed by them. There is nothing to fear from spiders. They are the most intriguing creatures. In fact, I wrote a book about them and have just been commissioned to do another.
It is much better being this way - and I live in a much healthier space than one filled with sprays!
watching a spider hatch is one nifty even. they’re so cute when they’re young.
I found Terro liquid ant killer works wonders, though it’s messy and you have to put it right in their path. They LOVE the stuff. I had tiny ants all over my counter. Found out where they were coming in and soaked a bit of sponge with the Terro. Holy moly, thousands of ants came running to get a taste by that night! The wall was black with them. Next morning, they were mostly gone, hopefully back in their nest dying and killing the others. Now they’re creeping back, when it rains, or when it gets hot outside, so I’ll try again. As long as they aren’t swarming across my kitchen counter, I feel that I can reach a sort of detente with them - if they stay off the counter, out of my line of sight, I can pretend they aren’t really there. But I put out the sticky ant bait anyway, I’m not that dumb.