Hobo spider infestation! im scared

[stirringleaf]

for those of you not in an area with these spiders...they are also called Aggressive House Spiders, and have a bite similar to the Brown Recluse, making you really sick and leaving a permanant scar....

they run REALLY fast and enter homes in late summer, and we have got a bunch of them! YIKES! i have not slept well since we first started seeing ( and killing ) them. we have killed like 8 of them, and now we have glue traps down in the basement and have caught at least 5 of them, but i havent looked down there in a few days. i am so scared they are going to get into our beds!


do any of you know if insect repellant will repell these spiders? i have some natural kind, and i also have children's OFF. i was thinking about spraying around the edges of our bed to deter the spiders, but i dont know f it will work. they dont respond well to pesticides, and "experts" reccommend squashing them or trapping them as the best method of killing them. if you ry to bomb the house with insecticide, the competitor species will die too, and you end up with a worse Hobo spider problem. they are like the Roach of the spider world, i think.

anyway we feel like we are living in a freaking vampire movie.... always checking under things and around corners , armed with flip-flops and flashlights...i am less anxious than i was when we first realized these were poisonous spiders, but still, its been two weeks and i cant sleep right now cuz DH isnt home and i feel all insecure and need to check on sleeping ds 100 times .....

if anyone has had positive experience getting rid of these or at least repelling them....please let me know! i hope this is an ok forum to post this in...i wasnt sure...

[PumpkinSeeds]

I think we are having the same problem. And there are so many of them.


They don't seem to mind the carpet and run fast on the carpet.


And our mattresses are on the floor.


There's one in the bedroom now and I'm waiting for dh to come home to get it.

Ugh. I really hate spiders.

[malamamama]

You might try a google search with spiders & natural repellent. I did this for ants and centipedes and found some great info.

[somemama]

Why not put glue traps upstairs, too? You can buy some that fold into a "triangle" so the kids/pets don't get "stuck" to them.

(I buy them in bulk at www.hobospider.com)

Make sure to keep debris away from the sides of your house--also spray your house with water to get off the spider webs.

Get rid of other insects in your house (ants, etc.) so the spiders don't have as much food.

Also, remember that there is a common house spider that looks REMARKABLY similar to the aggressive house spider. So, chances are, that most of the spiders you are seeing are not dangerous. (The regular ones have bands ("stripes") on their legs.)

[Dragonfly]

Spiders, ugh!

I have always heard that cedar is an effective spider repellant. Maybe you could buy cedar blocks and place them around the bed?

[veganmamma]

T mamajulie- CONGRATS ON YOUR 1000th POST!!



















ild



























:LOL





On topic- That is so scary- I HATE spiders!!!!!!
Lauren

[AahRee]

OMG... my skin is crawling! Spiders are my major, irrational fear. And I just followed that link to the information about Hobo spiders, and it said that they were first found in the US in SEATTLE (near me!). Which means they're probably everywhere here...

I had to call a friend to come over and kill this giant spider that was in my shower yesterday. My DH was gone (hiking with her DH), and thank GOD she could come over to kill it, because I couldn't even get into the room with it. Who knows where it might have gone to hide if I'd waited until DH got home?



I can't stop itching...

[Missgrl]

Moving this to Healthy Home and Body!

[NoraB]

I don't know anything about Hobo spiders, but I can sympathize. I found a black widow in the house the other day (in the hall bathroom) and almost passed out. I actually had to go to my mom's house until DH came home b/c I was terrified. I would have killed it, but it disappeared into a hole in the baseboard. I couldn't stop worrying that DD was going to find it, or maybe one of our cats. It's hard to believe such a little creature could cause so much hooplah.

[sadie_sabot]

spiders!!!!!

the worst thing is, my phobia isn't just about spiders, I'm also phobic of killing them (weird, I know)

I usually get dp to 'relocate" them.

Hope your infestation ends soon.

[journeymom]

OMG, I'm gonna pass out! ::shiver shiver shiver:: I just visited that web site. Holy cow. As I scrolled down the page, I became very aware of my bare feet and ankles under the desk.

I gotta get a drink. I don't think I'm going to sleep well tonight.

[Jeffiner]

Oooh, how nasty for you! I sympathise. I live in the basement of a 100-year-old house in Toronto and I have all kinds of spiders as well as house centipedes - I used to be terribly phobic, until the exposure-therapy-effect of living in my apartment kicked in! Now I kill them with impunity. Altho, I was kind of worried during Thursday-Friday's blackout because I always leave a light on to deter them! Also the A/C helps control the damp in my apartment and it hasn't been turned on for four days now!

Anyway. I don't know if this will work on your hobo spiders, but I use a natural product called Insectigone. It's diatomaceous earth - you sprinkle it along baseboards and in corners and crevices or wherever the spiders hang out - and the spiders (and whatever spiders eat) walk in it and die. It's safe to use around children and pets.

[stirringleaf]

the saga continues! we have discovered that there are a zillion webs all around our house outside, like all along it and in other areas, like the garden , as well. we have seen Hobos in them, and i have read just about everything there is to read about these guys, so i am like 99 percent sure they are hobo webs!


thanks for the D. Earth reccommendation! my friend , just today, was saying the same thing, so i am going to go get some and dump it around the outside of our house! i am glad to hear it might really work for spiders, it is a relief. i am scared of spiders, but my REAL phobia is bees, and so of course , ds stepped on a bee today but he is ok, no dreaded bee-allergy! my tough little boy isnt even complaining about the pain in his foot! ok thats off topic but thanks you guys , and congrats on the 1000 posts up there!

[somemama]

Thank you, Lauren! (But it really is proof that I spend too much time here!!)

[mocha09]

I used to live in a pretty wooded area, and in late summer we kept a broom right outside the door because everytime we walked in/out there would be new webs with those huge brown nasty suckers all over them!

Now I live in an apt in the city, and there was one crawling on the rug last night.....maybe the 5th or 6th one I've seen here in a year.

We used tobacco leaves at our house. My friend's grandmother told her about it. We sprinkled them all around the foundation and especially under doors and in window sills. I don't know if it was the tobacco, or just coincidence, but in that house there was only one hobo spider spotting.

Uh! I know they are part of our beautiful and fragile web of life, and in theory I love and respect all creatures, and in theory I don't hate anyone/anything as a part of nature, but in reality, in my gut, I HATE those things!

[mom at home]

We moved across town about 3 yrs ago and the finished basement of this house was/is hobo infested. This is the first time I've let the kids play down there, in part because I haven't seen so many, but I still worry about it. Luckily, I have only seen them on the main floor a couple times and that is usually for a short time right when the weather turns cold in the fall and never on the top floor where our bedrooms are. It seems to be better than it was, less caught in the traps I put out. I think that the people who lived here before us sprayed, which is ineffective, and kills all the other good spiders. Maybe since I haven't sprayed the good spider population is thriving more.

Yuck, yuck, yuck! These things have been the bane of my summer existence every year.