SPIDERS!!!!!

[anne]

Spiders are trying to take over my tub. I have had a few little ones making webs in the nooks and crannies of my skirt, or under the stairs, and I just hose/blow it all off regularly to discourage them. But now I have big, nasty crunchy-squshy type spiders trying to live in the inside lip of the cover. We're not talking innocent little daddy long-legs. These guys are the big, mean, miltant looking spiders, and 2 black widows. I just eliminated the population with a whole lot of paper towels, and I am *so* not doing that again. I can deal with open abdominal wounds, blood, abscesses and kitty diarrhea, but I CANNOT handle squishing spiders, or the thought of a black widow falling into the water as I sit there relaxing and feeling a tickle on my shoulder..........ahhhh.  

I am almost considering spraying around the perimeter of the tub, but I hate insecticides, and they dont work that well for spiders anyway. I dont want to damage the wood skirt, either. Obviously I cannot put anything in/on the cover.......any ideas?  

I have not heard anyone else with this problem, but I'm hoping that someone out there has a solution!

[Brewman]

Spiders will go where they will go- short of chemical intervention I'm not sure if there is anything else that can be done to dissuade them.  


 I have used the Ortho product "Home Defense Max" successfully.  Several times per season I spray where the ground contacts the foundation of our house, and in the basement where the wall and floor intersect.  
 That keeps the insects pretty much at bay.  I know you don't like using chemicals though.

[RobRoy]

Anne,
Try wiping the area with Lemon Pledge, that should repel the buggers.
I dont think it will affect anything with your water chemistry, and cant hurt your beautiful cedar cabinet either.

[wesj53]

You live in too warm of a climate Anne! Move north. Idaho is beautiful I hear!

[gores95]

How about bringing in snakes to eat the spiders?  Or bats?

Keep moving up the food chain until things even out!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Marc

[anne]

How about bringing in snakes to eat the spiders?  Or bats?

Keep moving up the food chain until things even out!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Marc

I'd love to use the food chain, but bats eat flying insects, and snakes mostly eat small mammals and the like. There are plenty of birds around; maybe I can train them to catch spiders  .

I might try the lemon pledge. War is on. They have numbers, I have determination and gross-out factor to drive me.

[NWHotTubber]

Ours is still new, maybe too soon for spiders... but think I will try the pledge too, can't hurt to be a little proactive here!  I am with ya on the gross out factor!  I don't like spiders!  

[IdahoGuy]

I hear that those ultrasonic plug in devices to keep mice away work great on insects and spiders.  

....and, NO, moving to Idaho won't help.  We have spiders here too.

[Bonibelle]

Ann, I am wondering if your low voltage lights might actually be attracting the spiders. They love to build webs in good locations to catch flying insects.  I know I have  webs near my low voltage lights and there are also two huge toads that live around the lights for the same reason.  
I'll never forget the huge web that a spider made covering the top half of the opening of my sliding patio doors...My son was just a little guy and I would show him how the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...I wouldn't let my husband remove the web and we all walked carefully under it when we went outside...until the day I was in such a rush that I forgot all about itsy bitsy and ran right through the web....By the time I realized what I did...that huge spider was on my cheek crawling up my face! My husband still laughs about that!
So far I haven't noticed any around my tub, but I don't have lights near the tub itself.
Maybe if you turned off the lights, or blocked the solar collectors for a couple of days, you can tell if that is what is happening.  Good luck and I would pick birds over pesticide any day!..Maybe you need a couple of chickens!

[anne]

Ann, I am wondering if your low voltage lights might actually be attracting the spiders. They love to build webs in good locations to catch flying insects.  I know I have  webs near my low voltage lights and there are also two huge toads that live around the lights for the same reason.  
I'll never forget the huge web that a spider made covering the top half of the opening of my sliding patio doors...My son was just a little guy and I would show him how the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...I wouldn't let my husband remove the web and we all walked carefully under it when we went outside...until the day I was in such a rush that I forgot all about itsy bitsy and ran right through the web....By the time I realized what I did...that huge spider was on my cheek crawling up my face! My husband still laughs about that!
So far I haven't noticed any around my tub, but I don't have lights near the tub itself.
Maybe if you turned off the lights, or blocked the solar collectors for a couple of days, you can tell if that is what is happening.  Good luck and I would pick birds over pesticide any day!..Maybe you need a couple of chickens!

That is a great story.

I dont think that light is the issue here, rather warmth. These little suckers are (well, were) tucked up along the inside edge of the cover, way under the lip, on the side of the tub away from the lights and where I enter each day. I dont know what they are eating, either, as it is definitely not a good place to catch your random bug passing by. I think they have webs on the outside somewhere where they prepare lunch and dinner, then they hop back under the cover to their bedroom web for a cozy night sleep.

[glastron]

eh yellow pages oughta do it, make a call

[PotomacG]

Anne,

You might want to give this http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/spec/pick-cb80.htm a try.  The CB80 stuff is used in food handling areas and is made from a natural insecticide "Pyrethrins".  I keep a can of it around for occasional infestations.  

Good luck with your eight-legged freaks  

[spa-ing]

spiders? we have little green frogs that sit in the lip of the wood skirt near the water edge. I think the cover must keep that area warm and moist for them.! Maybe they can come over and eat the spiders!

[bohms]

Don't even tell me that.  I'm like you....throw anything at me, I can handle it, but spiders....NO WAY!!!  We are lined with woods right next to where our tub will be and I already brought the spider thing up to my husband b/c we get the big wood spiders by our house and I was thinking that they would just love the moist tub.  My husband said that they won't go near it b/c the water will be too hot....I knew he was throwing me a line of BS.......UGH!!!

[East_TX_Spa]

We've got all kinds of nasty spiders around these parts:

Lots of these


A goodly many of these


And every once in a while, I run across one of these


Snakes don't bother me, rats don't bother me, but I just can not tolerate spiders.  They give me the heebiejeebies big time!

Terminator