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More Spiders than "usual" this year?

Started 3 years ago by Robert2715
Latest reply from datamuse

Robert2715
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It might just be me, but it seems like there are more spiders than normal this September? Anyone have a similar sense and/or an explanation?

Posted 3 years ago #
flowerpetal
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I was thinking the same thing too. When I walk the little dog in the morning (and that's pretty early) I am always walking into spider webs that have been stretched across the sidewalk paths from trees to shrubs. I don't remember that from other years.

Posted 3 years ago #
WSratsinacage
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Spiders are a pain in the A55.

Posted 3 years ago #
JoB
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YES! they are everywhere.. even in the house.

Posted 3 years ago #
flowerpetal
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The Burke Museum says its a myth that there are more spiders in late summer and early fall. However, spiders that we typically find in our houses are at maturity at this time of year and perhaps that explains why we are seeing so many indoors.
I picked up and put on a shirt one morning this past weekend that I had flung on top of the cedar chest at the end of the bed. Inside the shirt was a black spider which creeped me out. I was not charitable... and the spider did not live many more seconds than my discovery.

Posted 3 years ago #
changingtimes
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ew ew ew ew!!! spiders are my most hated bug!!! i know mom about all the greatness they do for the enviornment but ahhhhh! i can not stand them!!! and how do they build there webs so dang fast!!! i swear the one on my porch is out to get me! he builds a web...i knock it down with a broom... go put the broom away...and the little bugger has it re-built by the time i get back :)

Posted 3 years ago #
Sue
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For the past 2 months the spiders have been driving me crazy. I have webs outside *everywhere* and I swear every morning as I leave for the bus I'm brushing web off my face somewhere. And there are a ton of spiders getting in the house too. My indoor cat is having a ball chasing them, but I'm not happy.

Posted 3 years ago #
r26
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Anyone know what types there are here? We've killed a couple HUGE ones (like quarter sized). Off to vomit.

Posted 3 years ago #
JenV
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I live in a basement apartment, so imagine how many I have....I used to live in harmony with the spiders and let my cat kill them if she felt like it- until I woke up with a big hairy spider on me and some overnight bites. Now I kill all the big ones. I let the Daddy Longlegs live, though - they're harmless and not really all that creepy.

what we typically have here, if I am not mistaken, is the common brown house spider.

Posted 3 years ago #
rs261
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gigantic european house spider Tegenaria duellica

Supposedly they kill the hobo spider...so they are good. I believe they are also in the guiness book of world records for the fastest spider.

I dont like them one bit

Posted 3 years ago #
guidosmom
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Knock on wood I haven't had any in the house that I know of yet, but I have seen some awful looking huge ones at the barn this month. I always heard the spiders here were harmless, but don't we have the black widow here?

Posted 3 years ago #
WSB
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OK, a quick note from your host here. On a personal note, just wanted to urge you not to be too quick to kill spiders. As at least one post'er above noted, there are GOOD spiders. They eat lots of bugs that otherwise would overrun your house and mine. Yeah, there are a few that nip, but for example the dreaded black widow is NOT native in this area (Eastern Wash, different story). So our motto is live and let live. We've got an old house and there's practically a spider in every corner, just another member of the family ... TR

Posted 3 years ago #
flowerpetal
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Start here to identify local spiders but with this caveat: there's an ugly picture of a spider bite on a finger which I will probably dream about tonight!
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/

Posted 3 years ago #
herongrrrl
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With you there, TR. We have an "agreement" with the spiders in our house--if they're on the ceiling, they get to stay where they are. On the ground, if the cats don't get them first, they get relocated outside. I find the cup-and-index card method of spider removal very effective since I personally canNOT have spiders touching me!

In our house, we refer to those really big spooky spiders as the Pacific Northwest Bathtub-in-the-Morning Holy $$^$#%#$%#@ Spider.

Posted 3 years ago #
Wes
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I usually have some of the black/brown hairy ones in my basement or sometime upstairs. They run and jump and I no likey. I have found a black widow in my garage..once. I have ony seen a brown recluse or hobo spider at the Starbucks on Strander in Tukwila, it was under the pastry case.
My dad, when I was younger, would kill them but not really smoosh them and then leave them in the toilet or bathtub or sink. So first thing in the morning, when you are all groggy, you would lift the toilet seat cover and freak out. Ahhh, good times.

Posted 3 years ago #
squareeyes
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Spiders are not allowed to live if they invade the house, simple as that. Generally I let the outdoor ones live, unless they decide to stretch webs anywhere between my front door and my car. That's a forfeit.

My two cats are excellent for alerting me to a spider, but useless when it comes to killing them.

I particularly noticed last fall that there were far fewer spiders than normal invading my house; this year they're back full force and I'm killing 2-4 a week the last several weeks.

Posted 3 years ago #
WSMom
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Nearly 17 years ago, when my daughter was just learning to talk, I brushed against some bushes getting into my car. She was behind me in her car seat as we pulled out of the driveway she kept repeating, "mama, butterfly, mama, butterfly". I still remember how she enunciated each and every syllable in her sweet baby voice. Just as I was complementing her on her good words, I felt something in my hair...you guessed it...A HUGE SPIDER!!!! It took all my self control to slowly pull over, stop the car and shake the creature off of my head without totally freaking out and freaking her out as well. I still get the shivers thinking about it. Butterfly indeed.

Posted 3 years ago #
datamuse
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A spider spun a lovely web inside my car window earlier this week. I actually thought it was really cool and thought about leaving it there, but decided he wouldn't catch much in my car so relocated him.

Every time I go running in Westcrest I run into a ton of spiderwebs. Really annoying.

Btw, daddy longlegs are actually some of the most poisonous spiders out there, but their teeth can't penetrate skin so people and pets are safe. They're good to have around because they eat other spiders.

Posted 3 years ago #
HunterG
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There have been quite a few around my place feeding upon my poor little Winnie (cat).

She adores them, stares at them longingly, bats them around and then lays on them so she can play with them later. Or until I find them and vacuum them up.

Posted 3 years ago #
dapuffin
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I was bitten by a brown recluse in the 1980s. (It was in another State.) Not a pleasant experience at all. Well the aftermath was not pleasant; I never saw the sucker that got me. I'm pretty phobic and the spider hatch season is one of the very very few things about living here that I don't like. ESPECIALLY the above-mentioned "Pacific Northwest Bathtub-in-the-Morning Holy $$^$#%#$%#@ Spider." Thanks for the giggle Herongrrrl.

Posted 3 years ago #
changingtimes
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i remember reading about black widows getting transfered to the pacific northwest via bannanas and other fruit boxs. EWWWWWWWWW! (shiver shiver)it scared me enough to always check the boxes at costco and shake all my fruit before eating....by the way i bought corn at safeway the other day and there was a whole dead caterpiller family in one of the stalks i was shucking....fuzzy bugs also terrify me!

Posted 3 years ago #
westseattledood
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I'm weighing in as totally pro-spider, except for the poisonous ones that will hurt somebody or when I walk through a web and get it on my arms or face; that IS kind of gross.

But, watch them weave a web sometime - I think it is so fascinating that all of that complex architecture is hardwired in that teeny tiny creature. Cool, to me. And, some spiders have very intricately patterned markings on them as well, not to mention their importance to our ecosystem.

HunterG - I like your cat's style. My kitty hasn't discovered spiders yet, but she's a dedicated mouser in the winter. Off-season, she has been working 24/7 on the fruitfly infestation in my house. What is with the FRUIT FLY's this year????? No matter how much I clean produce, they manage to stowaway somewhere. How do they get in? Fruit flies are my insect gripe....they have no particularly importance within the ecosystem. Do they? Ugh.

Posted 3 years ago #
WSB
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Overall (I should probably call an extension expert about this, might make a good storylet) there just seem to be more bugs etc. We still haven't exorcised the ants. And we've seen the fruitflies. And bigger flies (got nontoxic - to humans - flypaper hangers for those). And moths. Or, maybe it's just our little old house and the fact we deliberately have plants growing around and onto it like a jungle reclaiming its turf ... TR

Posted 3 years ago #
credmond
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Do a Wiki search on spider and then follow the various links to the different kinds and their very cool differences. Spiders and the hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants) are - to me - the top insects in the food chain - predators. Read up on them and then watch them outside (or inside) and remember that they're way more willing to get away from you than you are to get them off or outside. Not understanding their behavior is part of what has allowed them to become the monster insects they seem to be. I've got this huge, (large 4 gallon trash can size) wasp's nest which I recently had vacated by a local who collects them for their venom (used by companies who create allergy tests). In talking with the wasp collector, I learned so much about them which was useful and fascinating - and I already was knowledgeable. They're only bad guys if they scare you and not getting bit or stung is really easy once you understand a bit about their habits.
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They eat the other bugs - these are the good guy bugs! I know butterflies and damsel flies are beautiful, but spiders are useful and can be beautiful in their own way. It takes 30 minutes for an orb-weaver to completely redo a complicated, 12-inch diameter aerial-hung web. Wasps and bees regularly fly miles from their nest (remember their scale, that would be hundreds of miles to us) and get back on time each end-of-foraging/pollinating-day. They're really more fascinating than frightening, 'least to me. And, of course, ants till the soil.
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Full disclosure - I am in no way affected by stings or bites of these bugs (do avoid brown recluse and black widow) in other than a pain way - I don't get a reaction. I've also only been stung a few times (except for the time I stepped on a ground hornet's nest and that single incident resulted in two-weeks' worth of cortisone shots) so I don't have a very deep "bad" history with these creatures. Spiders are ugly, but they're so fascinating to watch and hunt in some incredibly clever ways.

Posted 3 years ago #
JoB
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I still have a scar from the brown recluse bite i got in my early 20s. .. and i do react to all spider bites..

the spiders are so commonplace right now that i don't freak.. unless they decide to come down the wall when i am in my bath.

No spider sees me naked and lives.

Posted 3 years ago #
flowerpetal
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All spiders are poisonous, but almost none are poisonous to humans.
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/2marks.html

And all daddy long legs are not spiders!
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/daddylonglegs.html
Hope you have had your morning cup o'coffee. These thoughts were confusing even with a cup-a-joe!

Posted 3 years ago #
nuni
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I am so ridiculously scared of spiders that my husband constructed a "spider-getter" for me. He basically cut a hole out of the bottom of a Tupperware container and then taped it to a 3 foot long wooden rod which I use to trap the spiders (without getting near them, of course) and then release them back to the outdoors. When that is unavailable I usually panic.

Posted 3 years ago #
Sue
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nuni, we bought a bug vacuum at one of those "as seen on tv" stores: http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/bugwand.html (warning, pictures of a spider at that link)

You can keep your distance from the bug, catch it, and then release it outside. As a person also afraid of spiders, this item is my best friend.

Posted 3 years ago #
GenHillOne
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ewww...a "dislodging brush" ;)

Posted 3 years ago #
Caduceus
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There seems to be a surge of hobo spiders this year.

In my house and a few of my friends.

At home depot you can get hobospider traps 4 for
4$. They are essentially a pad with sticky stuff on it, that release pheremones(spell?) and you can fold it into a little box.

Posted 3 years ago #
hopey
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A couple of tips I found while trying to combat spiders last year (my first summer/fall in West Seattle):

* Spiders that repeatedly build their webs in your way (like across a doorway) need to be relocated. I get a stick, catch the web and move the stick around until I also have the spider on the stick. Then I quickly go across the driveway or across the yard to a bush where their web will not bother me, and toss the stick there. So far it's worked every time.

* Indoors, you can keep spiders away using Pledge lemon furniture polish. No, really. Apparently spiders "taste" using their feet, and they do NOT like the taste of lemon furniture polish! I kept getting spiderwebs across my basement stairs and doorway but could never catch the spiders to relocate them. So I sprayed it down with Pledge, and voila! No more spiderwebs across my doorway!

Posted 3 years ago #
GenHillOne
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Lowman Beach - I thought of you and your ants when I read this...maybe some things you haven't tried yet?
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/good-questions/good-questions-ants-in-my-pet-bowlslos-angeles-61650

Posted 3 years ago #
WSB
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thanks, GHO. Actually the only reason life is bearable is because we did find the "moat trick" a while back and it is now how we feed and water the cats. works like a charm. it's just the annoyance of ants on the kitchen sink, ants occasionally turning up in places like the bathroom, I don't even want to know where Ant Central is, there's probably some massive humongous central ant HQ that would be worth videotaping (and then running screaming in horror) if we could find it. No money for professional help (and we don't do toxins anyway) so we continue with a little cinnamon here, a little mint there, a bit of lemon juice over there, the bowl moats, and hoping against hope it's a REALLY REALLY cold winter that kills off the ants. - TR

Posted 3 years ago #
nuni
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Yeah that wand looks a bit close. Yes, I know I am completely irrational.

Posted 3 years ago #
carrieann
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We had a break from the ants last Summer, but they were back in full force this time around. And there are definitely a lot of spiders this season. After having a little luck (though not enough for our temporary basement dwellers who moved in a couple months ago) with the traps I picked up at the Junction True Value, I finally signed up for a year-long plan with Orkin. In addition to treating for other creepy crawlies, the traps they use for the spiders contain peanutbutter and vinegar. Apparently this attracts spiders? (Attracts me, too. Mmm Phad Thai with peanut sauce.) Who'd have guessed!

Posted 3 years ago #
carrieann
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The smell of Lemon Pledge reminds me of my childhood. I think I'll pick some up and try that out, too. Thanks for the suggestion!

Posted 3 years ago #
biankat
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Here's one for the annals. I was enjoying the last swallow of coffee at work this morning and felt something flow in with the caffeinated goodness. I initally thought it might have been some grounds, and reached to my lips to remove. Nope - drowned spider, prolly slightly smaller than a dime with its legs extended. YUM! He had to have crawled into the cup at some point because I had washed it out before using.

Posted 3 years ago #
credmond
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In response to the original question: Are there more spiders this year. I actually think not. 2004 was a very, very big year in my yard for wolf and orb weavers (and the occasional hobo and other spindly types). 2005, not so much the orb weavers but lots of wolfs and a few new species I noted. 2006 and last year were somewhat less in overall spider population, I believe, and 2008 is a good year but not up to even 2005 standards. Anyone who moved here after 2005 might think this year was a big year.
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I've got this peculiar cove window area in my upstairs office with two windows which open full (more like glass doors) and spiders of all kinds find their way inside (as do moths, dragonflies, crane flies (I still call them mosquito hawks), bees, wasps and other flying insects and the occasional lady or sir bug (black wings with red dots). The spiders try and leave their egg sacks in the furthest-to-reach three-way corner of this area. On occasion I'm not overly vigilant and an egg sack will start hatching and dozens to hundreds of super tiny (and therefore super cute) little spiderlings can be seen marching across the ceiling at that area.
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I use a dustbuster portable vacuum to remove all these bugs. I figure the predators will eat the others inside my little vacuum terrarium and - in between cleanings of the vacuum case - live out a fairly natural life. The vacuum case now has about a dozen little webs inside it. The bugs can't escape and I'm not actually killing them (well, so to speak). Maybe that would be a better solution - the vacuum actually sucks them in so you don't even have to get that close with the nozzle.
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The bigger hymenoptera creatures I try and snare with a Kleenex (tm) and release them outside. The lady and sir bugs I pick up with my fingers and the crane flies I grab with my hand (they fly so slowly and erratically that it's kind of a game).

Posted 3 years ago #
Traci
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This has become almost funny where I live, in the Luna Park apts.

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.
In the shower, curtains, shoes, ceiling, hanging so that I run into them, all over the place outside.

I sprayed for them once and felt horrible about it, so now I just see them and say hi. If they're talking trash to me I move them outside.

Also my cats are useless... "look lady, this doesn't look like tuna to me so I'm not eating it."

Posted 3 years ago #
JoB
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my dogs are enjoying pouncing on them...

i think they were cats in another life.

Posted 3 years ago #
WSDesign
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Yeah, seems like more than last year...here, too...around Gatewood area.
Seems like relocating the webs doesn't work too well...the little buggers seem to like rewebbing the paths and doorways most.

Posted 3 years ago #
GenHillOne
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ugh, biankat, I was with someone who slurped up a bee once that had flown into her pop can...I still get the willies thinking about it (flying yellow & black critters of all types are my downfall)

Posted 3 years ago #
ellenater
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I also had a freaky spider incident: I took a shower and toweled off without opening my eyes and when i did open them, with the towel millimeters away from my face, there was a HUGE brown, hairy spider there. So they freak me out. But I did let my son hold a tarantula once at a pet store.

But I'm with Lowman on this: I don't kill them. We don't seem to have too many, though. Just the annoying ants...

Posted 3 years ago #
carrieann
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As ooky as it is to repeatedly run into their webs, I don't much mind them if they're outside (in fact, my husband has shot some really beautiful photos of them, and there's one that my daughter has named and says hello to every time we pass it on the front steps) But once they invade the house (like the one that had taken up residence under the blanket in my son's crib. gah.) then all bets are off.

Posted 3 years ago #
datamuse
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Two of my friends have had problems with spiders in their house (they live down in Olympia) and finally they made a deal: the one that lives over the kitchen sink (whose name is Charlotte, they've decided) gets to live. All others are fair game.

I don't mind them as long as I don't find them in my bed, but my husband's kind of squirrely about them so out of consideration for him, I relocate the ones I find indoors.

Posted 3 years ago #