Call the Orkin Man, you might say. Well, I'm also not a fan of poison. If the Orkin Man sprayed orange juice or Eau de Rose Petals or something, I'd consider it.
So, I'm hoping someone has a suggestion for using something that won't shave years off the lives of my beloved family members. It's just the spiders I'm interested in murdering.
Thanks for visiting! If you have a dilemma you need help solving, post it at We Are THAT Family, where this week is a reverse Works for Me Wednesday.
Posts
Do you have a safe pesticide option? I know that's not what you want to hear. Our bug guy uses something that's safe for kids and pets (I guess allegedly, but I sleep better without worrying about spiders on my pillow).
ReplyDeleteWe had giant, hairy wolf spiders (shudder) in my house and I couldn't handle it. I live in the country, and they just were coming on in and having a visit. After I trapped a few under glasses so DH would deal with them when he came home from work, he finally agreed to call the bug dude.
I hope you find a better solution!
If you have hedge apples around your area they emit a scent that spiders don't like. I sit them in a plastic bag and place them under the bed or in the closet. Don't forget about them though because they will get rotten eventually (hence the plastic bag).
ReplyDeleteOur Orkin guy told us that they best remedy for spiders - they camp out in our garage - is just to keep sweeping them out. Not much help, is it? That's what I thought, too. But, it's pesticide-free!
ReplyDeleteMy absolute least favorite pest are spiders. But...unlike you...I called the Orkin man. Oh yes I did. Kill those bad boys...kill 'em gone. The stuff is non-toxic...it won't harm pets (at least that's what they told me, haha, I don't have pets to test it out).
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to see what other responses you get though...at $70 a pop for them to come out and spray, I canceled in December. And they don't come out JUST once...they have to come out every other month...for like a year. I hate their stinkin' contract.
Okay, I'm totally not an expert on this but I will tell you that I watched The Exterminator the other night on A&E and they featured a family having a problem with spiders (the poisonous kind). They use some kind of special oil to kill them (I think it is called eugenia oil) so maybe you could ask an exterminator about that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, some advice the exterminator gave was to use bug lights (yep, the yellow ugly kind). He said that if there are less bugs around then there will be less spiders because the spiders are feeding off the bugs. Hope that helps!
I hope someone has something soon. We are infested with Black and Brown Widows already! I have killed several egg sacks already, but see babies everywhere. Last year we sprayed weekly and never seemed to make a dent. When they were inside the house too, we HAD to call a bug man. I have a 1yr old and a 2yr old. I need to keep my babies safe. Please someone, share you spider killing ways with us!!!
ReplyDeleteWe used to use an exterminator years ago, long before I became semi-obsessed with keeping my home as chemical free as possible. I lived to tell about it, so if all else fails, we can always do that.
ReplyDeleteAlisa - I've used the hedge apples... I've also heard them called Osage Oranges. I used to find them at craft shows, believe it or not. I think I need to plant some!
RLR - We get them in our garage too. One day I opened the door and a big one just came waltzing in. I was like - "Seriously? I'm standing right here!" He soon after met his demise. sigh.
Angie - I think I've heard that eucalyptus oil is a good one. I googled it last year, but was slightly, okay *seriously* traumatized by all the pictures of spiders that were on the site.
Laury - I can't imagine having scary dangerous spiders! I don't know if the apples mentioned above would work on super spiders, but having them in the bedrooms might make it easier to sleep at night!
Thanks for taking the time to respond everyone!
When we moved into our house, it was infested with brown recluse spiders. They were everywhere! We called in a BR expert (Jamel Sandidge) who flew in to help us deal with our problem. There were a LOT of things we had to do to get rid of them, but we were dealing with a nasty situation and they were living in our home. Most of the time, spiders are just making their way inside from outside, but that wasn't the case with our population (which I think is normal with Brown Recluses.) Anyway, one of the natural things that we did was use Diatomaceous Earth. It cuts up the spiders exoskeleton and kills them when they crawl through it. You can put it all over your yard, and especially in any areas where the spiders seem to go often (i.e. windowsills). The second thing we did was put out spider traps sold here: http://www.pestcontrol-products.com/traps_spiders_insects.htm You place them along your baseboards and they really do work (spiders feel safer crawling around on the baseboards so you'll be catching them in their high-traffic area.) According to Sandidge, of the worst things you can do is to use a pesticide. For one thing, pesticides work because insects crawl through them, get the poison on their legs, and then clean themselves, distributing poison where it can absorb into their bodies. Spiders, however, don't clean themselves often enough for this to work and pesticides can often make the problem worse. Anyway, I hope this helps and if you need more information, feel free to contact me.
ReplyDelete