spiders in this house, what to do?

[Gypsy]

A kitten...that might be fun. I remember (growing up) that our dogs used to make short work of spiders like your cats do Gypsy. Sounds like you haven't had any problems, but do you think any of those creepy crawlies could make your kitties sick? Mind you, they do talk of how the protein of insects could feed the world...you should have seen that article. Some cultures, bugs are the norm...

I don't think so Begonia... from what I understand, they are good eating.
Might be fun, indeed!

 

[yssie]

A kitten...that might be fun. I remember (growing up) that our dogs used to make short work of spiders like your cats do Gypsy. Sounds like you haven't had any problems, but do you think any of those creepy crawlies could make your kitties sick? Mind you, they do talk of how the protein of insects could feed the world...you should have seen that article. Some cultures, bugs are the norm...

I don't think so Begonia... from what I understand, they are good eating.
Might be fun, indeed!

Our cats, unlike Gypsy's, are completely useless.
One will watch bugs from the bed but can't be bothered to investigate further if it means getting up.
One plays with them. Doesn't kill them, doesn't even damage them, just bats them around a bit 'til he gets bored - which only takes a couple of minutes.
When that one gets bored and walks off the third takes over. He's more active with them, and at this point they usually find hidden strength and fly/crawl/skitter away.
The fourth only eats bugs that are already dead.

 

[LAJennifer]

I had something similar and Dr. told me it was a spider bite, so that's what I would say for yours. Mine was on my boob, and thought it was an ingrown hair at first. Then it looked exactly like your picture.

I went to the Dr. today and he diagnosed me with . . . SHINGLES!!! So, not quite as glamorous as having been bitten by a brown recluse (I think I'll stick to that story, though).

I guess I'm lucky because I only have the 2 spots in the photo and they are healing.

 

[packrat]

hahahaha I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but that's such the opposite of a spider bite! My husband had shingles last year and was in agony. We thought he had a rash for a while tho, so it didn't get caught very quickly. I hope you're doing better!

 

[amc80]

A kitten...that might be fun. I remember (growing up) that our dogs used to make short work of spiders like your cats do Gypsy. Sounds like you haven't had any problems, but do you think any of those creepy crawlies could make your kitties sick? Mind you, they do talk of how the protein of insects could feed the world...you should have seen that article. Some cultures, bugs are the norm...

I don't think so Begonia... from what I understand, they are good eating.
Might be fun, indeed!

Our cats, unlike Gypsy's, are completely useless.
One will watch bugs from the bed but can't be bothered to investigate further if it means getting up.
One plays with them. Doesn't kill them, doesn't even damage them, just bats them around a bit 'til he gets bored - which only takes a couple of minutes.
When that one gets bored and walks off the third takes over. He's more active with them, and at this point they usually find hidden strength and fly/crawl/skitter away.
The fourth only eats bugs that are already dead.

We've got two cats, both completely useless. They "'pet" spiders...touch them so gently as to not hurt them.

 

[LAJennifer]

hahahaha I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but that's such the opposite of a spider bite! My husband had shingles last year and was in agony. We thought he had a rash for a while tho, so it didn't get caught very quickly. I hope you're doing better!

Oh, I know. I laugh too - I was certain it was a brown recluse. I'm still not 100% convinced it is shingles (the the doc was certain). I only have 2 and, while they don't feel "good", I'm certainly not in agony. They hurt only when touched. He didn't give me an scripts because they have to be started within the first 3 days of the outbreak, and I had gone a week. It is so weird, though.

 

[Matata]

LA Jenn -- so sorry about the shingles. Happy to hear that you are not suffering from a classic case which are reportedly agonizingly painful.

We have issues with ants here. Zillions would invade the homes in our area every spring. I have Terminix come every 3 months to spray around the house. They have products that are safe for cats & birds. I didn't want to poison the environment to be rid of insects. The products take care of spiders too.

 

[packrat]

I'd tell people it was a brown recluse. Sounds a lot more bad ass, I think.

 

[Begonia]

I hope you feel better LaJenn

Remember all those giant spider movies of the 70's and 80's?

One of them the spider was the size of a car, and you could see the wheels under the feet of the spider (it was a float of sorts)...forget the name of that one .

Good times.

And the killer bee movies. I was 10 years old and staying awake worrying about the the killer bees...

 

[Begonia]

Thought I'd bring you up to date with the spidies

Hubbie perimeter sprayed with a pyrethrin-based insecticide inside and out (this formulations is recommended for both). It is working well against bringing more in, and now we have to deal with what is already in the house. I've taken all suggestions and we are closing holes and gaps everywhere.

Things are getting better.

I do still live in spider-central.

I was outside today doing fall clean-up and came across one of those tarantuloids (Antrodiaetus pacificus))behind a planter pot and up against the house. It had built a silk burrow.

Creeeeeeeeeeeepy!

So here is another suggestion: move all things away from the house like pots and plants. The plants are a good idea for rats and squirrels and such, but I hadn't thought about them harboring spiders (forgive me if that was already a suggestion!). If it was, you bet they provide habitat.

I hate to harp on about that bad boy/girl, but it was...

 

[JewelFreak]

Harp away, Begonia! I admire your bravery. To save my sanity, I'd have to live in a motel until every single one of those awwwwwful animals was in spider heaven! One reason I'll never move to Colorado, where my sister lives -- she has tarantulas all over (and they jump 6' high!), and has found black widows in her clothes in the closets. Shriek.

LAJen -- congratulations on having "only" shingles. Hope you're doing well. Brown recluse bites are dangerous as heck, and probably more painful. My neighbor was bitten by one; they're so toxic, they often don't heal. She had 2 skin grafts on her thigh where it bit her, about 4" square -- that's 2 surgeries, and it still wasn't healing well a year later. Plus a huge scars where they grafted it & where they took the skin from. After her ordeal, I always check carefully any clothes I haven't worn in a while before I put them on.

--- Laurie

 

[bluebirrrd]

Begonia, it sounds like you're getting a handle on the spiders, yay! We live in the mountains in a ranch house with an old adobe bedroom. The rest of the house was built around that in the 50's, so it's old! We've never had pest control service so it's just kind of an ongoing thing here - trap the wolf and wood spiders under glass and take them outside and vacuum up the daddy long legs and their webs constantly. I figure that's the price for living so close to nature, but I understand a lot of people couldn't handle it.

Once, and one time only, a tarantula somehow found it's way into the house. It was....crawling on the ceiling!!!! For most people, I'm sure that's like something out of a horror movie, but he got caught and placed gently outside too. It's never happened again.

Never had a brown recluse, knock on wood. They're nothing to mess with. I'm not sure pest control service is even enough for those guys. I do know someone who was bit at his apartment complex where they had monthly sprays. Not knowing what it was, he didn't attend to it promptly and he ended up in the hospital and then with a permanent hole in his thigh that you could stick a finger into. Most spiders don't bother me, but those are evil little critters for sure.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

I actually grew up liking spiders, especially the orb variety because they make such beautiful webs so quickly! Industrious little buggers. Anyways, my parents hated them so I used to "Rescue" spiders in other areas of the house and put them outside or in my room before my mom found them. As a result I had a lot of spiders and webs in various corners of my room. One little guy even tried to take up residence in the bottom layer of my jewelery box, haha. I left him in piece until it became too much of a nuisance.

Anyways, hubby and I live in a lot of nature, and bugs are inevitable. I don't mind the spiders since like people have mentioned, they're busy eating something! But man, some of these guys are FAST when it comes to the webs popping up. I swear, I didn't work out for like 2 weeks, and when I got back to it, they had put webs between my weights. Talk about feeling guilty about not working out...it had been so long that there were literally cobwebs! Haha..

Once I went outside and there was literally a web bigger than me near the garage. I had hubby take a picture of me next to it. I have no idea what that spider was trying to catch, maybe one of the local dear? Regardless, it was some pretty ambitious work for a spider that was only maybe 3-4 inches long.

I attached a pic just because I think it was such an impressive web, lol. But if it's too skeevy I can delete it again. Still, I wish I had this guy's work ethic! It popped up the web in a matter of a few hours.

 

[Begonia]

Holy crap. Look at the size of that!

They do creep me out, but at the same time, I too really admire their work ethic. Industrious little buggers for sure. I'll clean off the deck and come back maybe an hour later, and there are 3 or 4 fully formed webs. I feel like a shmuck to take them down, but I hate running face-first into webs, with spidey dangling along.

Earlier in the summer when hubbie and I would sit in the hottub, I would watch 'Dude'. He/she had a web very near the tub, and would come out at night. I'd sit for half hour or so watching Dude repair the web and patrol the perimeter over and over and over. That little guy just never sat still the whole time. Then one day I went out at twilight and Dude was gone. Web and all.

Wonder if the bigger spiders have personalities? Dude kinda did in his way.