Genna- Thanks for the advice! I've got bunches of pots in my storage (from plants I've killedLOL) and never thought to look before I grab them. I will now!
I chased my dog one time and ran into a spider web. It stuck to my upper body ( yes face also) I totally forgot about my dog and I guess I was jumping and waving my hands franticly and I reckon yelling because my neighbors came out to see if I was ok. That's a bad feeling when the web sticks to you. I didn't know where the spider was and still don't! don't know what kind either:(
I'm gonna be more careful.
black widow spider
Once you see a black widow or a bw web, you will be able to identify it....their webs seem more helter skelter to me and courser..... not really sure how to describe it..... but they aren't little fine dainty threads......
I have running into spider webs as well.... I can remember being a kid and running thru the woods and catching big webs on our faces - YUCK!!! Even walking behind my Dad - often he would get the ones up high, but I would end up catching the ones lower down. ^_^
Genna
We lived in Australia for a few years and had "redbacks" there -- the Aussie version of the black widow. Hubby pulled one off of my hair once. It had dropped down onto me from an overhead lattice. The redbacks (and I presume black widows) love metal for some reason, so particularly watch metal fences, stakes, pots, tools, etc.
In Australia we also learned to shake out our boots and garden shoes. That is a common place to find them. My friend got bit on the foot because he forgot to shake out his boots. He had to spend time in the hospital and used a cane for many weeks after that. No fun.
Speaking of Australian spiders, it's quite a thrill to see a Huntsman spider in your livingroom -- big furry things but apparently harmless. I guess they are a relative of the tarantula. Still - yuck.
YUCK for sure!! Wouldn't want to deal with anything similar to a tarantula either!!
Last summer we had a veggie garden for the first time in many years - and I had a pair of leather shoes that were worn out that I used in the garden - I always left them on my back porch and would "shake" them out as you say in the mornings if I was headed to the garden. Well, one morning I came out to put them on and hit them on the edge of the porch but as I started to put them on I had a weird feeling...... so I LOOKED into the shoe and thought I saw a spot of red. I bent the shoe and looked closer to see a small black widow (hr glass shining) in the toe of the shoe! I took a stick and killed it and then THREW the shoes away! My husband laughed because I threw the shoes away - but they were VERY worn out and the sole was so loose the sand would get in them as I worked but I no longer wanted them after the black widow decided they liked them. More importantly I learned that "knocking" the shoes as I had done for years was really no protection was so ever! I swore then there would not be ANY more shoes left outside that couldn't be seen into EASILY such as crocs etc.
Genna
Good point on choice of footwear, Genna. My garden shoes are about disintegrated and time to find something else, so timely advice. LiseP
Genna...that is why i leave a pair of flip flops on each porch! nothing can hide in them,lol.
I have a bad habit of leaving my boys shoes outside b/c they get so dirty. Never thought of knocking them or looking in them- Bet I will now!!
I'm the official shoe patrol at our house. A couple years ago my oldest son put on his baseball cleats and got stung by a scorpion. For months after that none of my kids would put on a pair of shoes without having me shake it out. It made getting out of the house very time consuming. The only times I have gotten stung was late at night when I went downstairs for a late night snack and it really hurts. Now I need to look out for Black widows too?
Lisa
LOL .... probably you are ok - we just have a LARGE population at our new home. I do not usually bother with shoes that are on the inside unless it is something that I have had in the closet for a long time without wearing - but then I have never found a brown recluse in my house. If I start finding them too - I am in serious trouble!!
Genna
well...hmmm...the brown recluse would kill the black widows so maybe they would be a good thing,lol. not really...your comment just reminded me of a nursery I used to go to that was run by very earth/natural type people. (actually I believe they were woodstock refugees). anyway...I was in their building waiting to pay when the owner got to talking to the guy in front of me. he wanted some seeds and she told him she had to be very careful opening the drawer that they were in because a black widow lived in the drawer. I am thinking "hmmmm"...when he up and told her to find a brown recluse and put it in the drawer and it would kill the black widow...and they are having a good time discussing this and I am just thinking "these people are nuts"!!!!!!!!!!
So I guess they thought that being bitten by a brown recluse would be preferable to being bitten by a black widow? Maybe I'm missing the logic there. Wonder if it occurred to them to just 'relocate' the black widow (if they were opposed to just terminating its existence).
I totally missed the logic too,lol.
Yeah - I don't understand that type of logic either .... guess I am WAY too violent because I kill EVERY black widow I can !! If there was ONE in that drawer - it wouldn't be long before there were thousands! Those things reproduce like crazy !! Not sure how they keep finding a willing male - considering they kill them afterward, but they raise 3 - 5 sets of babies per year each consistenting of 300 - 400 from what I have read! and I can testify at my house they were literally taking over!! Went from seeing an occasional one to seeing SEVERAL every day!! But I sprayed and eliminated a lot of them - reminds me it is time to spray again.
I did however watch part of a program last night that my son was watching that said that ounce per ounce the venom in a brown recluse is some of the most toxic in the world....... I DO NOT want to find out!!!
Genna
those black widow nests strike terror in my heart when I see them! when I was bit by the brown recluse I couldn't believe how fast my hand and arm started swelling and turning red then purple then going to black. I went straight to the urgent care clinic though and got some high powered antibiotics and I didn't have the problems thank goodness that my dad had. he almost lost his right arm due to one of those suckers.
I have heard they are really bad! My sister suffered TREMENDOUSLY with her black widow bite, but I don't think it would have been as bad if the first doc had not given the shot of Epi.....
Genna
I was watching a show on Animal Planet last nite and there was a spider in Australia that the bite can kill you if you don't get anti-venom. They raise up on their hind legs and stike. They looked pretty big to me. Scarey!! I tried to remember the name but I'm sure someone knows it. something web, I think??
To be so small they can really be dangerous! Are the black widow spider webs noticeable?
Black widows tend to build their webs in "out of the way places - you will OFTEN find them UNDER things, such as rocks, pieces of paper or cardboard that might have been laying for a couple of days....and when we were building our home we found them on a regular basis anytime we moved black plastic....... thank goodness for the red hour glass!! From my experience, the female usually puts her eggsack out of direct sunlight - although I have seen many in plain view - just not direct sun (if that makes any sense). As our population grew at our home, they started building on a regular basis in windows (in the corners), in the ceiling of my chicken house and up in the corners of it, and I have found them under the edges of my porch, in the corners of the house (inside L's of the house) or even where the porch meets the wall of the house, etc. Once you see a couple of black widow webs they will be pretty obvious what they are even if there is no BW on it....... the seem to courser and denser than most spider webs (to me anyway) and more helter skelter (no pretty patterns or designs here!). I wish I had some pics and I would gladly post them - but I never thought to take pictures!! Just trying to eliminate the things! Thankfully, after spraying the demon wp I have only seen one. I sprayed it about this time last year.
Thankfully, most people never see a black widow..... until I moved into my new home 5 1/2 yrs ago. I could probably count on one hand how many times I had seen a live black widow .....and I grew up in the country on a farm! and I also lived almost 20 yrs in a small "town" only about 7 miles from where I live now......so it is not zone or environment (as far as temps, heat, rainfall, etc) but where I live is very sandy and that MIGHT have something to do with it??? I am not sure WHY we had such a problem. But we have seen them since shortly after we started building (someone originally told me they were drawn to the new construction ???) and the population just continued to increase to the point where one afternoon we killed 17 !! I KNEW they were poisonous, but I had always been afraid of spiders anyway. I had kept saying I was going to have to find something to kill them - but never followed thru..... it was after my sister went thru so much and I realized that could have been one of my kids that I knew I had to wage war against them. Now, like I said, we have definitely put a dent in the population but I have to really watch myself now since I haven't seen one in a while, I tend to pick up things or move pots around or whatever without paying as much attention as I should! The one i have seen this year was under a small piece of cardboard that had gotten left on my concrete pad (where we park the cars) for a couple of days and when I picked it up to put in the trash - I got a surprise!
I have had black widows from the size smaller than the eraser on a pencil- probably half that size.... to those almost as large as a quarter !!
Genna
Boy they can get big!!
I think the spiders I saw on TV were called funnel web spiders and they were huge.
It scares me because my boys (4 & 2) pick up every insect, bug, worm, etc they see. I have to keep my eyes on my 2 year old cause he will squat in the middle of ant mounds and try to pick the ants up!! The big red ones. How he gets away without being bit is beyond me.
Spiders are scary and dangerous!!
Oh, I know exactly what you mean! Thank goodness we didn't live where we do now when my kids were little. My boys are 5 yrs apart, but my youngest son and daughter are only 53 weeks apart and that boy picked up EVERYTHING and got into EVERYTHING!! ^_^ I never saw a black widow where we were living then - THANK GOODNESS!!
My oldest son was about 19 when he called me on the phone one day wanting to know where my camera was. (I have a camera with a zoom lens for shooting sports) and he had spotted a very large black widow on our back porch and thought he wanted to take a picture of it. Well about the time he zoomed in on it - the thing lunged in the air to catch a grasshopper going by! My son had the camera zoomed in, so even though he was a safe distance away, it "appeared" that it was lunging after him! He jumped and almost fell off the porch - he called me back telling me about it and said he had about had a heart attack when the thing did that because he thought it was coming after him!! ^_^ It was so funny because he was so "brave" and wanted to take all these pictures.....then ended up scaring himself!
Genna
OK now my skin crawls even more to know they jump. I have a horrible fear of spiders. I hate walking out my front door or anywhere that I get into a web. I want to tear my clothes off looking for the spider. I do a low kinda scream and start dancing. I never do find it so I hope it sees me coming and runs. Last year was bad they were across the front door and sidewalk path a lot.
I had what I call a crab spider that made a huge one between 2 trees. I was mowing before Hurricane Ike and I kept reminding myself it was there. Yeah I pushed the mower and me right through it. OM Gosh talk about the Heebie Geebies. I dance for a while. I guess next time I realize and knock the web down before I start mowing.
If they are in my yard I like to leave them of course in a web as the mosquitoes are out day and night. But things change as my jobs around the house change.
When we first moved in the guy who was spraying our house told us we had nests of Brown Recluse all around the slab. If I am weeding and they come out as long as they are heading away from me I leave them alone. I don't see where they look like brown recluse but he said these like living in the day light. I never heard there was 2 till then. I never questioned just had respect to stay out of their way.
If there is a spider in my home, it better be in a place like around the front door windows or up at the beam on the high ceiling and respect I must see it at stays there out of my way. But the one at the front door right now has not respected it is my home as there is 5 casings of eggs. Nope my home not hers. They have to go.
Sometimes a long stick and they end up outside far away from the door or they get sprayed first.
When I lived in Baytown I was a clean freak But I had no garden then...things changed. But I was down on my hands and knees removing the wax from the vinyl in the kitchen. We had a really bad year for wolf spiders always in the house that year. When this huge one came walking out on the floor I can't remember if I threw some ammonia water on it but I almost died from a heart attack when a huge part of the floor was black with the babies I did not know were on her back. I thought I would die until they were all drown in the ammonia water. I had the creeps for yrs over that.
I really grossed my self out one Halloween. My son did not live here and I went to the store and they had real looking rubber spiders the size of a dinner plate. I bought it as he loved trantulas and had one where he lived once. I took it out of the bag and tossed it on the floor to see what my doxie thought. She stuck up here nose and never bothered it. OH my everytime I walked past it I would shiver and get sick as it would catch me off guard. It looked so real. Finally it had to be put away. I could not take it. I cane not watch arachnophobia movie I get very nauseous and sick. Real or not...Not for me.
Well, the black widows don't really jump, but realize he was looking thru a 200 zoom lens! So they do move quickly and she wasn't covering a large area but it was greatly magnified! Kinda like looking at bug parts in a microscope! ^_^
I thankfully have not found any bw's inside my house - found one as close as the outside of my french door - but not INSIDE. I hate to think what would happen if I did find one because the ENTIRE house from top to bottom would have to be sprayed with Demon WP before I could even go to sleep!
If you really have brown recluses, I would be poisoning them as well. They can do a lot of damage from one of their bites. I have never heard of brown recluse that likes light though.... you might do some searching on the web because that may not be what you have .
I realize most spiders are harmless, but they sure make me hurt myself sometimes. I have always been extremely arachnophobic, but I did get a little better about not totally panicking after having children....... I have never even attempted to watch the movie! I know I couldn't .........
Genna
I was a my brothers in PA after the movie was released on VHS. I was watch my 2 nephews and they put it in. I stayed out of the room but it is a trailer. I finally made them turn it off. They had plenty of time after I went back home to Texas. lol
Yes I have always wondered if there was such a light living BR. There is alot of spiders but I have never seen a BR and hope not to.
I don't know why I keep reading this thread it keeps getting creepier and creepier.
Lisa
One of my granddaughters pointed out a "really neat spider web" by their back fence. It was on the outside of the fence, but still close enough so that if the spider wanted to, it could easily hop onto the chainlink fence. I told her that I thought it was a black widow spider and that it was dangerous. She said, "No, it's not, Grandma. I looked and it doesn't have that red hourglass marking on it." But *I saw the red hourglass marking.
So, after I got home I double-checked online. Sure enough, it WAS a black widow. I called my daughter and told her to keep the kids away from the back fence and to go out there and spray the area. (Normally I don't believe in using pesticides, but I sure didn't want the kids to get bitten by such a nasty spider.)
She did spray. However, a week or so later, their uncle killed a brown recluse that was hanging around in their garage! YIKES! The kids are so into nature (they're 6, 4 1/2, and 3 1/2 and love to collect bugs, etc.) that I'm always afraid they're going to grab hold of the wrong thing and end up in the hospital (or worse).
Crab spider! That's what I called the spider that had the web I ran into. They looked liked little crabs. They built their nests from one thing to another, like you said. I did a dance and screamed also that my neighbors came to see if I was ok. What kind of spiders are they really?
My boys pick up beetles, rollie pollies, ants, pincher bugs, anything they can. It scares me to death.
They are into turning bricks over at Papa's house and I keep telling them(grandparents) that a spider could be under one. The boys do it to find bugs.
How scarey!!
I don't know what kind of spider it is but they do look just like a crab. Hard shell and all. I would rather die than find a spider on me.
I will see if I can find it on the internet.
Here it is and not a crab spider. They are different looking. It is a spinybacked orbweaver
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/G_cancriformis05.jpg
This message was edited Jun 12, 2009 10:39 PM
Yes that's it! Scarey looking and boy do they make webs. BIG ones. I'm guessing they are harmless but I'll go look them up.
It's not a crab spider, I looked that up. They just look scarey. But what spider doesn't??
I found a little jumping spider on my dryer this morning. They can give you the creeps hugh!!
we had those crab spiders in a rent house that we lived in last year while we were waiting on our house to be built. there were literally hundreds of them that built in the trees in the front and side yards. I would not go out when it started getting dark.
Harmless or not I sure don't want one on me. ewwwww
the jumping spiders can really jump they give me the creeps. They din't mind if in the house to jump right at you.
ICK! This morning I was sorting laundry, dropping darks and lights in two piles on the floor in the bedroom. When I picked up the light pile, I felt a tickle and guess what was marching up my arm...
I screeched like a banshee; my poor husband thought I was under nuclear attack (not even bitten and probably scared the spider more than he did me) and he had to stalk it till it was smushed.
I contend this is what husbands are for: squishing bugs, carrying in the heavy groceries, and reaching the stuff on the top shelf. They have other lovely uses, but these are the top three. I am so glad I am not a guy!
~Kate
Kate,
I believe the same thing but my DH passed almost 3 yrs ago and I have to do it myself now. I really truly hate spiders. I have not figured put how I keep reading this thread as it gives me the heebie geebies.
Lastnight there was 2 big tree roaches in my bedroom. I was screaming. Ewwwwww. If my doxie sees them she bites them till they are almost lifeless. She did but it seemed like it was still kicking. I have been spraying my dogs with alcohol to kill the fleas so I got the spray bottle when she was done with it and gave it a total bath. It never moved again. :o) It is time to spray Demon on the base boards when they are not belly up when I see them.
As for spiders the one at the front door met its demise when a horse fly came in. I sprayed it with a wasp spray that sprays 27 ft. Needless to say..I said bye bye.... But there are like 5 little cotton ball looking things of eggs,,,,Time that they have to go. I will get a long stick and gather them on the end and throw them outside.
My house could never be big enough for me and roaches, spiders, fleas, or any bug for that matter. I go or they do and so far I am bigger with a spray bottle or can or a big very long stick. lol :o)
just wait until your kitty cat brings you a present at 2 am in the morning,lol. the same rent house we were living in that had the crab spiders also had scorpions from time to time. I got up at 2 am one morning to go downstairs to get a drink of water and something for a headache...was standing blearily at the sink when I see Rastus, my cat, come charging towards me from the direction of the living room. the downstairs was all wood flooring. my first thought was that he looked just like a hockey player coming down the ice heading for the goal. he was batting something in front of him furiously. he got to about 10 feet from me and he gave one more swipe and something comes flying towards me and lands at my feet. it was a live scorpion. talk about doing some screaming and dancing,lol. I grabbed the heaviest thing at hand(cookbook) and started smashing that thing. I did forget all about the headache though. of course, hubby slept through it all.
Lots of laughs on the hubby sleeping thru it all .... mine would do the same thing!! Ilovejesus - you can use that demon around the outside of your doorways , porches, windows etc too. I use the Demon WP (wettable powder) to keep my BWs under control and it has really worked well! I have wanted to clean out every closet, etc and spray the baseboards just as a preventative for any potential spiders, roaches, etc although so far I haven't seen anything inside the house..... but I never seem to find the time to clean out closets!!
Now, I need to find something for snakes! My husband killed a copperhead last night less than a foot from our back door *ON* the back porch !!! I was wishing I had a "demon spray" for them !! ^_^
Genna
ilovejesus99: "I have been spraying my dogs with alcohol to kill the fleas..."
I've never heard of doing this. Can you elaborate? Is it pure alcohol or do you water it down? Doesn't the alcohol dry out the dog's skin? Do you rub it in or just spray the surface of the dog's coat?
Do you also use any of the topical treatments (like Frontline)?
Please tell me more? My dogs have been scratching like crazy. We've Cedarcided the yard, vacuum the house twice a week, change the bedding, spray, etc. and even I'm getting flea bites.
The topical treatments don't seem to kill the fleas immediately. I think it takes about 4 hours to kill them - IF they stay on the dog. But if they hop off into the carpeting or wherever, then it's difficult to kill them (and, of course, they multiply!).
My dogs are itching too. I can't find fleas so I was thinking mosquitos? I have De Flea I got from PetSmart. Bit I'd like to know more of the alcohol stuff. I'm betting it's cheaper than the stuff I got and with 3 dogs I need something cheap but works:)
Tree Roaches? I had a big roach behind my bedroom door. My big dog, Oreo, kept scrathing at the door jam and when I moved the door I saw it. My little ones, Minnie and Mickey(chihuahua's) started barking at it. I knocked it off the door and it started running on the floor. Are those called tree roaches?
Are these spiders and roaches coming inside now b/c of the heat? It's been as high as 108 the past few days!
Years ago when I was using frontline and adams flea spray I could smell mostly alcohol in the spray. So I had a bright idea to just use straight alcohol. It works wonderful. It is so cheap 1.88 for the 32 ounce bottle or 1.00 at Dollar General for the small. I got the 32 ounce at Walmart. I have been doing it everyday on my doxie and chaweenie. Their coats are beautiful. No dry skin and the fleas dry up if you get it on them and they are gone.
It is a battle because it does not kill the eggs. But just keep doing it. I did use frontline the other day as they are almost under control. But this has been the worst yr I have ever seen. My Doxies stomach was covered when I started and now down to under a dozen on the whole dog.
You can bathe them also in between and I put them in the tub and run the water till it is right past their stomachs so if there is any there they will drown. I later them with just shampoo of whatever I have and hold them there rubbing on them to keep them soothed for 5 min. When you spray them off the fleas are dead. The smother from lack of oxygen. Just make sure no air is caught under their belly so not even 1 flea lives. Of course they are still in the carpet and everywhere until you get them under control. I spray my bed because they sleep with me with alcohol. It would not hurt the carpet either.
I sprayed my whole house with Bengal for fleas, larvae and eggs. Ha what a waste of 10.00 dollars. It said it lasted a whole season. Maybe a 10 milliseconds of the season.
This is my secret formula. Just plain alcohol and a spray bottle. rub it in good it they have long hair.
Can't wait to see you post what you think when you all use it. It is cheap and 100% works. But it takes a while as bad as they are this year.They are biting me too.
Blessings,
Sandy
You can use this on a cat too. Just make sure there are no sores of any kind as it will burn. I sometimes use surgical gloves when spraying them and rubbing it in. Sometimes I also pick they off after spraying and they are running around on the dogs to escape. I drop them in a glass that I pour some alcohol. They die in there :o) This is killing I enjoy. :o)
Blessings,
Sandy
Just make sure you use the alcohol in a well ventilated area. There is a roll-on flea control that is on the market that is 100% alcohol. Sometimes the alcohol will just "Stun" the fleas but then you can squish them between your finger nails to kill them.
Lisa
1lisac You mean I did not invent this. I really had no idea as Adams flea spray smells like mostly alcohol. Wow I could have been rich. ;o)
Yes the fleas need to get really wet to die.