# Anyone else up to HERE in wood spiders?



## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

I leave the shop overnight and there are spider webs on *EVERYTHING!* Looks like the shop hasn't been used in months!

I'm adjusting the drill press table height and spider is trying to make a web on the crank while I'm cranking!

What looks like a 3×3 piece of tissue floating thru the shop is actually a group of hundreds of tiny white spiders floating on a web "sail".

They don't hurt anything but their webs get in the sawdust and the debris that blows in under the door and crap is stuck EVERYWHERE.

I leave a box in clamps overnight and there several webs between the clamps. There is also one long thread all the way from the clamp on the box sitting on the table saw, over my chair, all the way to the band saw.

Just venting but I expect to be found hanging from the ceiling in a cocoon if I take a nap.

They don't seem to bite. At least they're not *brown recluse* spiders.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

Spiders don't stay where there is no food source.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

There are *tons* of them, and only on the woodworking half of the garage! I have no clue what they're feeding on. The only things in their webs seems to be sawdust & yard debris (bits of leaves, flower petals, pet hair, etc.) nothing that looks edible anyway.


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## controlfreak (Jun 29, 2019)

Sounds like a good spaying or fumigation is in order.


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## tvrgeek (Nov 19, 2013)

Boric acid.


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## Barkley (Jun 28, 2019)

I'm glad you posted this. I've got to spray my shop again because I have the same problem. I use a spray about once a year. It's a indoor/outdoor concentrate that I get from Tractor Supply (any farm store should have it). It's made up of 7.9% Bifenthrin and some other goodies. Spiders aren't that bad but it is a PIA at cleanup time and just annoying. 
I sure some folks are gonna start bleeding about using chemicals, but get a grip. Just don't drink it or spray the wife in the face and you'll be fine. Ya need to get it done before one of the big ones takes you outback and makes you his girl.


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## pontic (Sep 25, 2016)

I have the same problem, had it for a long time, clean regulary, fumigate. Learn to live with them. I do notice that when I get rit of them the flies and wasps buzzing around the shop increase.


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## Kudzupatch (Feb 3, 2015)

One gallon sprayer and an order from https://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/ will take care of it. I have to spray maybe once a year.


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## OldBull (Apr 30, 2020)

When I move something and see one I don't know which one of us jumps the highest, me or the spider. I also have floaters in my eyes which looks like something is moving occaisionally but nothing is there.


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

In the early days of life, a lot of those spiders will eat each other if not enough chow is available. I have some long-bodied cellar spiders (AKA daddy long-legs in my garage, and they are welcome to stay, as they out compete the black widows. I killed a metropolitan brown widow in the house last week. Time to hose the place down with insecticide.


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## rwe2156 (May 7, 2014)

Same with me. I've learned to live with them.

A wisp with a propane torch works well!!


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

> I killed a metropolitan brown widow in the house last week..
> 
> - Dark_Lightning


i pictured the spider in a little red velvet robe sipping on cranberry cosmopolitans


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

When I was younger, I'd go after the wasp nests with a lighter and aerosol can of carb cleaner. Basically napalm the buggers. Fun to watch them all fall to the ground and see the black widows emerge and clean up the carnage.

That was until the number of BW spiders started to soar.

Aside from dealing with the web mess, I've resigned myself to let nature deal with the population control. At least it makes my job easier!


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

I'm not a Spider lover, but they do trap flies in my shop, and anything that puts a stop to those annoying bastiages get's special treatment. 

Worst case is I have to walk in some days swinging a straight broom in front of me to clear a path, otherwise we exist harmoniously. I just keep one parked near the Man door.


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

I love the sticky fly strips for catching the winged pestilence. Seasonally we get the "stupid" ones that can't be shooed away and are trying to crawl into your mouth while you are making a cut.

The strips hang near the window and get covered in flies. I'll stop what I'm doing if I hear the buzzing of a freshly caught aviator and watch them suffer, bwahahahaha! 
Shop safety hazard, kill or be killed!


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

> I killed a metropolitan brown widow in the house last week..
> 
> - Dark_Lightning
> 
> ...


lol. They aren't as poisonous as black widows. I think that the word "cosmopolitan" in reference to a spider is amusing. Spiders live practically everywhere.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

Here in Florida the big dangerous spiders are brown recluse. Their bite doesn't kill you, it *dissolves* you. Like the blood from the critter in Alien it just keeps eating away dissolving you. You have to aggressively scour the wound removing all damaged tissue as well as the top layer of whatever is left.

They're about the size of a quarter with two thin brown stripes:









Florida Brown Recluse Spider.


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## CaptainKlutz (Apr 23, 2014)

LOL, another spider hater here.

AZ has a lot of fun spiders. Black Widow as less lethal, than tarantula, or compared to Brown Recluse. The challenge is we also have wolf spiders; which I don't mind too if they stay much outside, as they keep scorpion population in check eating the little ones. But a female Wolf spider carries is young on the back, and can look larger than tarantula. Commonly find one 3-4" in diameter. Random WWW pic here:









If you attempt to step on large female wolf spider - don't! 
All the babies will survive and scatter to make nests nearby. Poison is too slow, but I still have to lay down a barrier around house every 90 days to keep critters out. I try to avoid excess poison use, as we have a number of lizards living in foliage along block walls lining the property. They love to eat spiders.

+1 I use napalm removal method.
Except I use a propane torch and go spider/scorpion hunting about once a month at dusk when become active.

Monsoon season is good time to hunt wolf spiders also. The blowing dust sticks to webs of small ones built in cracks/crevices. They love camping out in the lower 3 ft of stucco on outside walls. Stucco (cement) does not burn, so I torch any web I find near doors/windows. Swear the little ones eat sawdust, as I find them munching in corners of shop near door as poison barrier fades? Keeping a clean shop helps keep them out.

YMMV


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## JCamp (Nov 22, 2016)

If it's that bad there is no use saving the place just pour gas around it and light it. I'm sure ur insurance agent will understand too


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Each fall, I place a couple ripe Crab Apples around in the shop…..and about 99% of the spiders will vacate the shop….once or twice a year….I just set off bombs down there…and let that sit a day….


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

My wife works in my shop with me a lot of times. Spider's ain't her thing. So about twice a year she goes to HD and gets a box of 6 insect bombs. Close the windows, set off the bombs, close the door on our way out.

No spiders or any other insects in the shop for several months. They start showing up again, she bombs them again.

She usually does this late in the afternoon and we don't go back until the next morning. No spiders or any other insects in there.

I did a post on this same thing months ago.


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

Somehow we got Moths, just the little gray/whitish buggers in the house, and garage. Almost always have one flying around. We have bombed the place 3 times, and still see them daily. I think they must be closely related to Cock a roaches, like prehistoric level pestilence.


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## MrUnix (May 18, 2012)

Living back in the woods, we have quite a large spider population, from the weird skeleton backed golden orbs to the brown recluse. I generally ignore them, but sometimes you just can't help it. Been bit so many times by black widows that they don't even effect me any more. Did get bit once by a brown recluse, and I think due to my built up immunity, it just puffed my hand up to the size of a softball for a couple of weeks. Hurt like a bitch though, and made trying to use that hand all but impossible. I would advise avoiding it if possible 

Cheers,
Brad


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## WoodenDreams (Aug 23, 2018)

You might try some moth balls, place in some of the areas.


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## Planeman40 (Nov 3, 2010)

Close off the shop and set off a couple of "bug bombs" that will fumigate the entire space. Let it sit for a few hours and then air out the shop. Works well for me!


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

> You might try some moth balls, place in some of the areas.
> 
> - WoodenDreams


Tried them, no luck. I like the smell of them, but the Wife doesn't. You know who wins that battle.


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## Barkley (Jun 28, 2019)

I think I'd wet myself if I ran into one of those Wolf spiders. That sucker be ugly!


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

> You might try some moth balls, place in some of the areas.
> 
> - WoodenDreams
> 
> ...


An earlier post I made
https://www.lumberjocks.com/topics/305766


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

When I worked as a mechanic, I used spray paint to kill spiders, especially black widows. Those things are all over stuff, here in so Cal. A lot of Moly Orange spiders were left in my wake. I expect that a wolf spider would take a real shellacking before it died. 8^D


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## BullDog66 (Jul 21, 2021)

I'm almost jealous of those who have spiders. A pain, yes, but small and not destructive. I have chipmunks. In two weeks I've caught 15, but I can still see a few in the yard. They climb under the siding on the house, which get interesting. Mothballs worked at first, but then they got used to them. On the upside, I don't find spiders in the shop.


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