Back to Spiders...

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
So after the long thread about SPIDERS... I bought those sticky traps. I bought about 25 of them... they have been in place for about 3 weeks now...

FULL of those gross aggressive house spiders/hobo spiders!!! FULL!!! They are big also... yuck. But at least they are working.

We get so many in our house usually and the spiders we get here cause the necrotic bites like the Brown Recluse... very painful and damaging.

So I have seen far less in the house!!!
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
Okay, I have officially crossed off Idaho as a place I want to visit.

Yuck!!!

That is too funny!!! But here in Idaho we don't have any natural disasters besides fires and avalanches up in the mountains... no other problems with bugs really...
I have the traps in the garage just along the walls and outside the doors... only a couple in the house, under things so the cats and kids can't get at them!!!

I have a serious spider issue!!! If I can handle it most can!!! LOL I do get a sick kind of morbid thrill when I find the traps all full!!!
NOT IN MY HOUSE!!! The thought of one on me... ugh
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Okay, I have officially crossed off Idaho as a place I want to visit.

Yuck!!!

That is too funny!!! But here in Idaho we don't have any natural disasters besides fires and avalanches up in the mountains... no other problems with bugs really...</div></div>

Of course, you don't have bug issues... they are eaten by all the spiders!!!!
 
That is why I don't kill spiders.


On our patio, we have redwood beams about 4' apart. A couple weeks ago, a big ugly spider built a web in between them. Tink and I watched her do it. It was truly fascinating. Tink named her Charlotte. When she finished, there was a full web. It was beautiful. One day we walked by and saw that she had caught her dinner (a fly or something, wrapped in her webbing).

And just the other day, she left. She really was ugly.

BUT...better than mosquitos, which is Illinois' state bird. The mosquitos here...they are the size of Buicks. You hit one of them, thy fall to the ground, pick up their wings, give you the finger, and walk away. If they bite you, you can see the teeth marks. Bug spray does not faze them. They wear gas masks.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
I found out what the big black spiders are that surround our house all the time. They are called jumping spiders. They don't make webs, except to sleep in. They jump. I had one fall on top of me one night when I went out my back door. I positively freaked out! They do bite occasionally, but only if provoked and they aren't poisonous, thank goodness. We get the brown recluse too. I found one not that long ago, dead, fortunately!
 
And Barbara, up in Wisconsin for the summer, was strangely silent....

So, what is a spider trap?

That sounds like a really good idea to me.

It's Fall here in Wisconsin, you know.

And that is when the temperatures fall and the spiders....

Oh, the spiders that have been growing all summer come in to get warm....

Barbara
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Well, let's see. I now have to cross off Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey, and Wisconsin from my list of places to go.

Any other states out there with giant spiders?

We have little spiders (well, there is the occasional big wood spider but they rarely ever come anywhere near the house) here in Georgia. I don't like little spiders, either, but at least I am not afraid to kill those.

Yes, we do have natural disasters here like tornados but at least you can see them coming. Spiders can hide anywhere and drop down on your head. Or, in Barbara's case, grab ahold of your ankles from underneath the dock.

by the way, Kitty, did you actually sit out on the patio with the big ugly spider above you????

~Kathy
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Kathy, you'd better cross Australia off your list, too. Although a lot of our spiders are fairly harmless, the nasty ones make up for it. Our main house invaders are big, brown and hairy, but harmless (huntsman) - they have wandered in from outdoors and in our house, we show them the way back out. Most people goosh them. And the black house spider - very harmless but looking enough like a funnelweb that most people eliminate them on sight. We have a black housespider (also called Charlotte) who spins a web in my hairy cactus (Espostoa melanostele) on the corner of my kitchen window sill. Between her, the sundew plant (drosera), the pitcher plant and venus fly trap, they keep the insects down a bit. She is one fat spider.

We tend to live and let live with our garden spiders because they'll keep the bad spiders in check (we hope). Our nasties are the redback (like a black widow, only nastier - and absolutely everywhere outside) and the funnelweb. At least the redbacks aren't aggressive like funnelwebs. Although we haven't had a fatality from funnelweb for years now, since we got antivenin. These spiders can punch through leather gauntlets with their fangs. But we've found that if you bandage directly over the bite (no more tourniquets, no more slashing the bite) then the lymphatic system of your body will begin to break down the venom in half an hour or so. You still should get to hospital, though.

When working outside we wear gloves (redbacks can't bit through them) and check under the rims of pots, underneath them, etc before moving them - goosh any redbacks we find. Funnelwebs - we mostly find them if we turn over an old log, or lift something that is in contact with the ground. Redbacks will climb but funnelwebs tend to be on or near the ground, under things. Unless it's mating season and the males are going wandering... our chooks eat any spider they find, anyway. Mind you, I have seen a huntsman spider bail up a hen.

The important thing to remember about any venomous creature - it's not in their interests to waste their venom. It's a precious, expensive resource and they only use it when they feel they have to. Mind you, a lot of beasties have similar impulse control issues to our difficult children...

Our mozzies are also huge - we often hear reports of one landing at Mascot airport and they put 2,000 litres of Avgas into it before they realised...

So you're welcome to visit, Kathy, but you might want to wear a space suit.

Marg
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Um, Marg, thanks for the invite, but, um, there's not a chance in hell I would be visiting Australia after that description.

TM ~ I know better than to even think about opening that link. I'll add Texas to my list.

It looks like I better not leave Georgia.

~Kathy
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Kathy, I'm terrified of spiders, the link doesn't show any actual spiders I could see. But let's just say the article leaves a lot to your imagination.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Okay, in that case I'll open it. I was afraid that I was going to click on the link and come face to face with one big ole ugly spider.

I'd rather be in a room with a snake than a spider.

~Kathy
 

mrscatinthehat

Seussical
Oh Kathy I lived in Georgia for awhile. I will take my darn spiders (here in Iowa) over those fire ants any day. Bad things happen when those live in your clothes.

As for snakes I walked in the house a couple weeks ago and stopped cold. I called husband at work screaming about the snake in front of me (IN THE HOUSE) He just laughed and said to have one of the animals attack it. I called easy child about 20 times (she wasn't answering the phone. I called her friend. Made her come right away. I had hid the snake under a bucket. With heavy weight on it. (husband later caulked the hole it came in through.)

I will deal with the spiders first.

Beth
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
The spider traps are fold up "houses" that have a very sticky layer all over it with some other gunk on it that attracts bugs... they come flat and you pull the cover off and fold the little house up and stash it against a wall. Very neat and tidy... creepy spiders go in but they don't come out!!!
Centipedes, stick also... anything small will stick in there!!! I have bought them at walmart and almost all grocery stores.

They have seriously made my life much easier... creepy googly eyed little aggressive things running AT me... used to give me nightmares!!!

Now it stops them in there tracks!!! LOL


When we go to Arizona I am freaked the whole time... Tarantula's... Scorpion's... UGH!!! Texas has some big ones also...

Kathy maybe we should just seal ourselves up in a shrink wrap house!!!

Then my %($*%($ cats keep bringing in half live mice...
NO BUGS NO MICE
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Those spider traps sound like the roach traps we can get (or used to get) here in Australia. They'd be a lot more reliable than using sprays, unless you use the spray can itself to goosh the spider - the sprays generally only make the spiders cranky.

Talking about being face to face with a spider - back when I was studying zoology at uni, we had to draw a detailed sketch of a spider and examine it minutely, looking for various bits of anatomy. The spiders we had were not only dead, they were embedded in polyester resin, but there's still something about having to get eyeball to eyeball with a large mouse spider in full leg spread, even when you know the thing can't get out of the plastic block. Even though the mouse spider was the biggest specimen (the size of a dessert bowl) I found it easier to look at than the funnelweb - when you grow up in Sydney you get too well-conditioned, even though I've only ever seen about half a dozen funnelwebs ranging free, in my lifetime. There's something totally alien about being face to face with a spider.

That was a prac class that gave me nightmares. I do not like spiders although I have found knowledge makes me feel a lot safer.

Snakes - all are protected in Australia, we're not allowed to kill them except in self-defence. We can call someone to come and remove a snake, though. If the snake sticks around to get removed, that is. Most of our snakes are fairly harmless, just a few are dangerous.
I do remember the time when our cat brought in a very much alive snake to show it off to us - and it was a venomous one, too - red-bellied black snake. The cat dropped it so it could miaow better, and the snake slithered off (outside, thankfully) but escaped before my father could get a spade through it. "To billy-oh with the thing being protected! It's gone under the blasted house!" he kept shouting.

We do get scorpions in Australia too, but they're tiny and I've rarely heard of anyone getting stung. Ours are fairly harmless. The sting would hurt, that's all. I've found a few over the years, wandering the bush. About the size of a little fingernail. Centipedes - some are big fellas, the sting hurts like - yeah, but you have to be very unlucky or very careless to get stung. Millipedes - totally harmless, kids play with them.

It's what we live with, so we're not too spooked by it, but easy child 2/difficult child 2 is especially disliking of spiders, cockroaches, just about any bugs. mother in law loathes spiders, it's the one thing about living with us in the bush that creeps her out. And the snakes, even the good ones like the large pythons. Monty (our local 3 metre long diamond python) was seen slithering into her garage, she wouldn't go into it for days, even after I searched and pronounced it snake-free. Monty moves around too much, he never stays around any one house for more than a day or so. We see him maybe once or twice every few years, that's all. There is a smaller one we call Diamond Jim, he's about 2 metres long - still very long for a diamond python. They eat mice and rats, so we're very happy to have them around. It's important, however, to not have small dogs roaming free, however. One local miniature Jack Russell terrier had to be rescued from Monty about six years ago, by the dog's young owners. It's possible Monty realised he'd taken too big a mouthful, at about the same time. The snake had swallowed the dog from the tail up to his elbows and couldn't get any further. Interestingly, the dog's name is Elvis - our local paper ran a headline - "Elvis is Alive!"

Marg
 
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