Spiders

[JP29]

Props to y'all that can handle the big ones. I've always had a soft spot for them, and thought it's bad luck to off them, aside from our native and prolific recluses. For now, all I seem to get in mine is the jumpers, and they're generally mild mannered enough I don't mind them hanging out. This tiny little guy showed up recently while we were grilling!

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[aldo98229]

Here in Washington State, spiders move from the outside of the house in spring and fall to the inside in winter. They love to build their nests in and around exterior lights, where there are plenty of bugs to catch. I remove the webs every so often so that my house doesn’t look like the Munster’s, but let them be otherwise.

The Jeep can stay parked for weeks at a time in summer; same for the Fiat in winter. So far they haven’t bothered with my vehicles.

 

[Bill_P]

Residual insecticides don’t work on spiders. Even if they walk through the insecticide, it won’t affect them because, unlike insects, they don’t clean their exoskeleton with their mouths. They don’t even have an exoskeleton, and they don’t groom like insects.

A bug bomb might work, because the insecticide is inhaled.

We have had to deal with invasive brown widows, and invasive, HUGE, Huntsman spiders in our vehicles. The Huntsman give me the willies! My wife was driving in town one day, looked at her rear view mirror, and there were spider legs COMPLETELY WRAPPED AROUND the upper and lower edges of the mirror, from the Huntsman on the back of it! They can achieve a leg span of five to six inches, and they move like lightning.

Fortunately my wife isn’t freaked out by such things.

About the only thing you can do about spiders in a vehicle is to physically remove them, or deprive them of food by using insecticides. If there’s nothing to eat, they leave or die.

looks like a whole lot of fuck that!

 

[The Fixer]

Residual insecticides don’t work on spiders. Even if they walk through the insecticide, it won’t affect them because, unlike insects, they don’t clean their exoskeleton with their mouths. They don’t even have an exoskeleton, and they don’t groom like insects.

A bug bomb might work, because the insecticide is inhaled.

We have had to deal with invasive brown widows, and invasive, HUGE, Huntsman spiders in our vehicles. The Huntsman give me the willies! My wife was driving in town one day, looked at her rear view mirror, and there were spider legs COMPLETELY WRAPPED AROUND the upper and lower edges of the mirror, from the Huntsman on the back of it! They can achieve a leg span of five to six inches, and they move like lightning.

Fortunately my wife isn’t freaked out by such things.

About the only thing you can do about spiders in a vehicle is to physically remove them, or deprive them of food by using insecticides. If there’s nothing to eat, they leave or die.

What in the Florida??? Spiders as big as your arm, lizards that fall out of trees, gators that wander around like they own the place....I think I'd pass out, and pretty sure my daughter would need a crash cart if she saw one. You and your wife are brave souls indeed.

 

[blessidsoul12]

The way people act when talking about spiders always amazes me. They are ubiquitous, yet so many people actually know literally nothing about them- their natural history, nothing about taxonomy, their habits or the actual threat they pose, which is very close to zero. They are awesome creatures.
Places where Latrodectus are the predominant species, bites are astronomically rare. By the numbers, your neighbor's dog is far more dangerous to you than the 20 widows that hang out around your house at night.
Probably the most fascinating though are recluses. All public forum spider discussion lead to recluses. People start spouting off so much BS they know nothing about. The recluse range is known, and it does NOT include most the US though everyone and their grandma swears they or someone they know was bitten by a recluse in a state they do not exist in. Some study back I was doing my population work on wandering spiders showed that in one year in the early 2010s there were some 900+ recluse bites diagnosed by clinicians in Florida and they came from every corner of the state. Only 5 brown recluses have EVER been found in the state. Whereas a state like Kansas where >50% of homes on the eastern side of the state are infested with L. reclusa, there were only like 10 confirmed bites in the state in the same year. Explain that.
What I can't figure out is the reaction from people when they're told the ulcer/abscess/bite they have is 99% more likely to be from something other than a spider especially a recluse bite, because it would be more rare than winning the lottery given you're in Washington, or Oregon, or Alaska... where they just do not exist there. People get SO F'ing BUTT HURT. I like knowledge, and am driven by the pursuit of knowledge. So learning facts I don't think should threaten people so much.
Bottom line- not much you can do about spiders in your rig, other than appreciate them and clear them out if you want. As stated before due to their unique anatomy, they are resistant to traditional pest treatments even though companies will be very glad to take your money.

Spiders. Are. Awesome.

 

[ForgottenTaco]

Here’s a Huntsman I found here, at home. That is my hand, and I have big hands. The spider was dead; it had fallen, and it was so heavy that its abdomen partially separated from its head upon impact.

I need to find one and keep it as a pet.

 

[greige]

Spiders are where the food is. Either the OP's jeep is parked under a light, with top down/off or windows open, or there is another infestation in the jeep that the spiders are feasting on. Even an infrared light source can attract insects and spiders to eat them. On my ring camera in the backyard, it gets triggered frequently by insects and spiders at night. Maybe there is a light staying on in the jeep? It doesn't take much.

 

[JP29]

Probably the most fascinating though are recluses. All public forum spider discussion lead to recluses. People start spouting off so much BS they know nothing about. The recluse range is known, and it does NOT include most the US though everyone and their grandma swears they or someone they know was bitten by a recluse in a state they do not exist in. Some study back I was doing my population work on wandering spiders showed that in one year in the early 2010s there were some 900+ recluse bites diagnosed by clinicians in Florida and they came from every corner of the state. Only 5 brown recluses have EVER been found in the state. Whereas a state like Kansas where >50% of homes on the eastern side of the state are infested with L. reclusa, there were only like 10 confirmed bites in the state in the same year. Explain that.

Spiders. Are. Awesome.

Just to add on, I think a lot of people confuse them with wolf spiders. As a kid I actually had one of the latter living in my bedroom window for some time (RIP Wolfie). Then again, I do live in E KS, so a lot of anecdotal identification could be true positives and not false.

 

[IanNubbit]

Every year this time of year, all of our vehicles here in South NJ get bombarded with spiders. Ive learned to live with it personally. Spider webs aren't hurting anything. Id rather have 20 spiders and no insect any day in a vehcile.

 

[blessidsoul12]

Just to add on, I think a lot of people confuse them with wolf spiders. As a kid I actually had one of the latter living in my bedroom window for some time (RIP Wolfie). Then again, I do live in E KS, so a lot of anecdotal identification could be true positives and not false.

i was in L-town at the time and a buddy of mine called and said he found a baby rattlesnake in his shed just west of Manhattan. It had to be a massasauga, which I was so excited about. I asked him all the important ID questions before I drove over from Lawrence- the color and pattern, what its pupils looked like, what it was acting like and if it had a button on its tail. He confirmed all of these and so it HAD to be a neonate western massasauga. I made the drive, get there, and it turns out to be a fairly average-sized lined snake. I was so pissed, I asked him what the hell man you said it had this, this, and this exactly. He's like, well yeah, I mean to me, yeah! I said it has round pupils, LINEAR STRIPES, and NO BUTTON or rattle at all! He said, well it looked to me like it did. So I drove back home. This was before the age of sharing photos or facetime in real time.

The point is people absolutely friggin suck at the details. They will convince themselves that anything can look like anything. To most people, if it is a spider, and it could be argued to be a brownish color, it is a reclusa. Doesn't matter that they don't exist somewhere..

 

[Red Dirt]

My suggestion to the OP is to put down sticky traps in the Jeep, after cleaning out all of the webs & egg sacks. You can take the traps out while you're in the Jeep & put them back when you're not. Not only will you catch the spiders, but their food as well.
I live in Oklahoma and have seen hundreds of brown recluse spiders around our house - we call them Fiddlebacks. They're common as rice here. Home Defense works well inside and outside the house although we've put sticky traps along the baseboards before and still caught spiders. Both my husband and I have been bitten. You get the bulls-eye/necrosis from the bite if you're allergic (this comes from the doctor). I'm not allergic and got no treatment for the bites from Minor Emergency. Husband had a reaction but got steroids before it got worse. The bites itch at first then sting bad if you touch them. Look like a mosquito bite at first. You know it's not a mosquito bite when it starts burning & stinging.
I got bit by a little black & white jumping spider once. I was shocked at how bad it stung and for how long- about 20 minutes. I hate spiders.
This is a brown recluse/Fiddleback:

 

[blessidsoul12]

Unfortunately for recluses they also overlap heavy methamphetamine and other drug use regions, so most of the "recluse bites" are likely abscessed needle sites.

There are anatomic limitations to recluse chelicerae that make them uniquely challenged when it comes to biting large things like humans.

 

[blessidsoul12]

My suggestion to the OP is to put down sticky traps in the Jeep, after cleaning out all of the webs & egg sacks. You can take the traps out while you're in the Jeep & put them back when you're not. Not only will you catch the spiders, but their food as well.
I live in Oklahoma and have seen hundreds of brown recluse spiders around our house - we call them Fiddlebacks. They're common as rice here. Home Defense works well inside and outside the house although we've put sticky traps along the baseboards before and still caught spiders. Both my husband and I have been bitten. You get the bulls-eye/necrosis from the bite if you're allergic (this comes from the doctor). I'm not allergic and got no treatment for the bites from Minor Emergency. Husband had a reaction but got steroids before it got worse. The bites itch at first then sting bad if you touch them. Look like a mosquito bite at first. You know it's not a mosquito bite when it starts burning & stinging.
I got bit by a little black & white jumping spider once. I was shocked at how bad it stung and for how long- about 20 minutes. I hate spiders.
This is a brown recluse/Fiddleback:

sexy mature male, out lookin for chickies

 

[Jeepalady17]

deconashious earth

you mean diatomaceous earth??

 

[Jeepalady17]

The way people act when talking about spiders always amazes me. They are ubiquitous, yet so many people actually know literally nothing about them- their natural history, nothing about taxonomy, their habits or the actual threat they pose, which is very close to zero. They are awesome creatures.
Places where Latrodectus are the predominant species, bites are astronomically rare. By the numbers, your neighbor's dog is far more dangerous to you than the 20 widows that hang out around your house at night.
Probably the most fascinating though are recluses. All public forum spider discussion lead to recluses. People start spouting off so much BS they know nothing about. The recluse range is known, and it does NOT include most the US though everyone and their grandma swears they or someone they know was bitten by a recluse in a state they do not exist in. Some study back I was doing my population work on wandering spiders showed that in one year in the early 2010s there were some 900+ recluse bites diagnosed by clinicians in Florida and they came from every corner of the state. Only 5 brown recluses have EVER been found in the state. Whereas a state like Kansas where >50% of homes on the eastern side of the state are infested with L. reclusa, there were only like 10 confirmed bites in the state in the same year. Explain that.
What I can't figure out is the reaction from people when they're told the ulcer/abscess/bite they have is 99% more likely to be from something other than a spider especially a recluse bite, because it would be more rare than winning the lottery given you're in Washington, or Oregon, or Alaska... where they just do not exist there. People get SO F'ing BUTT HURT. I like knowledge, and am driven by the pursuit of knowledge. So learning facts I don't think should threaten people so much.
Bottom line- not much you can do about spiders in your rig, other than appreciate them and clear them out if you want. As stated before due to their unique anatomy, they are resistant to traditional pest treatments even though companies will be very glad to take your money.


Spiders. Are. Awesome.

I used to have a "spider buddy" in AZ There was a huge wolf spider that lived in the water intake of my pool and every time I went in for a swim he would jump in too and swim next to me and then when I got out he would return to his hiding place.. went on for years... It was so neat. Too bad these "big guys" are so misunderstood..They are so beneficial and really...gentle... as a woman I am not afraid of any of them and if a stray one gets in rarely here in CO at 9300' elevation I just take them outside or pretty much let them be,, Have never had an infestation.. Guess its too cold up here....(Kind of still miss my swimming partner LOL)

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