I hate black widows. What are your solutions? They’re everywhere.
Fire! Kill it with fire!
Leaf blower? Vacuum? Pay someone $20 to get rid of them so you don’t have to do it?
ah… the 'ol pay someone $20 to suck and blow method
I’ve lived in a house that has a Black Widow problem for 14 years. I had severe arachnophobia when I moved here. Unfortunately, I don’t use poisons in my house, so my only option was to kill them by hand. The first several years, I would do regular patrols of my garage and yard at night to squish them. Night is the best time to kill them because they will usually sit in the middle of their nests. If they are not in the nest, I can usually find a bug to throw in the web that draws them out quickly. I had a favorite tool for the job, but anything screwdriver-ish will work. I know all their favorite spots, so it doesn’t take long to do a sweep. I also destroy the egg sacks.
I realize that without covering my house with poison, I will never be rid of them. More than anything, I just try to keep my floors and yard tidy with less spots for them to call home. Luckily, I have never seen one in the house other than a few juveniles. I think there is no food in the house for them, so the small ones that get in the house end up starving.
Most people go with poisons, so I thought I would pop in with my weirdness. Don’t worry about it too much. But also take precautions like not leaving your shoes where they could get in. And inspect boxes that have been in the garage before bringing into the house.
Well that’s an arachnophobe story I didn’t expect to hear today. Bravo. Well told!
RAID Spray
I have no experience with black widows, but when I lived in rural Cambodia with its huge jumping spiders (they also have their egg sack hanging on their belly, so you really don’t want to squash them) RAID seriously was my best friend and life saver.
Ew! Were they poisonous?
Not all, but I couldn’t say which ones were and were not. And some of them could seriously fuck you up. The house was wooden, so they always found a crack to squeeze through. But at least I didn’t have scorpions like some of my colleagues.
Permethrin. You should be able to get it at a Tractor Supply or Quality Farm & Fleet. Dilute it according to directions, or to about 10% overall concentration, put it in a sprayer, spray all around your garage. Follow all safety precautions, and wear googles and a respirator just to be safe. DO NOT allow any cats to come in contact with it until it fully dries; permethrin is very toxic to cats, but it should be fine once it’s dry.
It will kill arthropods (spiders and insects), and acts as a fairly long-lasting repellent to prevent future infestations.
As someone else said, if you have a spider “problem”, your real problem is that you have a lot of other insects that are acting as a food source for the spiders. Figure out what the other insect infestation is, fix taht, and you should fix your spider problem.
EDIT: black widow spiders aren’t actually particularly dangerous to people. Most bites resolve themselves without any medical attention, and the very, very few fatalities are usually very young children, very old people, or people that are already very ill.
Yeah okay though how do I get it to do this exact thing but like from 25ft away??
(this is good advice, thank you)
Thank you! I’ll look for that soon.
Is that you? https://lemmy.world/post/16219762
Fire… lot’s of fire.
The bad news is you will likely loose the garage, but the good news is no more spiders
I would probably avoid that. Someone in my hometown learned that the hard way. https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/fresno-homeowner-starts-fire-trying-to-kill-spider/
Close all windows and doors, set off the required amount of foggers and wait the recommended amount of time. Repeat again in a few weeks if needed. Most foggers/bug bombs work on most spiders and many are persistent over some time after application.
Lemme guess Australia?
No. California.
How many Widows we talking here? They’re common, but if you can see 10+ in one garage that sounds like an infestation you want dealt with professionally.
I don’t know! I just keep finding them. I found three last night. The day before I found two, in a different location than the most recent three.
Sounds like you had a recent hatch in your garage. This is time of year for it. It depends on your risk tolerance. If you have a lot of stuff in your garage that you need to access, I’d probably call a professional. It there aren’t many hiding places for them, I would just vacuum up the ones that I would likely come into contact with.
I might call a professional. Unfortunately, with our garage, the ceiling is unfinished, which means it has open rafters and plenty of places for them to lay eggs. The tallest point of the ceiling is as high as the roof.
Widows tend to hang out closer to the ground. I wouldn’t worry much about the rafters.
Darker crevices, debris piles, larger leaning items that go undisturbed for a while.
There are some at ground level when I walk out into the garage. Is it possible to vacuum them up? I really don’t want to touch them, or bat at them with a broom. I feel like if I do that, they’ll hit the ground and charge at me, or crawl up the broom.
Probably US, Australians usually refere to them as redbacks.
Redbacks are a related bit different spider. But yes, Aussies have redbacks.
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Napalm? Pretty sure the answer is napalm.
Yep, either napalm or nuke. Depends on how big the garage is.
Do we want radiated, mutant spiders? Cause that’s how you get radiated, mutated spiders.
Or maybe op gets a garage full of superhero crime fighters? Coin flip.
Idunno. They could be cute. We should try
Use bug bomb(s) first to kill the existing spiders. Then apply permethrin diluted with water to a 0.5% solution, spraying at all entry paths to the garage, edges, and dark areas.
The idea is to not just prevent spiders from returning. It’s also to deprive them of a reason to return by removing their food supply. Permethrin is a wide-spectrum insecticide and repellant. It has very low toxicity to humans, most mammals, and birds. Not good around cats or fish. It has good persistence (6-8 weeks).
Sounds good! Where can I find it?
Home and garden center, hardware store, or Amazon.
Thank you!
flamethrower
If it were me, I would call an exterminator. Anything under $200 would be totally worth not having to deal with it and knowing that they’ll take care of it better than I could.
Spiders in general is one thing, but a ton of black widows is something I wouldn’t mess with. Those spiders could make you quite sick if not ending up in the hospital. Shieeeet. If you’re of a vulnerable population like elderly, young, or already sick, they could kill you.
Turn it into a bedroom. I’ve heard a single person can eat up to 12 spiders a night while they sleep.
I hear it’s pretty expensive to hire Spiders Georg this time of year, though.
The real LPT is always in the comments
In the stillness of the midnight hour, When dreams unfurl with quiet power, A secret dance, unseen, unfolds, A tale of spiders, brave and bold.
Teenage risktakers, nimble, sly, With silken threads, they dare to fly. From ceilings high, they bungee down, Into the dark, without a sound.
Silent as shadows, they descend, On daring missions, round the bend. A careful line, each taking turn, A nighttime rite, no cause for concern.
They know the risk, they know the score, To wake you up would mean no more. So deftly, softly, they embark, In moonlit rooms, so still, so dark.
Through parted lips, they make their way, A fleeting touch, then swift relay. A secret sport, a hidden game, Unknown to you, their nightly claim.
Yet you sleep on, in peaceful rest, Untroubled by their silent quest. For in this dance of spiders’ flight, They leave no trace, no mark, no fright.
And when the dawn breaks, soft and clear, The spiders fade, they disappear. A secret kept, a tale untold, Of teenage spiders, brave and bold.
🌙🕷️🕸️
