I hate black widows. What are your solutions? They’re everywhere.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    6 months ago

    Dish soap (dawn!) mixed with water, shaken in a spray bottle.

    Call an exterminator

    Get a pet lizard

    Spiders live where the food is, you don’t have a spider problem, you have a food problem. What insects are attracting the spiders? What is attracting the insects?

    Maybe some borax around the house could deter the main sources of food

    • qed123@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      In the stillness of the midnight hour, When dreams unfurl with quiet power, A secret dance, unseen, unfolds, A tale of spiders, brave and bold.

      Teenage risktakers, nimble, sly, With silken threads, they dare to fly. From ceilings high, they bungee down, Into the dark, without a sound.

      Silent as shadows, they descend, On daring missions, round the bend. A careful line, each taking turn, A nighttime rite, no cause for concern.

      They know the risk, they know the score, To wake you up would mean no more. So deftly, softly, they embark, In moonlit rooms, so still, so dark.

      Through parted lips, they make their way, A fleeting touch, then swift relay. A secret sport, a hidden game, Unknown to you, their nightly claim.

      Yet you sleep on, in peaceful rest, Untroubled by their silent quest. For in this dance of spiders’ flight, They leave no trace, no mark, no fright.

      And when the dawn breaks, soft and clear, The spiders fade, they disappear. A secret kept, a tale untold, Of teenage spiders, brave and bold.

      🌙🕷️🕸️

  • 667@lemmy.radio
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    6 months ago

    What any reasonable person in the same situation would do. You burn the house down.

  • lgmjon64@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Close all windows and doors, set off the required amount of foggers and wait the recommended amount of time. Repeat again in a few weeks if needed. Most foggers/bug bombs work on most spiders and many are persistent over some time after application.

  • lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Use bug bomb(s) first to kill the existing spiders. Then apply permethrin diluted with water to a 0.5% solution, spraying at all entry paths to the garage, edges, and dark areas.

    The idea is to not just prevent spiders from returning. It’s also to deprive them of a reason to return by removing their food supply. Permethrin is a wide-spectrum insecticide and repellant. It has very low toxicity to humans, most mammals, and birds. Not good around cats or fish. It has good persistence (6-8 weeks).

  • norimee@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    RAID Spray

    I have no experience with black widows, but when I lived in rural Cambodia with its huge jumping spiders (they also have their egg sack hanging on their belly, so you really don’t want to squash them) RAID seriously was my best friend and life saver.

      • norimee@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Not all, but I couldn’t say which ones were and were not. And some of them could seriously fuck you up. The house was wooden, so they always found a crack to squeeze through. But at least I didn’t have scorpions like some of my colleagues.

        • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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          6 months ago

          It’s just as related as the 3 American black widows or the European one are to each other, they are all species in Latrodectus. And while most Aussies do call them redbacks calling them Australian black widow isn’t unheard off, especially by non-Aussies.

          It’s the term “black widow” that’s ambigious here, it doesn’t refere to one specific species of spider.

      • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        How many Widows we talking here? They’re common, but if you can see 10+ in one garage that sounds like an infestation you want dealt with professionally.

        • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.worldOP
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          6 months ago

          I don’t know! I just keep finding them. I found three last night. The day before I found two, in a different location than the most recent three.

          • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Sounds like you had a recent hatch in your garage. This is time of year for it. It depends on your risk tolerance. If you have a lot of stuff in your garage that you need to access, I’d probably call a professional. It there aren’t many hiding places for them, I would just vacuum up the ones that I would likely come into contact with.

            • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.worldOP
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              6 months ago

              I might call a professional. Unfortunately, with our garage, the ceiling is unfinished, which means it has open rafters and plenty of places for them to lay eggs. The tallest point of the ceiling is as high as the roof.

              • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Widows tend to hang out closer to the ground. I wouldn’t worry much about the rafters.

                Darker crevices, debris piles, larger leaning items that go undisturbed for a while.

                • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.worldOP
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                  6 months ago

                  There are some at ground level when I walk out into the garage. Is it possible to vacuum them up? I really don’t want to touch them, or bat at them with a broom. I feel like if I do that, they’ll hit the ground and charge at me, or crawl up the broom.