spiders

[Machpoint005]

Murderer!

Arachnids have rights too!

[SoosieQ]

Buy Spider Ex spray....it gets rid of them and keeps them out. Ten quid a tin but you dont use much at a time. I use it in the house and we dont get many at all any more. Its whats used in the Channel tunnel to keep bugs out of the camera systems

[ditchcrawler]

I love my spiders

[Philip]

Strangely on my cruiser the wheelhouse/cockpit area (especially under the canopy fastenings) has plenty of them but inside the boat I hardly ever see them. There is some condensation inside but it wouldn't take an eight-legged genius to find a way in! Not seen so many these last 4 months but I remember going down to my boat in late summer and finding the outside of the boat swarming with them.

 

Not something to worry about, like people have said the big long-legged scary variety are more likely to be found in the house than in the boat.

[system 4-50]

Spiders on boats? Yes. There were times last year when sitting outside less than 30 seconds would pass by without a tiny spider flying on its thread landing on some part of one's person, and of course what is outside inevitably gets inside. I get a lot of spiders. The best solution is the standard boater's solution to all known problems, move to somewhere else where the problem is less. The spiders don't bother me as much as some of the midges that have come out with the first warm sun of this year which have the nasty habit of diving into one's face and eyes. A boat is an excellent place for a person with a mild phobia about spiders to learn to ignore them as on a boat there is too much else that needs doing to worry about such things.

[Starcoaster]

The strangest thing is - a good few years back (when I was no less of an Arachnophobe it has to be said) I had a pet Chillean Rose Tarantula. I could just about tolerate it crawling slowly up my arm. The Giant House Spider though (endemic to the UK) forget it!!!!

This is very much like me. If i spot a spider unexpectedly, I get a proper shot of fear. I just cannot have them inside, in case they move or I don't know where they are. Any that appear suddenly get killed in a panic, just in case i lose them while trying to find a way to get them out.

But I also find spiders fascinating, and spend a reasonable amount of time reading about them and looking at pics. At a safe distance or if they are in a tank, I can stare and stare at them, and while house spiders scare me, tarantulas have a different effect, and I really think I could potentially see myself holding a quiet, non-aggressive one like a Chilean Rose- no chance with something like an Orange Baboon Tarantua though.

 

Having said that, I came across one by surprise in a practice once. Most vets will not treat arachnids, but this one was the exception, and you sedate a tarantula by putting it in the fridge. The clue should have been that I was looking in the meds fridge, not the food fridge, but I was looking for the margerine and so grabbed and opened the tub of "I can't believe it's not butter" I found there, and there it was, a big Mexican Red Knee, when I was expecting butter.

My screams could be heard for quite some distance around...

[Neil2]

You can buy spider repellent but lemon juice will work just as well, citronella candles work and are good for all sorts of flying things, if you like to keep flowers in the boat get Chrysants as they contain the chemical that many "green" spider repellants are made from.

[Machpoint005]

Poor little spideys....

[Ange]

My theory is that there are no more spiders on a boat than in a house but, and this is the big but, it's a much smaller space so you spot the buggers the minute they make their dash from A to B.

Conkers - a total myth - we've tried it and it didn't work.

I love my spider catcher (Dave does too - more so because it means he doesn't get woken by screams at this time of night).



I was raised with the rhyme "if you want to live and thrive, let a spider run alive"

This weapon allows me to remove spiders from my boat at arms length without having to wake my long suffering hubby from his slumbers.

I have found that evicting the big buggers and allowing the little ones to stay has worked well for us. I've spent many fascinated hours watching the smaller ones catch flies, immobilise them, wrap them in spider stuff and then feast on them. It sounds awful, but if you've had that fly buzzing round your ears for the last few days, evading the rolled up magazine, it's pure joy!

I'm convinced that weeding out the big buggers and leaving the little ones is the way to go. Either the bigguns are keeping out of my sightline or I've got rid of the lot of them. Took me 4 years mind - it's not a quick fix

 

http://www.spidercatcher.net/product.htm

 

ETA spidercatcher link - it really is great

Edited March 8, 2014 by Ange

[Starcoaster]

NOPE! Don't trust it. Too much to go wrong. Plus I have noticed when other people grab a spider and fling it off the boat, it is invariably still attached to their hand by some of its bum silk, and normlly swings back onto them. I forsee the same issue with that.

 

I personally go with "If you want to sleep through the night, kill the spider at first sight."

Edited March 8, 2014 by Starcoaster

[BlueStringPudding]

When vacuuming run suction pipe along any cracks in woodwork i.e. between wall and ceiling and over air vents.

What vacuum?

NOPE! Don't trust it. Too much to go wrong. Plus I have noticed when other people grab a spider and fling it off the boat, it is invariably still attached to their hand by some of its bum silk, and normlly swings back onto them. I forsee the same issue with that.

 

I personally go with "If you want to sleep through the night, kill the spider at first sight."

Absolutely

[ditchcrawler]

What vacuum?

 

Absolutely

Long straw

[Theo]

We get loads of spiders but we are not yet liveaboards. SWMBO and I catch them and put them on the towpath. If we do this assiduously for a few days the spider population diminishes spectacularly and we are thereafter rarely bothered.

 

This comment does not help an arachnophobe, though.

 

N

[dor]

Don't have a problem with spiders, it is flies I don't like. So if the spiders catch the flies, they are on my side! Talking of which, I went to the boat last week and there was a fly buzzing about (they always seem to come out just as you go to bed). Where has that been for the last few months, and what did it feed on? And where is a spider when you need one.

 

I could post a picture of a spider I saw in Madagascar two years ago - three inch long body and about an inch wide (but I won't in deference to the arachnophobes among us). Very pretty, although I'm not sure what the very nervous-looking male on the edge of the web was thinking (and he was all of about a half inch long).

[blackrose]

Ive been on my boat, in a marina for 5 months now and I have not seen 1 spider.

 

Wait for summer and you'll see plenty of them.

Edited March 8, 2014 by blackrose

[Athy]

(and he was all of about a half inch long).

Nervousness can do that to a chap.

[Emerald Fox]

I'm surprised no-one's brought this up yet, Spider in the bath:

 

 

And have you ever seen a spider put up a "NO MOORING" sign, or one that's refused to allow you to charge your mobile phone whilst eating in his pub?!

[Taslim]

I'm surprised no-one's brought this up yet, Spider in the bath:

 

 

And have you ever seen a spider put up a "NO MOORING" sign, or one that's refused to allow you to charge your mobile phone whilst eating in his pub?!

I can't put up a link but Flanders & Swann did a dainty ditty about a spider in the bath. They did a lot of other good stuff too.

[leeco]

We get loads of spiders on our boat, I like them as they eat the other insects.

[loubyscooby]

I use Spidergone. Sprayed it around the mushrooms,doors and windows last spring and no spiders. Ive sprayed lockers too so no horrible surprises. I also did the water/lecky bollard on our mooring and no spiders there either.

[dunfixing]

The best place to get spiders is to boat under willow tree's.

We don't mind the occasional spider they eat the flying bugs, but a Hoover works well in removing them.

Boats are just like houses when it comes to bugs.

Happy boating.