Snakes on a plane, spiders in the house?
Nope, I haven’t seen the movie “Snakes on a Plane.” I just wanted to get your attention, and the subject matter is actually tangentially related to the topic of this post. The ads for the movie are quite enough for me, thank you very much.
Not that I’m especially afraid of snakes. I’m not. But neither am I a good candidate for “Fear Factor.” I’ve never liked horror movies, either, ever since I was allowed as a five-year-old child to attend one, taken to a Saturday matinee by my eight-year-old brother. Too much information, far too soon, for this imaginative youngster.
And those uniformed matrons who patrolled the theater aisles with whips (remember them, folks of my tiresome boomer generation?) didn’t help, either, although the thirty-five cent admission was a great attraction. And, by the way, my brother always got Good and Plenty (yuk and double yuk) whereas I was a Nonpareil gal.
But I digress.
It’s spiders I’m interested in, because this is spider season in my home. Living in the semi-country within a small city, near a wooded area with deer and wildlife and all that good stuff, I tend to forget how much of that wildlife intrudes on the house in the summer. Despite the obligatory screens, spiders and insects (see; I’m aware that spiders are not insects; I looked it up) find their way inside quite readily, to make themselves at home.
I am happy to say I’m not one of those people afflicted with arachnophobia. I can even kill one if need be, without flinching or carrying on (no chickenhawk, I). I believe that any spider who comes into my house uninvited (and they are all uninvited) is fair game.
Today I noticed that, almost overnight, my house had turned into a maternity ward for spiders, particularly the ground floor–I guess they don’t do stairs. Little hanging egg casings had burst to reveal small dark particulate mounds of–something or other.
And here’s where the mystery deepens, and I must humbly ask, once again, for the help of my wonderful readers. I’m stumped, because those small dark mounds don’t look all that spiderlike. In fact, they look somewhat like ants. And they look dead. But that’s not the way ants reproduce, is it? Nor, according to this, is it the right time of year for little ant babies to be hatching. And why would they be hatching dead?
At any rate, they’re gone now, swept away by that great broom which no doubt features prominently in their nightmares–or in the horror movies ants and spiders would make, if they only could.
It could be clusters of little dormant Black Widow spiders waiting for the natural cycle of cold to develop at which time they will become active in the warmth of your house. A cluster like that killed my Aunt Bertha in 1964 but she wasn’t very spry and not much into keeping a clean house. I shouldn’t have told you about this. We are still ashamed for not helping her with the house cleaning.
What’s wrong with spiders? Spiders are cool and they eat insects.
Termites look much like ants, though I don’t know if that’s how they hatch.
Neo,
Many moons ago I, like Tom Delay, owned my own exterminating business and am conservative (Is he a Preacher)?.
You must realize that spiders are regional and Yankee Spiders rarely inhabit the way South down here, so my comment will be generic.
Spiders don’t react to insecticides sprayed upon a surface as do insects — because as you said, they are not insects — they have different breathing mechanisms. You must wet them with an oil based spray.
I doubt the “mounds” you described are termites.. especially if they are suspended in a web. If the mounds look like dry mud and are encrusted against and attached to a wall near the floor they could be termite tunnels.
My recollection of Black Widow Spiders is that their nests are puffy and look like a small cotton ball. Naver ran into many of those.
Suggestion.. Next time, they show up, before you sweep them out, wet them with an aerosol spray of some commercial insecticide (Black Flag, Raid, etc). Some sprays are are less odoriferous than others. Wetting them will kill them. You might also wet the residue you swept outdoors — so they won’t hatch and visit again.
Drop an email if you have further questions..
ExP (Jack)
I have a window in the garage that I shamefully neglect so you can imagine there is quite an accumulation of spiders and webs and other assorted dead insects. Yesterday, I heard a plaintive series of squeaks from that area and went to invenstigate.I discovered an adorable, irridescent green hummingbird all caught up in the mishmash and was in need of rescuing and cleaning up. I must confess I took delight in this mission because it meant I got to hold a hummingbird…such a darling little miracle of nature to me. So, thanks to spider webs I got to enjoy a few minutes of enchantment. Upon release, he helicoptered off; squeaking like crazy. I had no idea hummingbirds made such a funny sound.
Spiders are, indeed, amazing animals. I enjoy watching them outdoors.
But indoors is MY turf, and they are not welcome.
Some years ago I developed a guilty conscience about wantonly killing them, though, and I started catching them alive and taking them outside. Peanut butter or mayonnaise jars work well, with a piece of cardboard to slide over the top of the jar after they are trapped against a wall or ceiling. I have a jar and piece of cardboard in every room of my house.
Centipedes are another matter entirely. I keep flyswatters on hand for them.
“My recollection of Black Widow Spiders is that their nests are puffy and look like a small cotton ball. Naver ran into many of those.”
We (my parents and I), unfortunatly, had quite a few of these buggers when we first moved into our subdivision (1989). In our house we killed as many as 40 one year including the little “cotton balls” of thier nests. I can not count how many I killed during those few years – many met thier end with a firecracker as I found them as they built houses up the road.
Never knew why, but eventaully we quit having the issue. I assume that since we were one of the first houses here we just were unlucky. As more houses moved in they got killed off (and maybe my firecrackers helped 🙂 ). I don’t know for sure though – just that after a few years we never saw them again.
The War against Insects continues on, it seems.
Not to change the subject, but…”uniformed matrons who patrolled the theater aisles with whips”? I guess I came along a little too late to remember this, but…what was that about? Sounds like fetish material…