Question: Any Exterminators Here? Question About Brown Recluse Control

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

OK. So my wife and I bought this house a year ago. I was unfortunately very lazy with getting all of the cardboard boxes out of my house and now we seem to have a problem. I went to go snag some ramekins for my wife Monday and found two in one of my wife's roasting dishes. I got all of the cardboard out of the house that afternoon, killing roughly 20(!) in the process.

I've killed 5 Brown Recluse (the real deal, I know my spiders) this week in the course of routine checks after getting home from work, generally in bathrooms. I assume they come upstairs for water and are coming through the gaps around the water lines and drains. Today, I started caulking all of these gaps as well as the ones in my foundation. I also poured Boric Acid powder into the wall void behind my switch and outlet plates, and put sticky traps all through my basement to try and snag them.

Any other suggestions? I hear the Boric Acid isn't generally effective. Any better pesticides ya'll can recommend?

Bama Reb · Jun 27, 2015

Try here:
http://pestkill.org/insect/spiders/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-recluse-spiders/

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

Thanks, Reb. Need to see if anyone in the area sells Delta dust by the look of it.

seebell · Jun 27, 2015

I-ve had good luck buying from the people.

http://www.pestmall.com/brown-recluse-spider-control-products

We have many brown recluse. We use glue traps inside. We bomb the attic and crawl space yearly. Still see one once in a while. Don't like to use poison inside.

Always thought PestMall was a funny name.

TIDE-HSV · Jun 27, 2015

That's a good site and others follow pretty much the same advice. We've had minor problems. (Living on a mountaintop with woods around in a damp climate doesn't help.) Our kids in Nashville actually left one house because they couldn't defeat the brown recluse problem. Also, friends/neighbors here on the mountain bought a log home and then literally spent 100s of K on it. Problem is those beasts can live in the chinks, no matter how hard you try to seal them, forever. Here's another site with more suggestions:

LINK

TIDE-HSV · Jun 27, 2015

One more remark - since we've had some, we have a habit of folding back bedclothes at night, beating out shoes out of the closet before donning and shaking clothes freshly out of the drawer. These actions take a short time to perform and you don't even notice them, once they become automatic to do...

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

TIDE-HSV said:
One more remark - since we've had some, we have a habit of folding back bedclothes at night, beating out shoes out of the closet before donning and shaking clothes freshly out of the drawer. These actions take a short time to perform and you don't even notice them, once they become automatic to do...

Yeah, that has become a habit for me that I'm trying to encourage with the wife and kids.. All furniture is off the wall, check sheets before bed, shake out clothes and shoes, etc.

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

TIDE-HSV said:
...Our kids in Nashville actually left one house because they couldn't defeat the brown recluse problem...

I'll bomb the bejesus out of every cubic inch of the house before we do that.

bamabelle1991 · Jun 27, 2015

Ok. Now I am askeered!! Where exactly did you keep the cardboard boxes? Is it just cardboard that attracts them? We are in South Alabama and it is a little drier down here, but spiders freak me out!

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

bamabelle1991 said:
Ok. Now I am askeered!! Where exactly did you keep the cardboard boxes? Is it just cardboard that attracts them? We are in South Alabama and it is a little drier down here, but spiders freak me out!

In the basement. There was a lot of stuff we just never took the time to unpack after we moved and got settled in. Just a small row of them between where our cars are parked. There were a few upstair in a spare bedroom that I got rid of too, but there was no sign of any recluse spiders in those. That's why I think they were pretty much just inhabiting the basement and only venturing up the plumbing lines for water.

They like the cardboard because it's an ideal little place for them to live. It's like their natural habitat. They can live in other places like the wall voids. That's why I'm dusting the mess out of my switch and outlet plates. Probably need to do so again with a more ideal insecticide.

TIDE-HSV · Jun 27, 2015

AUDub said:
I'll bomb the bejesus out of every cubic inch of the house before we do that.

They tried a bunch of stuff and they were needing a bigger house. Also, he's an accountant/manger with a firm which specializes in show biz, and he's a workaholic. (The Black Keys are one of his clients.) IOW, I'm not even sure how much time he really had to put into it. Although the old neighborhood looked fine on the surface, there had been a couple of nearby shootings, probably drug-related. The buyers were from the neighborhood and knew all situations. They were delighted to get the house at the price they did. They probably took too little...

Bama Reb · Jun 27, 2015

bamabelle1991 said:
Ok. Now I am askeered!! Where exactly did you keep the cardboard boxes? Is it just cardboard that attracts them? We are in South Alabama and it is a little drier down here, but spiders freak me out!

I don't know about most folks, but I empty and remove all cardboard boxes from the house as quickly as possible. Since they also tend to attract and hide roaches, etc., removing them quickly also helps to prevent other infestations.

TIDE-HSV · Jun 27, 2015

AUDub said:
In the basement. There was a lot of stuff we just never took the time to unpack after we moved and got settled in. Just a small row of them between where our cars are parked. There were a few upstair in a spare bedroom that I got rid of too, but there was no sign of any recluse spiders in those. That's why I think they were pretty much just inhabiting the basement and only venturing up the plumbing lines for water.

They like the cardboard because it's an ideal little place for them to live. It's like their natural habitat. They can live in other places like the wall voids. That's why I'm dusting the mess out of my switch and outlet plates. Probably need to do so again with a more ideal insecticide.

On the links provided above, there a lot of low toxicity agents available...

TIDE-HSV · Jun 27, 2015

BTW, I'm partial to the permethrin -based products. It has low toxicity, whether used as a preventive measure or as an insecticide. The Arny started using it on all ACU uniforms in 2012, the NG in 2013...

LINK

2003TIDE · Jun 27, 2015

Ugh. I'm usually not one afraid of spiders and such, but I've seen enough pics of bad brown recluse bits that I don't even want to think about those guys.

bamabelle1991 · Jun 27, 2015

We keep most of our stuff that is in storage in those big Rubbermaid totes. Our house doesn't have a lot of storage so we lined the walls of the huge 3 car garage with those metal shelves from Lowe's and that is our storage. I've never seen a brown recluse but we do see these little super thin, almost papery looking spiders often. Like a small granddaddy longlegs. They always end up in my daughters shower. LOL

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

bamabelle1991 said:
We keep most of our stuff that is in storage in those big Rubbermaid totes. Our house doesn't have a lot of storage so we lined the walls of the huge 3 car garage with those metal shelves from Lowe's and that is our storage. I've never seen a brown recluse but we do see these little super thin, almost papery looking spiders often. Like a small granddaddy longlegs. They always end up in my daughters shower. LOL

Dont mind those little cellar spiders. They're harmless and the only inconvenience from them is the cobwebs.

I'll usually let them and hunters like wolf spiders live in peace unless they find their way upstairs. They're the cleaning crew.

TIDE-HSV · Jun 27, 2015

Once, at a former house, I walked out on the back porch and a paper bag had been left folded open at the top by one of the kids; IDK why. I noticed the bag was bouncing up and down. I looked in and there were dozens of daddy long legs, doing the monster stomp. IDK if they were in time or not, but they were sure bouncing the bag. I set them free. The old saying used to go that they are the most venomous of spiders, but their mouths are too small for them to get a decent bite...

AUDub · Jun 27, 2015

TIDE-HSV said:
Once, at a former house, I walked out on the back porch and a paper bag had been left folded open at the top by one of the kids; IDK why. I noticed the bag was bouncing up and down. I looked in and there were dozens of daddy long legs, doing the monster stomp. IDK if they were in time or not, but they were sure bouncing the bag. I set them free. The old saying used to go that they are the most venomous of spiders, but their mouths are too small for them to get a decent bite...

Awesome. Always used to hear that too. They're harmless little scavengers. No venom at all.

Used to catch a bunch of them from my papaw's siding in my youth. It was a competition between me and my little brother.

jthomas666 · Jun 27, 2015

Question: Any Exterminators Here? Question About Brown Recluse Control

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