Spiders, Spiders, everywhere....Help!

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Last tour at work a coworker got bitten by a spider... he said he didn't know what kind it was... but by the time we were relieved from duty his calf was turning black and moving up toward his knee... I shudder to imagine a spider bite that potent... he did of course go to his physician and has been treated...

Dave

that sounds really painful :cry:
 

sgtcarl

Member
I'll make this as short as possible:
Many years ago, I guy I was working with became ill. He and his wife thought it was just the flu. But, he started getting worse. So..he went to the hospital, and after he was admitted, he lapsed into a coma. End of story: It was discovered he had been bitten bitten by a brown recluse spider, after it was found still inside the brim of his cap. He recovered, once they started pumping antivenom into him. Moral:
Don't pass any spider off as "harmless" until you learn for certain that it is.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
One of our elderly cousins was bitten by a brown recluse in mid-Michigan. Be careful by your woodpiles.
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
Still, no need to bomb you garage. that was the point of what i'm saying. Its not practical to live in fear of a spider, because they can' be anywhere. just check if you see a web.
 

Glen Haasdyk

Active Member
I wouldn't bomb the garage. Instead get a couple of those spider traps to keep them in check. I've never had a problem with spiders on my layout (It's in the basement) Shadow, my cat takes care of anything that would crawl on the gound and is smaller than he is!
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
The chemicals in the spray will probably do more damage than the spider. Around here they're just a common ground spider. Bob

They are very common in Colorado, too; however, they are dangerous to animals and humans, especially humans with allergies. Meanwhile, spider webs do nothing useful for the operation of a model railroad, while carefully moving a black widow nest is a little bit like relocating rattlesnakes. Yes, it can be done - but why on earth would anyone want to?

Nuke the little @#$%&* and get it over with! :thumb:
 

jgottrains

New Member
I like glue traps for them. If you kill use chemicals then you have to do it every time some eggs hatch (or look up the life cycles).
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Almost 40 years ago I worked at the Kaiser Steel Eagle Mountain iron mine near Desert Center, Ca. A friend of mine was riding a horse when it was spooked by a rattle snake and he was bucked off onto the snake. The snake bit him. Previously his dad was working under the house and was bitten by a black widow spider. It may have been due to the difference in their ages and the snake may have only bitten and not injected venom, but his dad was much sicker from the black widow bite than he was from the snake bite. Black widows are reclusive and not particularly aggressive unlike a wolf spider, but their bite is nothing to be taken lightly.
 

River Run

New Member
I live in a house near Lake Erie next to a shipping port. We have the Aggressive House Spider here, better known as the Hobo Spider. They are a very close relative of the Brown Recluse and cause bites similar in nature but not quite as bad. I've used every thing I could to kill the things as they don't eat bugs, they are blood suckers. (and I've got the scars to prove it) I have now found that if I sprinkle trails of 20 Mule Team Borax around my bed and home they die when they walk through it. It gets into their lungs. These spiders are not web spinners, they hide in cracks in the walls. Try sprinkling the 20 Mule Team Borax around...it works on fleas also.
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
The best solution to poisonous spiders is to introduce a competing species of predator that is harmless to people and pets, such as your average run of the mill wolf spider and jumping spiders. House centipedes are also successful counters to many of the spiders you guys seem to be worried about.

Even if these species don't directly kill the offending species (although often times, large house spiders will intentional kill the likes of the hobo spiders and relatives in an attempt to take of their "territory"), If you keep enough around, they will compete for food, and usually, the wandering species will win.

Using insecticides, as i have stated, is a waste of money. While i'm not as concerned as i should be about shooting nerve agents all over my home (although i know most of you are), the fact of the matter is you can't police everywhere. They will always come back, no matter what you do, and the end result is living in fear everyday.

This is why if you see a spider running about, just leave it alone. Unless you recognize it as a deadly species, its not going to do anything, except compete for the territory and likely keep new, worse, spiders from establishing themselves in your home. They will always lurk in the areas their more deadly relatives live, and they will not just let any old spider waltz in and set up shop.

Hopefully, if you live in the regions where spiders like the brown recluse and black widow (or others) live, you know how to identify them, and so you'll know which to remove.


I live in a house near Lake Erie next to a shipping port. We have the Aggressive House Spider here, better known as the Hobo Spider. They are a very close relative of the Brown Recluse and cause bites similar in nature but not quite as bad. I've used every thing I could to kill the things as they don't eat bugs, they are blood suckers. (and I've got the scars to prove it) I have now found that if I sprinkle trails of 20 Mule Team Borax around my bed and home they die when they walk through it. It gets into their lungs. These spiders are not web spinners, they hide in cracks in the walls. Try sprinkling the 20 Mule Team Borax around...it works on fleas also.

I'm sorry, but there are so many things wrong with this post. wall1

The Hobo spider does not naturally occur near lake erie. Rather, they occur in the pacific northwest. your spider is probably something else.

They aren't exactly that closely related to the recluse, despite the similar bites.

I've never heard of a bloodsucking spider in North America, and just to make sure i wasn't unaware, i looked it up. There isn't. I suspect something else was sucking your blood, despite your scars. the hobo spiders do hunt other arthropods.

Spiders do not have lungs. They have a seperate system of vessels (called trachea) that transport air through out the animal. While the borax might interfere with this, i suspect that it has a lot more to do with it inhibiting essential enzymes to the spider, or dehydrating it.

Hobo spiders are in fact webspinners, and belong to a group of spiders known as funnel-web spiders.

depending on the time of the year, you might find the males running out and about out of the webs in search of females. Other than that, they tend to set up funnels shaped webs in undisturbed, protected areas and come out of the sheltered bottom of the funnel when something stumbles on the web.

way to make me reveal just how much of a nerd i can be! Insects and spiders were my hobby before trains. I still keep current on them, they are fascinating.

in the end it worries me though. I don't expect people to be experts, but things like spiders and other similar creatures get so blown out of proportion sometimes that it amazes me.
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
The best solution to poisonous spiders is to introduce a competing species of predator that is harmless to people and pets, such as your average run of the mill wolf spider and jumping spiders. House centipedes are also successful counters to many of the spiders you guys seem to be worried about.

Even if these species don't directly kill the offending species (although often times, large house spiders will intentional kill the likes of the hobo spiders and relatives in an attempt to take of their "territory"), If you keep enough around, they will compete for food, and usually, the wandering species will win.

Using insecticides, as i have stated, is a waste of money. While i'm not as concerned as i should be about shooting nerve agents all over my home (although i know most of you are), the fact of the matter is you can't police everywhere. They will always come back, no matter what you do, and the end result is living in fear everyday.

This is why if you see a spider running about, just leave it alone. Unless you recognize it as a deadly species, its not going to do anything, except compete for the territory and likely keep new, worse, spiders from establishing themselves in your home. They will always lurk in the areas their more deadly relatives live, and they will not just let any old spider waltz in and set up shop.

Hopefully, if you live in the regions where spiders like the brown recluse and black widow (or others) live, you know how to identify them, and so you'll know which to remove.




I'm sorry, but there are so many things wrong with this post. wall1

The Hobo spider does not naturally occur near lake erie. Rather, they occur in the pacific northwest. your spider is probably something else.

They aren't exactly that closely related to the recluse, despite the similar bites.

I've never heard of a bloodsucking spider in North America, and just to make sure i wasn't unaware, i looked it up. There isn't. I suspect something else was sucking your blood, despite your scars. the hobo spiders do hunt other arthropods.

Spiders do not have lungs. They have a seperate system of vessels (called trachea) that transport air through out the animal. While the borax might interfere with this, i suspect that it has a lot more to do with it inhibiting essential enzymes to the spider, or dehydrating it.

Hobo spiders are in fact webspinners, and belong to a group of spiders known as funnel-web spiders.

depending on the time of the year, you might find the males running out and about out of the webs in search of females. Other than that, they tend to set up funnels shaped webs in undisturbed, protected areas and come out of the sheltered bottom of the funnel when something stumbles on the web.

way to make me reveal just how much of a nerd i can be! Insects and spiders were my hobby before trains. I still keep current on them, they are fascinating.

in the end it worries me though. I don't expect people to be experts, but things like spiders and other similar creatures get so blown out of proportion sometimes that it amazes me.


I feel like ive just attended a week of science class from all of Chris's post, :eek: sign1 and believe me, i just learned quite a bit lol, i didnt pay attention alot of my classes :rolleyes: :cry: wall1

never would have guessed i would be learning anything but trains on the gauge :mrgreen: :thumb:
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
I know. I'm probably the most long winded person i know. I always type up mega-posts.

I just can't tolerate abuse of science. Its unfortuneate that there is so much here-say about things like spiders that the truth doesn't even seem believeable anymore.
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
All that having been said and done, they still screw up layouts, which is strictly verboten. :curse:

BTW, the reason borax works on spiders is because it is a natural insecticide.
 
I found out yesterday about a second spider bite to an employee resulting in hospitalization. I wonder if we have a nest somewhere or something, this has not ever been a problem before.

Time to put in for a transfer to a different firehouse!!sign1

Dave
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
I still leave them alone. I found a big black spider hiding near the floor behind some of my bench work structure when I was vacuuming the other day. Never touched her. Just vacuumed around the area and carefully swept up the rest. I figured she was probably protecting an egg sack. While some might be concerned about what will happen when it hatches I'm not. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to keeping my work area tidy. I'm always vacuuming, sweeping and dusting off the layout. Ergo....I don't see too many critters flitting about.

Silverfish on the other hand....well....say your prayers ya ugly varmin!
 
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