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The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
Residents of Contra Costa County are once again seeing a large amount of black widows.
Have you noticed an increase in your area? If so, what are you doing to kill them?
Also, do you kill spiders (any kind), or do you let them live?
Talk about it….
Tiz the season. I try not to kill anything. I hate flies so by default spiders are my friend. Widows not so much because of the grandchildren being around so often.
I have so many lizards in my backyard this year spiders don’t stand a chance. Never have seen so many lizards.
Lucky you.
Lizards are good.
Lizards are good until they sneak into the house and then you have to track them down, trap them and set them back outside. So I put a small layer of espresso grounds across the door threshold and that keeps them out. Coffee must make them too jittery. 😀
1 – No. Not applicable.
2 – Yes — all spiders in my home are treated as unwelcome intruders.
Most spiders I leave alone if they are staying at their web minding their own business. They’re good at killing flying insects, especially mosquitoes, gnats,and flies. As a consequence the front of my house has quite a few webs which I don’t mind because once spider season over, I’ll hose them all off. About the only ones I kill are the ones building webs all over my car, then they get sprayed with a can of Black Flag.
It there’s one in the house crawling around on the floor, you can bet my cat will get it.
Ha Ha, that reminds one of my cats got a big fly caught in his paw, the fly was buzzing, and the cat was shaking his paw, but the fly was stuck. I think eventually it escaped. It was just so funny to watch.
We get wolf spiders and no I havent really seen an increase. Just the usual for this time of year and no I don’t kill them, I relocate them to the outside.
No black widows. We have a few lizards. They make themselves obvious hoping for insects to get flushed.
Oh my gosh. I thought it was just our house. I’m killing a couple a day. I clean all the time and have a maid service weekly and they still are coming out like crazy.
I am terrified of black widow spiders. There were many of them at my friend’s house in Pleasant Hill! His neighbor was bitten by one and was laid up for two months. He used to comment on Claycord all the time. He was known as The Phantom! He passed away! I miss him! Here in Rossmoor I have not seen one. We have many lizards. Good to know they like to eat spiders. We do have rattlesnakes. Ugh.
I miss Yhe Phantom so very much, too.
I miss Yhe Phantom also. I still kick myself for never letting him know how much I appreciated and admired him.
I haven’t noticed an increase in spiders, but there sure are a lot of lizards in my yard.
Have not had any spiders in my house lately. I’m an animal lover, but if I have spiders in my house I do kill them, flies also. I ones ladybug in my car, I manage to get it on to a leaf and then take it outside and made sure it crawled on a plant. Love ladybug.
Went I lived in Israel, and we went to a trip to the Dead Sea, and stayed at a youth hostel, we were told to shake out shoes, sleeping bags everything very carefully because they had an abundance of scorpions, not a comfortable feelings, besides that we were close to the Jordanian border, which at that time was very hostile to Israel. Besides that the area was beautiful, and the Dead Sea has so much salt, you float easily, and if you have any sores it cleans them out.
Only Daddy Long-legs get a pass. If inside, they are relocated outside. All others get a death sentence, inside or out. Have had a few more lizards last couple of years, love to watch them run around.
I haven’t noticed an increase. I don’t let spiders live in my house. If I see one I just shoe 🥾 it away.
As long as the spiders are outside I okay. They are not allowed in the house. There has been an increase of very tiny ones inside but no matter how fast they are, I get them anyhow.
Increase yes, ’tis the season. I don’t kill them. Any creature that comes in from the outside is caught and safely put back outside. I have a designated glass and a postcard to slide under it, for capturing. Largest creature was a mouse. Largest spider had thick hairy legs and a 3.5″ leg span. Cat-caught lizards are a weekly regular, except the one that made it under my low-profile bed last week. The baby opossum that crawled under my couch was guided to the sliding back door (which I think he really appreciated, pretty sure he waved and was like “Thanks, Bro! as he wattled out). All mosquitoes are killed. The best method I’ve found is Meyer’s household cleaner in a medium-wide spray pattern – currently using their lavender scent. Dead on contact and smells alright for a while. Works great on ants too. Had a couple nasty birds in the house before and a wife. All were ushered to the door.
WIFE ……. HA HA
(1) If anything I have noticed fewer black widows around so far this year.
(2) I’ll kill black widows if I see them but leave all other spiders alone. Spiders inside the house are captured in a plastic jar and relocated to the backyard. Vast majority of spiders found inside are wolf spiders who have wandered in from the heat or wet in the spring.
One of my old house keepers taught me a trick. You spray the spiders with super hold hairspray and then sick them up with the vacuum. She also taught my kids how to make farting sounds using a straw and blowing it while bent over and the straw in the armpit. Lol.
She was so great.
That sounds kind of cruel. Spiders and flies I try to kill with one hard smack. I even went on the internet to find out if insects feel pain.
I lived in New York and New Orleans, both had cockroaches, the ones in New Orleans were huge. I hated them, and if you killed them it made a noise. I was happy to move back to New York after 1 and 1/2 years.
I’ve noticed a big increase in spiders within my house and garden. BIG ONES!
Normally, I leave them alone because they eat flies and mosquitoes. But I will not tolerate them crawling on the ceiling above the bed.
I hate it when one lands on me in the dark. No noticeable increase. The lizards are very healthy.
RIP Phantom.
My computer desk looks out on the deck. Lots of lizards scurry around the deck and do pushups. H-bird feeder outside the window, H-birds often check the cobwebs at the deck corners for insects. Indoor spiders see the Dustbuster.
inside the house, I shoot them with my Bug-A-Salt gun. Fun way to get rid of them.
I agree! I have a BUG-A-SALT to and I love it. As far as Widows I was bitten about 40 years ago and spent around 6 hours in the hospital on anti venom and fluids. So I kill them on sight!!!!!!!!!!!!
We spray so much bug killer around house perimeter we don’t see anything crawling around inside our out within 10′ of the house and haven’t for years.
We’ve not seen many black widows since my project turning over large rocks ended.
But this year, we again are seeing plants, cushions, chain link fence, window screens….. COVERED with gossamer, disorganized webs. The nursery store clerk said I could control them by spraying all with Neet’s Foot Oil. The bottle is sitting right there, so “any day now”!
Not so much seeing Black Widows, but I’ll kill those. We have noticed more lizards, but our neighbors 3 cat have been catching them,… 🙁
Issue here is not the spiders,…silverfish & earwigs,…dislike them in the house.
I get a lot of black widows in the garage. Thankful for all the lizards that have been hanging around lately.
Uummm
Too early I believe for that hurtful word
Maybe in September or October or November
And wow
I haven’t noticed any black widows this year, but I’m not the one that looks for them. I happen to like spiders, but my son never did. I don’t understand it either, because he spent a good part of his time with my mom and me growing up, and we tried to teach and showed him no fear approach to all of nature. Now he’s a strapping 30 something who’s afraid of spiders. And one of his sons, a 10 year old, is too. He’s visiting me for Summer break, and he started screaming in bed last night because a spider walked across his arm. He was all fearful and excited when he showed me where it was, and I grabbed it and took it out the front door. My other grandson just turned six two days ago, but I think he’s going to be an entomologist. He’s always been all about bugs. He likes all of them, and all other critters too.
A lot of lizards. None in the house yet, had a couple get in last year. I haven’t seen many black widows yet. Usually by this time of spring I have been bit at least once
Have you developed a tolerance for the venom? Do you have to visit a dr.?
I’ve been associated with this house since 1971, and we never had a lizard here till around five years ago was when I saw the first one. It was a smallish Alligator lizard with a stump for a tail. I saw him again the next couple years, a little larger with time. Now I haven’t seen that or any other Alligator lizards recently, but I have Western Fence Lizards (Bluebellies) EVERYWHERE!! I love them. It makes me think I’m a kid back at Camp Seabow. I think there’s such an explosion in numbers this year at least partly due to someone poisoning the opossums, who all went under my house to die.😑 I’d invite the Bluebellies inside if I could, without letting mosquitos in.
Yes HUGE increase I even found one in my house in an area that is used often AND we use a bug control company we’ve had to spray inside for ants and bugs BUT NEVER a black widow and our house is fairly new But This year has been crazy with spiders and webs even on our cars inside side mirrors BUT when we found a black widow in the house I freaked I’ve never seen one inside any of my houses now or growing up and we lived in a old old house when I was younger neither has my husband and we both grew up in the area
I haven’t seen any black widows, but we’ve gotten a decrnt crop of those nasty hunting spiders. If they’re small or right by my foot, they get squashed. Otherwise, the vacuum gets a tasty treat.
Yuck. I hate spiders.
I kill brown house spiders. I’ve been bitten a few times and it hurts and it can make you feel sick. I don’t mind daddy long legs. Black widows like dark cool places usually closer to the ground. I had a bunch in my back yard in Pleasant Hill. We had them exterminates because there were small children running around. Their eggs are in a large yellowish sack and when you smoosh it all this yucky goo comes out. Apparently one egg sack can have 750-1000 little eggs inside.
I try not to kill things but Ironically spiders and flies are my exceptions.
We have lots and lots of Jumping Spiders. Super cute little things. No Black Widows yet. And sooooo many Lizards.
You won’t usually see black widows in the daytime, unless you turn over a pot that they may be hiding under. If you see the messy, disorganized webs, you can go out at night with a flashlight and find them. They’re hard to kill with sprays. A brick works best. I usually leave them alone unless I accidentally uncover one. Inside the house, I have a clear plastic cup and a piece of cardboard to trap the wolf spiders and take them outside. We have lots of lizards too. Fun to watch!
I’ve noticed that Brown Widows have taken over for the Black Widows. We saw quite a few of the Brown Widows while spring cleaning the back yard. We saw not Black Widows.
Have seem more larger ones in the house, knock on wood, no Black widows easily seen. Have a suction tool to catch the spiders and take them outside. Have seen a few lately that will not fit in the suction tube, Yikes, those unfortunately I have to dispatch. Bigger than the Cats lol. You would think we live in Australia.