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To: nickcarraway
My wife and I live in what we jokingly call the "spider belt". Most of them are not aggressive or very big, but they are everywhere both outside and inside. Most of the spiders make little funnel webs or just run around hunting without much in the way of webs at all. They get stuck in our bathtub all the time.

We live in the Northwest in the middle of a bunch of fir trees and brush in an area where it drizzles most of the year. Insects and spiders love it here. We do use insecticides for specific situations in the garden, etc...

If we bug bombed the house new residents would just move in within a month or two. The interior of our house is made mostly from rough wood and paneling which spiders love. WE are constantly vacuuming down cobwebs. Unfortunately, our precious little wienerdog died a few months ago. Her favorite activity was hunting and eating spiders. She reminded us of the scene from Dracula Dead and Loving It, where Renfield ate a bug and then denied it.

Odds and... odds... — Rumplestiltskin and Count Dracula similarities

We try to not to worry too much about the spiders and are glad they help keep the insect population under control. But you do need to be conscious of them and take some precautions when you are dragging stuff out of dark corners. A month ago I put on a pair of rubber boots that had spent the last few months in our garage and I stupidly forgot to vacuum them out first.

I am not sure what type of spider's home that I destroyed, but I ended up with three bites in a straight line up the back of my calf. They were a little itchy but not painful. They turned black and had lumps; they scabbed over in a day or two. They resembled the picture on the guy's arm but not as bad.

Fortunately, my wife is a nurse and helped me to take care of them. I washed them off and covered them with antibiotic ointment and Band-Aids to try and keep them from getting infected. A month later I still have red marks and one of them still has a small scab but they are better now. I am glad that they didn't require any further medical attention.

This is not the first time I have had an incident with rubber boots and spiders. I have been bitten before and cannot believe that I forgot to check these out before putting them on. Totally stupid move in our area... Boots stored in our garage fill up with webs almost immediately. Rubber boots apparently make very good homes. I have sucked up some mean looking little dudes in the past along with piles of dead insect bodies that they have left inside.

I am not sure that using bug bombs would take care of this guys problem. He probably needs to just take a vacuum cleaner and give his apartment a good cleaning. He could probably reduce the population a great deal without a lot of effort. That is how we keep our house guests under control.

80 posted on 04/27/2022 9:19:49 PM PDT by fireman15 (Irritating people are the grit from which we fashion our pearl. I provide the grit. You're Welcome.)
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To: fireman15

“or just run around hunting without much in the way of webs at all.”

Long single strand or few strands? Sounds like Brown Recluse Spider webs.


92 posted on 04/28/2022 4:46:18 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: fireman15

Have you tried hanging your boots upside down, or keeping them in a five-gallon bucket with a clamp lid?


109 posted on 04/28/2022 2:00:29 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (If science can’t be questioned, it’s not science anymore, it’s propaganda. --Aaron Rodgers)
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