EEK! Spiders! WWYD?

[mommy_someday]

It's springtime and the spiders are coming out of the woodwork...literally. It's not anything new, since they've done this every year that we've lived in our house. But now that I have DS and he's crawling everywhere...I'm freaking out. Brown Recluse spiders are really prevalent in this area, although I haven't seen one in the house yet. Their bites are incredibly nasty in adults, so I can only imagine what it could do to a toddler. DH is pushing me to have the house sprayed, inside and out, but I'm balking because of the chemicals involved. I don't want DS or any of our three pets to ingest something that could seriously harm them.

I'm torn. WWYD?

[bcky2]

we had our old house sprayed every other month and it helped so much! the stuff that they use outside is safe for animals if i remember correct. i just kept the boys away from the walls/floorboards for a while untill it dried and then i would wipe up the floor just to be safe but it never caused an issue in our house. my ds did get bit by a spider when we first started(this bright red spider, ewwwww) and his whole hand and half way up his arm swelled up. he was fine but i wouldnt want to go thru that again. i wish that we could afford to have it done at the new house.

[starrynight]

Can you have just the outside sprayed as a compromise? That should keep the spiders from coming in and just be proactive in the yard about keeping them from having hiding spaces. Move outdoor stuff around every few days and don't leave things like buckets upside down.

[momma_boo]

You can talk to the exterminator and see if you can just spray outside first to see if that would be effective.

I had the exterminator come last summer b/c we were having a centipede problem. Those suckers are fast and FREAKY. The exterminator sprayed outside, in the basement and just by the front and back doors. We just saw another one the other night and I already called them. I know it seems like I'm jumping the gun but DD is so so phobic about bugs these days (she won't go up the front steps if she sees an ant) that if she saw one of these big suckers crawl across the living room, she would flip out.

[kristenk]

I think that the Terminix tech told me that spraying didn't help with spiders all that much. For spiders, you need to spray directly *on* them or something like that. If you know where they're coming from, I think spraying would work, but not if they're everywhere all of a sudden. Spraying *will* help get rid of all of the other bugs that are the spider's food supply, so that will eventually get rid of them. If you want to spray, just spray outside and that should help (eventually!).

I'm almost positive that I've heard the same thing from 2 different Terminix guys. We don't have a major spider problem, so I didn't investigate further.

[JulieL]

Reeca you could call the Butterfly House and ask if they have any tips about the recluses. They have a whole section of bugs there so I'm sure they get odd ball questions all the time. They might know some non chemcial remedies you use. I hear ya about them, our old house in Festus had them outside in the shed, and I think we saw black widows too - at least we don't have scorpians like they do in Texas, or the famous flying roaches (don't remember their name but those suckers are like 2+ inches long!) that they have in Florida (I had one of those fly in my hair when visiting my mom - talk about freaky!!!)

[jbowman]

We've been told the same thing. Having pest control come every few months has helped with the bug and spider problem.

[starrynight]

>Reeca you could call the Butterfly House and ask if they have
>any tips about the recluses. They have a whole section of
>bugs there so I'm sure they get odd ball questions all the
>time. They might know some non chemcial remedies you use. I
>hear ya about them, our old house in Festus had them outside
>in the shed, and I think we saw black widows too - at least we
>don't have scorpians like they do in Texas, or the famous
>flying roaches (don't remember their name but those suckers
>are like 2+ inches long!) that they have in Florida (I had one
>of those fly in my hair when visiting my mom - talk about
>freaky!!!)
>
>


Oh you mean those lovely (NOT) palmetto bugs? (which is the southern polite name for giant flying cockroach) GA has them too, or at least Ft. Benning and the other towns nearish the FL border. Blech!!! I have seen a few of them here in N. Texas but never saw any when I lived in Central TX. Up here we have the black widows and everything else too. I've never seen this many bugs in TX before.

[jbowman]

We are in Northeast Texas, and have black widows AND scorpions. Oh, and fire ants and gigantic mosquitos and bugs the size of dinner plates...ok, I'll stop there! ;)

[Corie]

Kristen,

We were told the same thing about the spiders.

My SIL and I were just talking about this yesterday. (about
the fact that spraying isn't going to kill the spiders)

[Corie]

Maybe someone knows more about this but I heard on the radio
that this is going to be a really bad summer with bugs due to the fact
our weather was so warm all winter.
(I'm talking about Dallas, Texas.)

Supposedly, you need 3-5 consecutive days of freezing temperatures
to kill off the larva. And, here in Dallas, we didn't get
those consecutive days of freezing.


Does anyone else know what I'm talking about??

[starrynight]

>Maybe someone knows more about this but I heard on the radio
>
>that this is going to be a really bad summer with bugs due to
>the fact
>our weather was so warm all winter.
>(I'm talking about Dallas, Texas.)
>
>Supposedly, you need 3-5 consecutive days of freezing
>temperatures
>to kill off the larva. And, here in Dallas, we didn't get
>those consecutive days of freezing.
>
>
>Does anyone else know what I'm talking about??

I didn't hear that but it makes sense. We had a few freezing days in a row in Jan. here in Wichita Falls but it didn't seem to help with the bugs! I have too much shade in my yard and I think that is the problem. All the shade and the trees draw more bugs. I like the shade because the kids can still play outside but the bugs are driving me bonkers.

[s_gosney]

We have spiders coming out of the woodwork here too (OK), and my dh is SO scared of them it's crazy. I've always heard this thing about winters that aren't cold enough making for worse bug problems, but I don't know for sure how true it is. Though with the dry weather and the already extreme heat (we broke 100 yesterday in mid-April?!?), maybe they'll all die off from heat or lack of other things to eat. Doubtful, but one can hope, right?

[ribbit1019]

My DH is freaked by spiders too. I have to "dispose" of them, even if they are on the ceiling and I have to climb on a chair with the vacuum and suck them up.

We have a major spider problem due to living so close to lake Erie. We get hit twice a year with swarms of Mayflies for a month each time and huge spiders get all over EVERYONES houses. Even if we sprayed it wouldn't make a difference. Trust me neighbors have tried! I have a broom specifically for sweeping our siding of webs when we have visitors.

I am very worried that one of our DC will be bitten by one of these monsters.

Christy
My Waterbabies
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[mommy_someday]

I was afraid of that... Guess it's back to the drawing board for DH and me. :P Thanks for your input!

[mommy_someday]

Thanks for all of your responses. I'm forwarding this thread to DH at work so we can discuss what to do. I really appreciate all the information!

And, Christy, I totally know what you mean about the huge monster spiders. We had one a few weeks ago (a garden spider, I think it's called) that built an enormous web from our guttering all the way to the low hedges in the front of the house. The spider's body was close to an inch in diameter (NOT including legs!). Yuck. Gave me the creeps all day.

[bubbaray]

I don't know if they work for all varieties of spiders, but we used to put whole chesnuts (with the brown part still on them) around the house. It definitely worked. They are safe around dogs (not sure about cats, but probably) and as long as you can keep your kiddo from playing with them, would probably be OK around kids. I would definitely try something like that before I used pesticides.


ETA: http://byfaithonly.com/Spiders.html

I have no idea if the tips there work. I also found another site that said chestnuts didn't work, but I know for a fact they worked for us in the past.

ETA2: http://www.stretcher.com/stories/02/02jul01a.cfm

ETA3: (and I'll stop editing now, LOL!) http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html



HTH

Melissa

Maya Papaya!
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