# The True Domestic Terrorists... SPIDERS. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2015, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989 "2015-09-05T06:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/21 "2015-09-05T19:59:10Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Wolf\_spider\_(Lycosidae).jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Wolf_spider_(Lycosidae).jpg) Yes, this would be the self-radicalized, lone wolf, domestic terrorist. I’d be OK with them if they’d stop walking across my face at night. I’m really not scared of spiders in general. It’s only about twice a year that it happens, and only in the season when males go questing for females, but !@# #%\* !@#$! I do not want giant spiders walking across my face at night while I’m sleeping! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/22 "2015-09-05T21:22:55Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Yes, this would be the self-radicalized, lone wolf, domestic terrorist. > > I’d be OK with them if they’d stop walking across my face at night. I’m really not scared of spiders in general. It’s only about twice a year that it happens, and only in the season when males go questing for females, but !@# #%\* !@#$! I do not want giant spiders walking across my face at night while I’m sleeping! How about just the itsy-bitsy spiders? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/23 "2015-09-06T11:17:16Z")
There is [rat shot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-shot) aka “Dust shot”. #12 shot in a .22LR shell: > [@](#): > > It is used by farmers in rifles for the control of birds flying inside of barns and sheds, as well as for killing rats, for the simple reason that rat-shot will not damage the metal roof of a barn or the metal sides of a shed, while still being effective against small pests at close distances. > [@](#): > > The maximum effective killing range of rat-shot cartridges is limited, typically being less than 10 to 16½ feet (3 to 5 meters) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/24 "2015-09-06T12:46:12Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Well, sodium hydroxide is lye (as in Drano), so you can take it from there. It would probably destroy the plastic anyway. Besides, there’s always the old standby… “I strike big bugs I cannot lye…” ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/25 "2015-09-06T15:51:10Z")
Sir Mix-a-Lot as a plumber. Now that really strains my credulity. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/26 "2015-09-06T15:55:26Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Sir Mix-a-Lot as a plumber. Now that really strains my credulity. If he was a plumber, you’d be lucky if that was the only part of you he strained… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/27 "2015-09-06T16:07:16Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Or you could hunt them with packs of 2 inch tall hounds. > I quite like spiders about. Keep down insects. Totally agree. They dont bother me and I dont bother them. Except for the one in It. She had to die. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/28 "2015-09-06T16:33:24Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Except for the one in It. She had to die. In it? In WHAT??😕 ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/29 "2015-09-06T17:02:22Z")
> **[It (TV Mini Series 1990) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099864/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > It: With Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Annette O'Toole. In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns... ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/30 "2015-09-06T21:04:05Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I don’t understand why people are so afraid of spiders. . . . For some of us, it’s a phobia. A full-blown instance of mental illness. It’s irrational and works in the dark places in the brain where nightmares come from. You can’t convince me, rationally, to accept a spider in my home. I understand every word you say – I even agree with it! – but one glimpse of a spider, and the rational mind is extinguished in a wave of revulsion, horror, fear, terror, loathing, and utter panic. (You can tell it’s a phobia when I react the same way to a picture of a spider!) (Hell, I hate even having to type out the word!) Anyway, to add to the discussion of pest-removal: spray cleaners. A hearty spritzing with Windex or Scrubbing Bubbles, and the ghastly creeping horror from the hell dimension writhes and dies. Then I can scoop it up with paper towels at the end of long pieces of wood, and throw the entire assembly (wood and all!) into the dumpster in the alley. (Where, of course, there are probably just tons and tons of…spiders!) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/31 "2015-09-06T22:34:52Z")
You can go broke using spray cleaners on flies and other critters… or just leave the poor spiders alone. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/32 "2015-09-07T00:48:48Z")
Doesn’t seem to work that way. I kill maybe one spider every three months, and my flat is not swarming with other pests. (The greatest likelihood is that there are other spiders inside the walls, under the floor, above the ceiling, behind the bookshelves, etc., doing their job and keeping the bug population curtailed. Okay, whatever. Out of sight, out of mind.) (And…once in sight…out of my mind…screaming!) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/33 "2015-09-07T00:56:45Z")
Yeah…they do their thing…they don’t care if there’s no audience. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/34 "2015-09-07T05:16:08Z")
Those tennis racquet zappers work great for spiders that absolutely can’t be removed any other way. Instant kill from an arm’s length distance, and no mess left smushed on the walls. The roasted odor is less than ideal, though. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/35 "2015-09-07T15:02:25Z")
Big deal. You’re still overrun by flies, or cockroaches, or ants free of the natural predators you killed with some other device. Satisfied? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/36 "2015-09-07T20:51:57Z")
But, again, this doesn’t actually happen. There is something wrong with your predictive model. (I’m an insect-change denier!) ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/37 "2015-09-07T20:58:10Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > How about just the itsy-bitsy spiders? 🙂 I could live with that, especially if they were small enough to not wake me up. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/38 "2015-09-07T21:13:10Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I could live with that, especially if they were small enough to not wake me up. …What about those nasty spiders that seem to hang out in pine trees? They are tiny, can quickly jump about 2 feet, and their front legs are actually claws? ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/39 "2015-09-07T23:25:27Z")
We get some spiders, but they don’t bother me. I’ve even seen them in my bed and if I can catch them, I put them outside. If I can’t, I just go to bed anyway, and I don’t worry about them. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989/40 "2015-09-08T00:25:23Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > …What about those nasty spiders that seem to hang out in pine trees? They are tiny, can quickly jump about 2 feet, and their front legs are actually claws? That depends on where they land. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-true-domestic-terrorists-spiders/729989.md?page=3)