Spiders in the garage..

But they're the wrong kind! Instead of drop-tops & oil leaks, they got eight legs and webs!

I went in to throw out some stuff that got soaked in the flooding, and they're everywhere! They've started spinning webs in the Alfa, and even the black C (which I actually drive a few days a week). And every spare I've got sitting on a shelf or leaning against the wall is just covered. I thought about a couple of "mosquito tone" boxes, but we have a 5-yr old here and I've heard children can actually hear the things. And I really don't want to spray the whole thing down with Super Toxic Nuke-a-Bug or anything, I figure all the automotive chemicals are poisoning me well enough already.

Any suggestions?

fog your garage?

Shotgun. Or a cat. Seriously, a cat will catch them. Just make sure there is no way for the cat to get into any antifreeze.

Last year, I had a lot of bugs in the shop. Everything from spiders, mosquitoes, to a couple of noisy crickets. One cay a frog jumped in the door and went under my work bench. I tried to shoo it out but it wouldn't go. I figgered it would find it's way out and left it alone. Over the next couple of weeks, I'd see it all over the shop, in each corner, on a different day. I started to leave a low container of water out for it. One day, I opened the door and there was the frog, trying to jump across the middle of the shop. It was so fat that it had fat rolls on it's side and could only jump about 6 inches with great effort. There wasn't a bug left in the place. No crickets, spiders, mosquitoes, nothing. Not even a spider egg sack.

So, I'd suggest a pet frog.

Great story Doc

I got stalked by a very large huntsman type spider that i walked up on while he was enjoying my garage.. when you stomp your foot and the spider gets pissed off, you know its going to be a rough day. ive seen friendlier spiders in horror movies, this critter moved at lightening speed and jumped at me a few times...its only the second spider ive ever been afraid of, and both exceeded the size of my hand...

I nuked the garage with bug bombs, but never found a carcass. on the upside, i havent seen another bug in there since the hunter made his presence known...

Of all the Good Lords critters, spiders are the ones I really fear. Living in SoFla, I get to see HUMOUNGOUS ones. Shiver, argghh. OK, I'm a wuss.

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I would rather have a hundred and sixty five big scary non-poisionous spiders runnin' amok in my house than one lousy berkeleying cockaroach. The end.

The spiders have free reign of the yard and the garage, and we have instituted the 'Spider Relocation Network' for those big enough to trip over that find their way into the house. The spider relocating is done via a tupperware container that has no lid and a piece of thin cardboard bigger than the opening of the tupperware. Place tupperware over the spider, slide the cardboard under and escort into the wilderness that is just beyond the back door.

My wife freaks when she sees a huge spider, absolutely freezes with fear, of course to me a spider that is 3/8 of an inch across is not huge, but to her.....

Now back in Oz we have some spiders

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

The way I figure it, if there's no food available the spiders will move on.

If there is food, I'd rather have spiders around than whatever they're eating.

As long as the spiders in question aren't dangerous to people anyhow.

I never minded spiders until I got bit on the ear... and it swelled up to about 4 times it's normal size. It was painfully red and it looked like the skin was going to crack and split open at any moment.

Since then all spiders must die

I used to be debilitatingly afraid of spiders. I've got a big old scar on my leg from a spider bite. One day I decided that it was stupid to be afraid of them, and now I like them alot. I always catch them in a tissue or just let them crawl up on my hand, and take them outside to the yard.

Joey

The garage is loaded with spiders and there are plenty of frogs outside of the garage due to the creek in the back yard. Any frogs that find their way in usually don't find their way out. They end up nice and crunchy in a corner somewhere.

I usually leave the wolf spiders alone as they don't build any webs and chase around the other bugs. The others, however, are quite a nuisance and webs form all over in just a day. I haven't found a grassroots way around this yet, short of fire.

Spiders built a citadel out of webs in the seat frames of my Jeep. They stage attacks on me periodically while I drive.

And then there's my apartment. Once, my dog burped up a hairy little SOB in my living room. And he released a frog in there too. Was a real pain to catch.

If you've ever seen Kingdom of Heaven and you got to the part where the two big armies are racing towards each other, imagine them as being made up of spiders and both heading the same way through the front door of my apartment. I don't know why they all ran in at once, but it was quite an assortment of spiders. Big ones, small ones, short, tall, all kinds. Dr. Seuss could have a field day with that one. More diversity than a model United Nations. Except they all apparently wanted my blood. I think some were pregnant, because when I smashed them a bunch of little spiders appeared to take their place. Clever bastards.

There are three ginormous attercops on the porch ceiling by my front door... I think they like hanging around the porch light to see what bumbles into their webs. The biggest one has a bum the size of a grape. They're pretty cool. Bugs don't bother me. Except maybe bedbugs ~shiver~

only spiders I have are the "daddy long legs" that prey on other spiders... still do not like them though.

I'm with the " let the spiders be." crowd. They eat bunches of mosquitoes, so they're good in my book. I live on the edge of a fairly large swamp, so bugs sometimes present a problem. One thing I use in my shop/shed, is a combo of boric acid powder and cayenne pepper, sprinkled in the corners. The boric is toxic, and the pepper burns their toes.

I really don't want to kill them..I just want `em out of my garage. We live as far out into the sticks as my commute to the city of Atlanta will allow. We're close to Allatoona Lake, and the mosquitos are horrible. Also, we don't seem to have the problems with cockroaches that we did when we lived in the urban suburbs (although my g/f thinks that's the ant colonies killing them, instead of the spiders).

OTOH, I've seen both Brown Recluses and Black Widows while trying to clear out enough space to work, and I sure don't want to be bitten by one of those. I'm tempted to just fog the place down, but I know they'll be back when the poison wears off (we live in "the sticks", remember? ). And having her 5yr old around makes me rethink the whole chemical warfare thing..

I think I may fog it once, sweep it out, and then go for the boric acid/cayenne pepper thing NYG mentioned. Is boric really toxic? When I used it for cockroach control, I was told that it was just that the grains were small enough to get into their breathing orifices and asphyxiate them...

friedgreencorrado wrote: ... Is boric *really* toxic? When I used it for cockroach control, I was told that it was just that the grains were small enough to get into their breathing orifices and asphyxiate them...

Never heard of the smothering thing; my understanding was that boric acid destroyed their reproductive capacity (i.e.neuter your roaches). I'm not certain how well the ground pepper repels inscects, but I know it works for mice and rats, so i use it in concert. I was reading an article about ship builders, and it seems that paint companies have started adding pure caspisan ( the chemical "hot" in peppers) to their hull paint. The reason? Now barnacles won't even come close to it, let alone breed and stick. Scraping barnacles off a hull must be one of the worst jobs in the shipyard.

OTOH, I keep about 14 varities of hot sauce in my kitchen. Apparently. the pepper thing doesn't work on certain animals

P.S. Speaking of Brown Recluse, I got nailed by a Fiddleback several years ago, and I have to say.. it ain't fun.

friedgreencorrado wrote: I really don't want to kill them..I just want `em out of my garage. We live as far out into the sticks as my commute to the city of Atlanta will allow. We're close to Allatoona Lake, and the mosquitos are horrible. Also, we don't seem to have the problems with cockroaches that we did when we lived in the urban suburbs (although my g/f thinks that's the ant colonies killing them, instead of the spiders). OTOH, I've seen both Brown Recluses and Black Widows while trying to clear out enough space to work, and I sure don't want to be bitten by one of *those*. I'm tempted to just fog the place down, but I know they'll be back when the poison wears off (we live in "the sticks", remember? ). And having her 5yr old around makes me rethink the whole chemical warfare thing.. I think I may fog it once, sweep it out, and then go for the boric acid/cayenne pepper thing NYG mentioned. Is boric *really* toxic? When I used it for cockroach control, I was told that it was just that the grains were small enough to get into their breathing orifices and asphyxiate them...

Ooh Brown Recluses are nasty things. Not usually deadly (same with the black widow) but they leave one hell of a hole wherever they bite. I remember someone got bit on the arm and posted up a pic on the Jeep forum.

Anyway, I dunno about any of that. I just went to Wal Mart and bought some spider killer/repellent and sprayed all around my doorway. Haven't seen any try to mount another attack yet. I respray it every so often

friedgreencorrado wrote: I went in to throw out some stuff that got soaked in the flooding, and they're everywhere!

Maybe once the ground is not saturated they'll go home.

I'm sure the spidey message boards are all abuzz with the inconveniences of living in some human dwelling. Psh, eye talian carz.

friedgreencorrado wrote: But they're the wrong kind! Instead of drop-tops & oil leaks, they got eight legs and webs! I went in to throw out some stuff that got soaked in the flooding, and they're everywhere! They've started spinning webs in the Alfa, and even the black C (which I actually *drive* a few days a week). And every spare I've got sitting on a shelf or leaning against the wall is just covered. I thought about a couple of "mosquito tone" boxes, but we have a 5-yr old here and I've heard children can actually hear the things. And I really don't want to spray the whole thing down with Super Toxic Nuke-a-Bug or anything, I figure all the automotive chemicals are poisoning me well enough already. Any suggestions?

No need to spray "super toxic nukey stuff." By the cheapest indoor/outdoor spray you can find. Dump it into a garden sprayer and spray along the walls, in corners, etc. Do a 3' wide strip around the outside of the house once every three months or so, and your bug problems will be a thing of the past.

Oh yeah, and I NEVER leave my windows open, even when parked in the garage.

I've been nailed by brown recluses a couple times. They suck. I have a spot that looks like a smallpox vaccine on my back, except we had liquid smallpox vaccines when I was a kid so I don't have a hole from that. We have black widow spiders here too.

It was my understanding that "science" didn't really know how or why boric acid kills bugs. I think some theories was that the stuff damaged their outer skeleton and they dehydrated because of that.

Where's DDT when you need it?

The democrats took my DDT away. They took it away. Away from me.

Dr. Hess wrote: I've been nailed by brown recluses a couple times. They suck. I have a spot that looks like a smallpox vaccine on my back, except we had liquid smallpox vaccines when I was a kid so I don't have a hole from that. We have black widow spiders here too.

We had both in KS as well.

Brown recluses by the dozens and the occasional widow.

Sticky traps took care of most of the recluses, and I sprayed the widows in their webs when found.

Left the rest of the webs alone.