Arachnid experts...I NEED HELP!!!

Okay..so I have lived in my current home for 13 years. I have lived in this area off and on for the past 40 years..Up until a few years ago I could honestly say that I had NEVER seen a black widow. I had always heard of them but never seen one in real life.

2 years ago I started seeing them around our yard..(I may have already posted about that?) Now I come home from work today and the little crevice between my front door and porch is covered with a sticky web and a HUGE effing black widow was right there..Mind you I left the house this morning at 9:00 and didn't notice this web..so it built it while I was gone.

I took the big grill lighter out and tried to burn her (along with my house She ran between the crevice too fast and I don't think I killed her WHY are they coming to me now????? I keep the yard neat..I have no debris, NOTHING laying around. I keep the porch swept monthly and we are constantly in and out that door..so why..why do the seem to be descending upon us? I want all these mothers dead..I want to know how to prevent them without torching my house to the ground..WILL they come inside? I'm shaking here..I am so scared of them

I swear if I don't find this B my house will end up like this----

reply to post by Neopan100


Here ya go! I HATE SPIDERS!!!!

Control

Eliminating an infestation of brown recluse or black widow spiders involves two basic principles:

1.(1) altering the environment in and around a building to make it less attractive to spiders; and
2.(2) finding and destroying as many spiders as possible.



The following measures can be used to control all spiders:

◾ Routine, thorough house cleaning is the best way to eliminate spiders and discourage their return. A vacuum cleaner or broom effectively removes spiders, webs, and egg sacs.
◾Spiders prefer quiet, undisturbed areas such as closets, garages, basements, and attics. Reducing clutter in these areas makes them less attractive to spiders.
◾Large numbers of spiders often congregate outdoors around the perimeter of structures. Migration indoors can be reduced by moving firewood, building materials, and debris away from the foundation. Shrubs, vines and tree limbs should be clipped back from the side of the building.
◾Install tight-fitting window screens and door sweeps to exclude spiders and other insects. Inspect and clean behind outdoor window shutters.
◾Consider installing yellow or sodium vapor light bulbs at outside entrances. These lights are less attractive than incandescent bulbs to night-flying insects which, in turn, attract spiders.
◾To further reduce spider entry from outside, insecticides can be applied as a "barrier treatment" around the base of the foundation. Pay particular attention to door thresholds, garage and crawl space entrances, including foundation vents. Carbaryl, bendiocarb, chlorpyrifos, or any of the synthetic pyrethroids (e.g., cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, lambda-cyhalothrin) are effective, but may need to be reapplied periodically throughout the summer. Wettable powder or microencapsulated ("slow-release") formulations are most effective.

Source

reply to post by Neopan100


Just spray a little, Raid Max 12-oz. Spider & Scorpion Killer.
And it will all be fine..

Oh great. She moved in saying "Human? Pfft." and you tried to set her on fire.

Now she is pissed off.

I'd run if I were you. Seriously. I rekon if you listen, you can hear her mandibles clicking, in the walls, like a sort of spider morse code. that's her muttering to her slave like and obedient minions. They will set upon you in no time, injecting their serum into your muscles and rendering you immobile, and then, slowly, she will saunter over, all eight legs lifting high into the air one after the other as if to dance a slow dance of victory to you, and lay eggs all over your face.

And it will take days, as you become weak yet unable to sleep due to the poison keeping you alert... and one by one, you will feel every... single... crawling... baby... hatch... under your skin.. in your nose.. bursting out of your tongue and filling your mouth with legs and sacks of cold gooey spider guts.

Seriously.. It's true.

You shouldn't have tried to burn her... spiders never ever forget.



R.I.P.

reply to post by winofiend


I agree with you, they will now infest your house and make millions of baby spiders.
I poured salt on a slug as a kid and to this day slugs haunt my dreams and make sure I step on them with no shoes or socks on.

reply to post by winofiend


Great--listen, I didn't have a 'for rent' or 'roommate wanted' sign hanging out..hell, I haven't even put up Halloween decs yet..so, she can bugger off..I will find her..I will wait and she will be torched again...bwahhahahahhaha

no seriously, I want them gone I won't go out of my way to harm spiders...but this thing was on MY front door.

They've always been there. I lived in this place for 31 years and I saw my first wooly bear caterpillar a few weeks ago. In other words, just because I've never seen them around here before doesn't mean that they weren't ever here.

Ugh, this reminds me of back home only with a different species entirely. We live near a mountain and just on average living in a mountainous region to begin with, we knew there were rattlesnakes in the area but never saw one close to us. Well, lo and behold one day, giant coiled rattlesnake right across from the yard. x.x


But yeah, the best advice I can give is to get rid of any debris and maybe figure out a way to brighten up some dark areas since spiders seem to love the dark. I normally coexist with spiders if I know that their bite isn't potentially lethal but once I run into something dangerous, it HAS to go. The only exception to that rule was a couple of weeks ago, I had a wolf spider in my room with me and at first I was going to just leave it alone, but it kept RUNNING ACROSS THE FLOOR UNDERNEATH MY FEET. Once I caught the thing, it had to die. ;~; I mean, it was like it purposely crossed the room each time darting under my feet. It's quite the disturbing sensation.

You could try an eco friendly Ultrasonic or EM device.

en.wikipedia.org...

There are basically two types of electronic pest control devices widely available, these are Ultrasonic and Electromagnetic.
Ultrasonic devices operate through emitting short wavelength, high frequency sound waves that are too high in pitch to be heard by the human ear (all frequencies greater than 20,000 Hz).[dubious – discuss] Humans are unable to hear sounds higher than 20 kHz due to physiological limitations of the cochlea. Some animals such as dogs, bats[citation needed], and rodents can hear well into the ultrasonic range. Some insects, such as grasshoppers and locusts can detect frequencies from 50,000 Hz to 100,000 Hz, and moths and lacewings can detect ultrasound as high as 240,000 Hz produced by insect-hunting bats.
Insects detect sound by special hairs or sensilla located on the antennae (mosquitoes) or genitalia (cockroaches), or by more complicated tympanal organs (grasshoppers, locusts, moths and butterflies).
Electromagnetic pest repelling devices claim to alter the electromagnetic (EM) field of household wiring, and vibrate the electromagnetic field that always exists around the wiring in the walls of your house. This alteration in the EM field is said to affect the nervous system of certain pests such as spiders and ants. This may well be on the scope of pseudo science however there have been similar studies using the same technology such as experiments on the effect of EM frequencies emitted by cellphones on humans.[1]
Radio wave pest control

I never tried them though bought an ultrasonic one once, it was faulty and only worked for a few hours and I did see a big spider around then so cannot verify if any of them are worth trying.

ETA From some other posters experiences of these, perhaps they aren't great!

There are natural repellents, I use lavender, orange and lemon essential oils a lot at home, I add it to antibacterial spray and laundry, and have repelled insects using it as a spray around the house when I lived in an area where there were always lots of spiders.

Obviously if there are pets in the area you might want to avoid certain oils.

Some tips here:

www.wikihow.com...

You can make your own spider repellent to use in your home and garden. There are many natural ingredients you can use that repel spiders that won’t harm you, your family or your pets. Natural spider repellents have to be applied more often than pesticides, but they are safer and they have a pleasant smell. All spiders have their taste buds on the tips of their legs and there are certain scents they hate, so using those scents will repel the spiders, both inside and outside your home.

I use that Ortho Home Defense Max stuff, with the "bug barrier". Says it lasts a year, but I spray about 3-4 times a year. I've been spider free since I started, and haven't looked back since.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


My parents tried one of those em devices and they found something moving under the carpet. Lo and behold it was maggots eeeeew. They were coming up from the carpets and they weren't there before turning on the devices so they now just use spray when they see insects.

reply to post by Neopan100


I would be frightened also, OP. Are you 100% sure you've identified the spider as a Black Widow? Their abdomen is fat and round (i call it bowling ball shaped) with a red violin spot?

With Black Widows being the most dangerous and poisonous spiders known to humans in the world, I would take immediate action to make sure they were taken care of before I go to bed.

Raid bug barrier lasts for about 12-months. It kills different bugs including spiders. It does work as I watched it work on spiders over a 6-month period. Once that spider walked through an area that I had sprayed, it would kill them within 5-10 minutes.

What I do whenever I see a spider is take a bright LED flashlight and search every corner and crevice to see where they're hanging out, and then suck them up into my sweeper. Then the bug barrier should keep them out.

reply to post by Sk8ergrl


Yeah, I bought one of those and tried it also. I don't know what it is about those devices, but I had it pointed at a back door where I thought spiders were coming in, and somehow, it attracted dozens of flies to just a single window inside my place (they were trying to get out). And those flies weren't in my place before.

I did stick it in front of a spider for several minutes on high, and the spider wasn't even affected, so I chucked it.

OP--No worries. Now that you've had your little interaction, the black widow may decide on its own to mosey on elsewhere because it probably didn't realize that it was a traffic zone. I'm sure it'll pop up somewhere else like this.

reply to post by Neopan100


I live a few hours east of you and I have them as well. They showed up about 4 years ago at my house. I called an exterminator. The exterminator explained to me that they really will not hurt me. In fact, they eat mosquitos and other instects.

Since then, I have a love/hate relationship with them and have made a verbal agreement:

YOU STAY OUTSIDE and you live. YOU COME INSIDE...you die.

SO far, so good.

I have seen them in my flower garden (i wear gloves when working out there now just in case) and in the cracks between my steps and front porch.

Honestly, other than being extremely creepy, we live in harmony so far.

The exterminator told me you would have to step on it, or sit on one for it to bite you. If it can get away from you when it feels threatened it will get away. If not, it will bite.

By the way, they are beautiful and I hate spiders. The glossy black with the red fiddle ..beautiful.

I have seen lots but never killed one yet.

reply to post by k21968


There's no way in hell I would allow the most poisonous spider known to humans in the world to live that close to my bed while I'm sleeping. If one just happens to be walking around your house when you're sleeping, and crawls up onto your bed, you roll over onto it and BAM get bitten, you're dead if you can't get to the hospital quick enough.

All because you allowed them to survive.

No way

No way

NO WAY! lol

_BoneZ_
reply to post by k21968

 

There's no way in hell I would allow the most poisonous spider known to humans in the world to live that close to my bed while I'm sleeping. If one just happens to be walking around your house when you're sleeping, and crawls up onto your bed, you roll over onto it and BAM get bitten, you're dead if you can't get to the hospital quick enough.

All because you allowed them to survive.

No way

No way



NO WAY! lol

I have NEVER seen one inside..like I said if I did, I would call the exterminator asap. They are truly not predatory to humans. They prefer crickets, moths, bees, mosquitoes, etc. NO WAY would I sleep if I knew one was in my house, but as long as I do not see them, I am good.

My husband was bit by one in San Antonio Texas while on a field exercise in his Army days. He writhed in pain for 3 days..his stomach rolled and knotted up. But he was fine. The bite is more harmful to children and the elderly. HE was a healthy man and other than being sick for a few days he was fine. The ER chose not to use anti venom because that could have killed him.

Anyway, the moral to my story, they live everywhere in the US. Just because you do not see one, does not mean you do not have them. They co exist with humans pretty good.

The one that bit hubby was in his boot. He saw it and like a dummy reached in with his hand to get it out and it bit him on the top of his hand. He killed it and took it with him to the ER. It was definitely a black widow. HE lived.

I hate spiders as much as the next guy and was prepared to pay ALOT of money to get rid of them outside my home. The exterminator actually changed my mind.

_BoneZ_
reply to post by k21968

 

There's no way in hell I would allow the most poisonous spider known to humans in the world to live that close to my bed while I'm sleeping. If one just happens to be walking around your house when you're sleeping, and crawls up onto your bed, you roll over onto it and BAM get bitten, you're dead if you can't get to the hospital quick enough.

All because you allowed them to survive.

No way

No way

NO WAY! lol

Their bites are truly not fatal to a healthy adult.

reply to post by _BoneZ_


Yeah I see them more of a money pit for the companies and they will be laughing all the way to the bank. If em were to kill insects then wouldn't our wifi or the earths field kill them.

reply to post by _BoneZ_


I am 1000000% sure it was most def a BWidow. I just sprayed Permethrin 10%. It's all I could round up from my neighbors I don't keep this kind of stuff around (really don't care to use this kind of stuff)..I have two little girls..and never sprayed anything that wasn't totally organic...but this is a different situation. I MUST KILL IT!

I just soaked the entire frame of the front door with this sh!t..so hopefully, we wont die from widow or chemicals.