So, consensus says that having your home nuked from orbit or burning your home down when you see a spider inside is a bit of an over reaction. Okay. Well, it seems to me there’s a simple, overlooked solution. Now, there’s buck shot and bird shot. Why doesn’t someone develop a spider shot load for pistols and shotguns?
You wouldn’t need a large load of powder since your target isn’t going to be more than 6 feet away and really small pellets. Ideally, you’d want a combination that when fired would NOT damage a painted drywall wall, but completely destroy the trespassing arachnid.
From where I sit right now, I can see at least two spiders, and I know where at least two more are likely to be hiding. There’s one who’s made a web on the underside of one of my desk drawer handles (I hardly ever use that drawer anyway), and another on the window screen. I’ve seen another hiding behind an old computer, and there’s yet another that I’ve seen in the vicinity of my desk lamp.
Just live with them. I see spiders in the house all the time, but especially during the winter when I wonder what they are eating. But I ignore them and they scurry away when the see me.
[Checks forum, exercises self-discipline.]Well, Nerf has some good products that can deliver reasonable mass at sufficient velocity to maim/mortally wound a good sized arachnid. My kids use airsoft pistols on them. I think both are viable options for the OP, but perhaps Nerf could power up a purpose-built model, perhaps with a CO2 cartridge.
I suppose a sufficiently intense laser would be risky for everyone in the room. But it’d be a lot more better for the soul. “Hey look Pa! A woof spider!”
Small pellets lose a lot of velocity to air friction. Much more than larger things do. Which is why a 120mm tank cannon round still has most of its muzzle velocity at 1500 meters whereas a .22LR has lost almost all muzzle velocity at 200 meters and shotgun pellets almost all velocity at more like 50 meters.
For a given muzzle velocity, tiny powder-like shot will have vastly different velocity at 4 feet, 6 feet, and 8 feet. So to make something that was safe upon hitting interior walls and windows you’d need to very tightly control the firing range. Shooting just a bit too close would do real damage.
As well, spiders are hard-shelled armored critters. Walls & paint are soft & dent-prone and windows are brittle. I’ll wager there’s a pretty narrow range of impact forces that are strong enough to damage an armored spider with high probability but also weak enough to not damage walls & windows with equally high probability.
It’s be hard to sell a device with the claim “Kills 50% of indoor spiders with only a 50% chance of damaging walls and windows.” It needs to be more like “Kills 99% of indoor spiders with only a 1% chance of damaging walls and windows.”
Add in the fact that every shot you miss has a zero percent chance of killing the spider but still has the <whatever>% chance of damaging the walls, windows, lampshades, curtains, etc.
IMO, not a winning idea. Though fun to think about.
I don’t understand why people are so afraid of spiders.
I’d much rather have them than roaches!
I had this happen to me a few weeks ago:
I got home very late from a business trip. When walked into the kitchen, and noticed something on the ceiling. I looked up and there was a very large wolf spider - maybe 2.5” leg span. I decided that I was too tired to catch it, so I figured I find it in the morning.
Well, morning came, and it was nowhere to be found. That was three weeks ago.
I got up this morning around three AM, and noticed a lump on the floor - I thought it might have been a bit of poop from one of the dogs. I went over to look, and it was the spider. I managed to get it to climb on a magazine and took it outside.
So, it’s been it the house for a few weeks - probably hunting at night.
Twice this week I walked out my back door and into a web string, which stuck to my face and caused a major panic. Finally the little devil showed himself yesterday and I emptied a third of a can of spider spray on him. I HAVE NO GUILT.
I’ve been bitten by these Hobo spiders, I’m allergic to their bites, and I do not intend to ever be bitten again. So there.
A pest control salesman came to my house recently. He was desperate to sell his services, but we already have contracts with two companies. (Long story.)
I was outside gardening when he started talking to me, and when he wouldn’t leave, I went back inside. In a last ditch effort, he shrieked, “Look! There’s a spider!” I don’t know if he thought it would scare me, or if he was angry that a competitor in the pest control business was there.
Have used one, some flies take more than one shot, but they do move faster than spiders. They both have exoskeletons, which makes dehydration a fatal weakness.
I’ve only ever used regular salt; not sure what other granulated powders like sodium hydroxide would do.
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