# What is the best way to kill a wolf spider? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2021, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988 "2021-09-02T15:20:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/41 "2021-09-03T00:00:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There must be 50 ways to kill your spider. The problem is all inside your head. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/42 "2021-09-03T00:10:44Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > The problem is all inside your head. The answer is easy if you take it logically ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/43 "2021-09-03T00:13:02Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The answer is easy if you take it logically Just leave out a snack, Jack. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/44 "2021-09-03T00:14:08Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Just leave out a snack, Jack. Use bait like a fly, Guy. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/45 "2021-09-03T00:16:50Z")
I would think it would be easy to find an answer to the OP … on the web. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/46 "2021-09-03T02:01:44Z")
Without knowing the local spider population (and it really does look like wolf spiders are chill), I would most certainly freak out and dispatch it through whatever means possible–I wouldn’t be able to live in the house until it was gone. This stems from the following incident: Some decades back I was with my wife and her sister cleaning up their late mother’s house in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, when one of them opened a kitchen cabinet and an [armadeira spider](https://www.livescience.com/41591-brazilian-wandering-spiders.html) jumped out and skittered across the floor. That beast was as big as my hand and was super fast. We eventually cornered it in the bathroom–a room with nothing but tile on four walls and the floor and…a wicker hamper. So there we stood, the three of us armed with mops and brooms, one using a broom handle to remove each piece of clothing from the hamper and shake it. Eventually we got to the bottom of the hamper and found the beast within. We dumped it out and smashed it flat. The thing is, those spiders are very nasty and aggressive. I didn’t know at the time, but (from the linked site) “it’s one of the most venomous spiders on Earth. Its bite can be deadly to humans, especially children, although antivenin makes death unlikely” You probably won’t find one in your beachfront hotel, but in an inner city home with no screens with lots of food laying around? I’m surprised we found only one! Just like Australia, everything in Brazil is trying to kill you. So, if I were to encounter a peaceful American wolf spider, it would possibly die an undeserved death because of the trauma from the actions of its more vicious Brazilian cousin many years ago. In the heat of the moment logic and reason would not be a factor. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/47 "2021-09-03T02:24:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There must be 50 ways to kill your spider. When I was little, my sister said she would teach me “100 ways to catch a butterfly.” Impressive, huh? Except that it went like this: “First method to catch a butterfly: Catch it in your hands.” “Second method: Catch it in your hands, then open your hands to reveal the butterfly within, then close it again.” “Third method…” ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/48 "2021-09-03T02:34:17Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The thing with house spiders though, is that they eat a lot of the other bugs in your home, including some that are either damaging or carry disease or bite. So if you can get over your fear of spiders (not easy, I know), leave them alone. This is my thing with the whole idea; I have terrible arachnophobia, but I will NOT kill any of them (with the exception of actual harmful spiders, the only ones of which I have personally encountered being black widows, and I had very young grandchildren living with me at the time)… They are in my house because there is food. The only food they eat (here in Wyoming, I know there is one herbivorous species in the jungle somewhere) is insects, and I don’t really need insects in the house; so they get to stay to clear up the insects. Spiders, as a general rule, avoid people, so for the most part I don’t see them. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > Don’t kill harmless beings for the sole reason that you are afraid of them. It’s immoral. I totally agree with this sentiment. I have moved rattlesnakes from the road so somebody afraid of anything with teeth sharper than a cow’s won’t kill them. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/49 "2021-09-03T12:35:54Z")
Well, I am never going to Brazil now. ---
**Author:** ![Turki-lurki](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turki-lurki/32/7168_2.png) [@Turki-lurki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turki-lurki)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/50 "2021-09-04T04:00:45Z")
Ignore all these sentimental and high-minded people. Use a 12 gauge. Number 6 shot. Two or three rounds should do it. Then burn the house down. One cannot be too careful. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/51 "2021-09-04T05:07:51Z")
With a username like yours, you wouldn’t be safe from arachnids in any nation 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/52 "2021-09-05T13:06:52Z")
I think it’s time we ask for an update. There was a rather sad picture of a wolf spider on the back of my milk carton this morning. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/53 "2021-09-07T12:20:52Z")
> [@Turki-lurki](#): > > Then burn the house down. One cannot be too careful. “Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/54 "2021-09-07T15:41:18Z")
The prologue to the episode of _This American Life_ that we listened to yesterday was about Arachnophobia, and how one person tried a radical method to overcome his literally all-consuming fear of spiders. I was going to link to the TAL episode, but it turns out there’s a video of it: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pM3G6kITdYk/maxresdefault.jpg "A Little Closer | A Cure For Fear: Part 1 | Topic") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM3G6kITdYk) ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/55 "2021-09-07T20:00:48Z")
That video is amazing. Really interesting, thank you. I can’t imagine trying to live with a phobia of a common thing like cats or spiders. There isn’t anything I’m really viscerally afraid of in that way. Ticks gross me out, but I can get them off my animals and (shudder) myself, but my reaction to them is about 1/100th of what those poor people were feeling. How incredible that change must have been! ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988/56 "2021-09-07T20:46:05Z")
I watched all 4 in the series. Fascinating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-kill-a-wolf-spider/949988.md?page=2)