You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
This is for clean & clutter & spider FREE.
We have a 60 yr old home, finished basement. Typically, I find about 1-2 VERY humongeous spiders in my basement, in a yrs time. This yr I have found these monstors about every other day for 2 weeks now. In the tub or in the basement. And we have a spider-thread here @ DG's annually too. Maybe since the last thread there has been new discovery re: traps and killers for these things. I bet having gone 2 yrs w/o our cat has something to do w/ this? My DH is going to get the shop vac and do the basement for me; I usually do this bi-annually but these biggies have me in a tizzy!
What is it about spiders and bathtubs? Esp big spiders? I remember once I was in Colorado visiting this guy I was seeing, and he had this huge designer bathroom ($$$), told me to use the bath/hot tub...well, I went to turn the water on and there was this big black ugly colorado spider in there...no thanks! A few days later I thought I'd try again, and there was ANOTHER one in there. Then I saw one on the couch...I was like, someone needs to call an exterminator for goodness sake, how can you even live in this house knowing that at any moment you could cross paths with one of those huge things???????????????????????
Then, I lived for a few years in this older apartment complex...and whenever I came home or got up in the middle of the night, I would see giant spiders, like the size of a ping pong ball. I would see them on the wall, or just sitting on the floor...once I used the bathroom and then went to the sink, went to bend down and cup some water from my hand to drink, and there was one right in the sink...ugh...talk about jolting you wide awake at 4am..gave me the creeps in that place to think every time I turned off the lights at night, they came out to wander around.
Spiders are delightful critters (in my book) - they eat all the gnats, flies, and other things I like much less. Spiders are welcome guests in my home and garden.
I don't discount the hard work they do keeping the insect population down, I just don't want them in my house!! That's what the exterminator is for. Oh, and I do let them live outdoors, but still am at no loss for gnats, flies, and other critters, so I must have very lazy spiders in my yard!
Oh the gnats this year have been BRUTAL. My ankles are covered with bites, have been all summer. I really wish something would eat them.
For some reason, I have more issues with certain types of spiders than I do others. The web builders, who just build their web and hang it it, are not so bad...it's the hunting spiders, the ones that creep around looking for prey, they bother me more. We have alot of the big weavers here, they build webs off the eaves of the house. Unfortunately, the spiders that come indoors seem to be the hunting types. And, seems we have black widows around here too, I never knew they were in our area. My brother bought a home a few years back that was somewhat infested. They have it under control, but one pops up now and then. My other brother, who lives in the same area, found one in his boat this summer.
I have been terrified of spiders all my life, probably a learned response in early childhood. It seems that either people are really afraid of them or they aren't at all, not alot of in-betweens.
Well, after writing such a glib statement that I think spiders are delightful critters - I squeeled like a little girl last night at church. Almost everyone had left the building and I went to lock the back door. We have evaporative cooling and I opened it early in the evening. I got close to the door and a toad hopped toward me. It just startled me! Of course I love the work that toads do, too. But I usually try to keep the outside. He was very cooperative when my young friend scooped him up and put him in her drinking glass to carry him out.
jmp24, are you sure that gnats are biting your ankles? Fleas will bite the ankles, too. And I HATE fleas!
I think that anything that suddenly jumps at you is frightening. I happen to love frogs/toads, sadly we don't have half as many around here as we used to, all the people dumping chemicals on their lawns and all that.
No, I don't believe it is fleas. It's those tiny little nosee'ums. The area I live in has very sandy soil, I guess from a billion years ago when the ocean came another 30 - 40 miles inland. Everyone is having gnat issues this year around here. I had an outdoor cat once who brought fleas in, and got a nice little infestation in my house, so have had experience with flea bites. The biggest difference is, you don't feel it till later when the gnats bite you - but when a flea bites, you feel it immediately, you fell like theres a pirhana biting you!
My MIL's house was infested with piranhas (fleas) one time when we were visiting. My baby boy and I got eaten up. They never bit her or my husband. She had to have her house sprayed several times to get rid of all of them. Yikes! It creeps me out just to think of it. :- (
yeah, they can be a major problem once they start reproducing. You DO NOT want them to get in your home!! In a matter of a few short weeks, they will be everywhere, including in your bed. Nasty. I had to use one of those insecticide bombs, and then I bought Ortho Home Pest Control and sprayed the entire house, including the furniture...If I remember right, we did call an exterminator and that didn't help. I really hate using any kind of chemical. Now I just make sure to prevent it happening - treat my pets at the first sign of any fleas. Plus, my cats are indoors now, no outdoor kitties - and even the few strays that I feed, I treat them with that Frontline, easy to just dab them behind the neck with it. Semi feral strays usually very uncooperative when you attempt to capture them for a flea dip.
Just like mosquitos, fleas find certain people more appetizing than others...you and your baby must have been very tasty to them!
