Spiders - Getting rid ...

[Chris J W]

Anyone got any good ideas about how I can get spiders from inside the boat? Don't mind them outside, but would much rather they stay there and not spin webs inside!

[Bones]

Anyone got any good ideas about how I can get spiders from inside the boat? Don't mind them outside, but would much rather they stay there and not spin webs inside!

 

No no no! Keep them. They will stay where they do their webs and they keep the flies down. They are sweet when you get used to them... and you can, I used to almost faint in the presence of a spider until I desensitised myself.

 

If you are desperate to get rid of them, do a search as I think lots of things have been mentioned - including conquers....

 

Apologies: all bad spelling is due to lack of coffee, the hour of day, and the general inability to spell.

[carlt]

Anyone got any good ideas about how I can get spiders from inside the boat? Don't mind them outside, but would much rather they stay there and not spin webs inside!

Sorry but every boat comes with a breeding pair as standard equipment.

[Scotty]

Sorry but every boat comes with a breeding pair as standard equipment.

Do the have to be the correct type of spider for the BSS?

 

I guess the european ones might not have the correct TUV markings

[Carrie]

I've sort of conquered the spider fear (as long as their legs aren't TOO thick! - yuk) But it's earwigs I'm having a problem with at the moment. Finding them everywhere and they are un-redeemably revolting creatures. After bashing in my cratch yesterday, I salvaged the 2 solar spotlights I'd had on the cratch front. What was stuffed behind each domed light attachment? A nest of the buggers - eeek!

[Gillie]

I too heard that if you put a bowl of conkers in the boat it got rid of them...

but have no clue as to why this would work??

 

I can see that having spiders is what you need to keep the flies down..

but some of them are SOooooo big...eeeek..!!

[Nine of Hearts]

The traditional solution would be to put a bird inside your boat. But then of course you'll need a cat... then a dog...

[Chris J W]

Oh, I appreciate their fly catching ability - I'd just have a few 'crack squad' spiders than whole host!

[BlueStringPudding]

Conkers do work - had a major spider fest in the bathroom of our old flat - which was always worse in autumn and winter.

 

Put a large bowl of conkers in there last autumn and we didn't see another spider for months. (Till conkers went all shrivelly round about March time!)

 

I feel the same as you about spiders - I'm marginally less sensitive already to them (just from the last few weeks on the boat) but only if I can close the blinds on them (they tend to spin their webs in the windows) and don't have to see them!

 

However I'll be making the most of the conker gathering season and chums have offered to collect some for us too!!!

[Lottiespal]

I share your feelings about spiders inside the boat, especially when you wake up in the morning and there's one hanging on a web just above your face! I bought a can of stuff from Lakeland, think it was called "Spider stop" or similar and you spray it around the doors and windows of the boat. Worked a treat! Only need to use it in the Autumn time when they seem to start looking for winter quarters and it lasts right through. Hope this helps.

[blackrose]

I recently came back after 2 weeks away and the boat was full of them. I've found a good thwack with a sandal tends to get rid of them, unless they're around the windows of course where more hi-tech methods of elimination are required.

 

It's quite interesting actually because I bought a new sailaway 2 years ago with no spiders onboard and after a few months came to a brand new pontoon mooring where I was the second boat to moor. There's only one bridge over which any land animal can cross to the pontoons and that's about 150 yards away. Now the pontoons are full of spiders - mainly outdoor garden spiders - but the way they have colonised new territory is fascinating. I guess some came over the bridge and others came in by boat.

[Bones]

I have spiders in all my windows and only periodically get one stringing a web across the kitchen which I find annoying - especially because a mouth full of web is not a delicacy I like to endure as I approach wakefulness. The ones that exceed the carrying capacity of the boat tend to get put outside (they curl into a ball when you try and pick them up which is quite cute). I probably put one out every month or so, but generally they stay put. I did have a jumping spider in the bedroom which took me a while to get used to, but when you look closely the way their body is formed their feet like the honey monsters hands. Cute.

 

It sounds as though the conkers are the best route for the immeditate....

[blackrose]

I've sort of conquered the spider fear (as long as their legs aren't TOO thick! - yuk) But it's earwigs I'm having a problem with at the moment. Finding them everywhere and they are un-redeemably revolting creatures. After bashing in my cratch yesterday, I salvaged the 2 solar spotlights I'd had on the cratch front. What was stuffed behind each domed light attachment? A nest of the buggers - eeek!

 

Obviously you'll have to get rid of any earwig nests, but I wouldn't worry too much about ones you find inside because they'll soon die off on their own. I thought I had an infestation after mooring up on an old wooden pontoon for a couple of weeks - I found them everywhere for a while (including in my kettle!), but I think they need damp outdoor conditions to breed.

[carlt]

I've sort of conquered the spider fear (as long as their legs aren't TOO thick! - yuk) But it's earwigs I'm having a problem with at the moment. Finding them everywhere and they are un-redeemably revolting creatures. After bashing in my cratch yesterday, I salvaged the 2 solar spotlights I'd had on the cratch front. What was stuffed behind each domed light attachment? A nest of the buggers - eeek!

 

Apparently earwigs dislike diatomacious earth (sp.). No idea what it is but I think it has something to do with cat litter. You can probably google it but that was my first and last attempt at spelling it.

[blackrose]

I bought a can of stuff from Lakeland, think it was called "Spider stop" or similar and you spray it around the doors and windows of the boat. Worked a treat! Only need to use it in the Autumn time when they seem to start looking for winter quarters and it lasts right through. Hope this helps.

 

Do you spray around the inside or outside of the windows?

[honey ryder]

we have the same thing with spiders at the moment.

I dont really mind them, they keep the flies down, but those that dangle from the ceiling right above the cooker while im trying to cook get shifted smartish, or I let them dangle and burn... they arent so smart sometimes.

 

those jumping spiders... now those i dont like. i think its the colours on their body, theres red on them and i think it taps into my inner psyche that red means bad/danger/dont touch that/stop, so the jumpers get the shortest end of my thrift.

 

conkers sounds like a good idea. if we cruise backwards and forwards along the canal through london, closer the east side there's kids in the conker trees that will throw them to (at) you ... thereby saving you having to go and collect them yourself.

[Orphiel]

I share your feelings about spiders inside the boat, especially when you wake up in the morning and there's one hanging on a web just above your face! I bought a can of stuff from Lakeland, think it was called "Spider stop" or similar and you spray it around the doors and windows of the boat. Worked a treat! Only need to use it in the Autumn time when they seem to start looking for winter quarters and it lasts right through. Hope this helps.

 

Ooh, I have just sprayed that on a couple of days ago, and waiting to see if it works. Although I need to brave myself up and deal with the ones already inside, as I guess due to that stuff they now can't get out...

[John Orentas]

The way they have colonised new territory is fascinating. I guess some came over the bridge and others came in by boat.

 

 

I think they parachute in when they are very young, they have been shown to be able to cross oceans that way.

 

I don't seem to get them inside the boat but get thriving colonies outside, below the gunwale on the front deck. I bus them out, they will usually cling to a sweeping brush then to be transfered to a nice grassy bank.

I do however worry that I am separating them from their friends and relatives, I can't imagine them walking back to my mooring if they are more than a mile or so away.

 

In a former life I worked with searchlights of various kinds, they were sometimes returned to us for renovation often from some very exotic places, the chaps on the shop floor would open them up to be confronted by a very large aggressive looking arachnid, they could clear the factory in five seconds flat. The blokes could never understand how they got in there as the only access was a 1mm breather hole.

Edited August 1, 2007 by John Orentas

[-Jack-]

I believe the following works:-

1. Catch one of the spiders
   
2. Paint it red, white & blue.
   
3. Tie it to your chair leg.
   

This apparently frightens the other spiders away.

 

I hope this isn't cruel to spiders as I don't want the RSPCA after me

[Lottiespal]

Do you spray around the inside or outside of the windows?

We sprayed it around the outside, they're not supposed to want to cross over it. I suppose you might have to re-spray if we get lots of rain.

[tomsk]

I too have heard the 'conker theory', not a jar of glue as to it's efficacy tho'

[Sir Nibble]

Paint it red, white & blue.

How about tiny roses and castles?

Edited August 1, 2007 by snibble

[Chris J W]

S'pose I'd better start looking around for conkers, then!

[Callunna]

OK, spiders are good - they keep all those other pesky little critters down, but like many folk I don't like sharing living accommodation with them.

 

So I convince myself that they would appreciate being escorted off the premises and returned to the wild, and by accident I found the perfect method of transport.

 

I have a little wooden trinket box with a lid on it and I just place in front of Boris, tickle his bum with the lid and he leaps into the box. Lid goes on, box goes outside, lid comes off, Boris jumps out. Sorted.

 

It doesn't work with plastic containers - got to be wooden.

[Rogerd]

Conkers really do work. When I first head this I thought it was a joke, but no spiders do not like conkers!