Just murdered two black widow spiders.

[PufPuf23]

Murdered a black widow several days ago in same place: they move in and out of the molding by a sliding glass door onto a deck, also their egg sacks occur in the eaves above.

Black widows also live inside the cabinet of the propane generator, under the house, in the two places where firewood is stacked, and in and around the garage/workshop/outbuilding. I always hire a professional or a youth to go in the tight crawl space under the house. I do warn about the black widows.

Also there is a spot inside the house where they are often resident if I look (usually in occasional bi-annual shop vac events). The spot is behind a door almost always kept open: turned a carport into a foyer, utility room, and library/office and the door once was from the kitchen to the former carport and is now foyer.

General tendency is to be pesticide averse but have Raid for the black widows.

Overall the black widows seem peaceful but they are murdered anyway.

There are spiders (mostly daddy logs legs and wolf spiders) all over the place and scorpions too. In recent years there was a scorpion in the bath/shower one morning and another time a scorpion on the wall in the foyer. One can look at any direction in this house and see a daddy long legs web.

I let the other spiders be except occasional web reductions and put the two house scorpions in pint jars to show off to visitors as they died a slow death.

[lunatica]

1. Eeek!

[jonno99]

2. My general rule of thumb (what I tell my kids) is that as long as the critters stay outdoors,

they get left alone. However, once they (ants, spiders, centipedes) venture inside, they lose most of their "privileges" and as such, may not always be treated with loving care.

The one exception is non-poisonous spiders in the basement - they get to "hang around"...

[PufPuf23]

3. I am more liberal in that there may be more utility going on for the daddy long legs than

for humanity.

Right now there is a blue bellied lizard perched at the base of the sliding glass door mentioned above.

I do get occasional ant outbreaks inside; they tend to occur in Fall or Spring after a rain. The ants come into the kitchen or one of the bathrooms.

I have a sort of sick ritual to fight the "Talibants". Formula 409 puts a serious and immediate hurt on ants and if one follows their trails with an application to the entry points that somewhat endures with repeated counter attacks.

[jonno99]

4. Yep - forgot about them. Daddy long-legs have complete immunity at my place.

Oh - and for sugar ants, I'll use equal parts of borax ("20 Mule Team" brand) and honey; mix a little of it together on a scrap of cardboard, put it near their main path, and let them "go to town" - for a day. Then they're gone...

[Avalux]

5. I've got them too, and brown recluse spiders.

When I see them I murder them, otherwise I leave them alone. Friendly spiders are free to roam at will. I actually really like them but the poisonous ones have to go.

[Callmecrazy]

6. I don't mind spiders so much...

except when their legs get stuck between my teeth. A toothpick won't clear them. You have to use floss.

[Arugula Latte]

16. ...

Thanks a lot for that image!

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. ..

[Kali]

8. Black Widows seem to always come back.

they mostly are shy and not aggressive so if they are out of the way I don't worry about them. I have never been bitten by one. scorpions, on the other hand...

[UTUSN]

9. I'm averse to spiders no matter how aware I am of their beneficial existence. Just, no.

Also, they are related to the ticks on my dogs.

[Laffy Kat]

10. Shouldn't have clicked on this. Nope.

Totally creeped out now. This is why I had kids: to take the spiders outside. I did have an orb weaver spider out on my side porch recently and I loved to watch her. She spun perfect and beautiful webs night after night. I guess they build them then tear them down and start over again. She was quite busy.

[PufPuf23]

12. Sorry you were creeped out. ;o(

That is a very unique reasons to have children.

I bet they will or have rebelled and do not have careers in pest control.

Aside from the creepy factor, spiders and their webs are nature beautiful.

[hopemountain]

13. yes, once their prey is trapped, they roll them up in the web

and slowly devour them or save them for later? unsure but have seen them begin a new web almost immediately.

[mnhtnbb]

11. I will catch Daddy long legs in a food carton to move them outside

but any other spider inside is a goner at my house. I also hate the orb weavers
that decide to spin in front of doors this time of year. Usually I take a broom
to move them out of the way, but somehow, they either come back or have friends
that do. I do not like rushing out the door and into a spider web!

[grasswire]

14. we have had an influx of hobo spiders

They are huge, and very fast. We have started sucking them up in the vacuum hose when we see one, and then sucking up a spoonful of popcorn kernels to whirl around and kill the spider.

I did get one bite on my foot, and it was very painful for a long time.

[davidpdx]

15. Daddy longlegs aren't bad, but Black Widows scare the hell out of me

When I was working at another university about seven years ago I happened to be finishing up class and looked down at one of the desk and there was a very large black spider crawling up it (I took a picture, but since I switched phones I can't find it). The desks are small and fold up with wheels so that they can be pushed aside to create space in the room. So after class I picked the desk up, went outside and over to the little garden area on the terrace and just gently shook the desk and he fell off and went scampering underneath some plants and disappeared. He never even sent me a Christmas card.