Spiders!!! - Page 3

imiloa1 · #21 (**permalink**) 08-29-2006

Our marina is also plagued by hoards of the juicy beasts. I have found a few things that work.
1 - Keep the boat deck and hull clean. Regular washdowns with boat soap helps keep the critters away.
2- A couple times during the season I spray the outside of the boat and the surrounding dock (top and undersides where I can get to it) with one of those insecticides that come in a bottle that can be attached to a garden hose. I do this when I'll be away for a few days.
3 - 2 or 3 times during the season I spray the wheel and sail covers with Hot Shot spider spray before I leave the boat for a few days.
4 - Keeping an open box of moth balls in the dock box seems to drive away most of the spiders.
5 - NEVER store the wheel or sail cover inside the boat.
6 - Every week or two vacuum the inside of the boat and keep the counters and storage areas free of spills and crumbs.

sailingdog · #22 (**permalink**) 08-29-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by resdog

That was my point...

I try to keep this as clear as possible for the weaker minds that frequent this site.

bdevries · #23 (**permalink**) 08-29-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingdog

I try to keep this as clear as possible for the weaker minds that frequent this site.

Huh? *Looks confused and stops licking the 'No-Pest Strips'* What was that about these Darwin Award things? Do I get one if I name my boat the Beagle?

Thanks for the responses guys - I know more about how to get rid of spiders then I thought I would ever need

*Returns to my 'No-Pest Strip'*

wumhenry · #24 (**permalink**) 08-29-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gene T

They gotta eat. Spiders eat bugs. If there are no bugs they starve or leave, after they eat the other spiders of course.

R U sure they can't live off sleeping humans when bugs are unavailale? Last summer, we used a friend's condo apt at the beach, which was closed tight when we arrived, with AC on and all doors and windows shut. When I flicked on the light in the bedroom i startled a big, fat, squishy spider tha was hanging from a thread over the bed. After killing the bugger, I got to thinking: how did it get so fat? There were no insects in the apt, and the spider had not bothered to spin a web.
When I came back from a weeklong cruise in my B29.9 last month, my right arm was infected and swollen up like a blimp, from elbow to wrist. Got it lanced in the ER and got intravenous antibiotic, took more antibiotic orally for 10 days, and the swelling still hasn't gone completely down, more than a month later, and I might have to have surgery. I don't know how I got the infection, but spiderbite is the prime suspicion.

sailingdog · #25 (**permalink**) 08-29-2006

Spiders generally don't eat humans...except in movies. They generally only bite humans in defense—the Australian Funnel Web Spider is an exception to this IMHO as it is just an evil, very poisonous beastie. Not all spiders spin webs, as many are hunting/jumping spiders.

A spider bite would generally cause either some swelling, like a typical bee sting, or in the case of some of the nastier spiders, which are neurotoxic or hemotoxic, there would be either problems with the CNS (Neurotoxic) or massive tissue damage (hemotoxic).

The swelling you've gotten sounds like either an allergic reaction to the bite, or a nice case of hemotoxic spider venom...which causes the blood vessels to lose cohesiveness and the area to swell up quite a bit. In either case, an antibiotic really wouldn't help much. Why did they administer antibiotics? Did the doctors find an infection??

If you suspected this was from a spider bite, it probably would have been wise to tell the ER doctors that, and the proper treatment would have been antivenin, which would help neutralize the venom in your arm.

Where were you sailing in your B29.9 when this bite occurred. The number of spiders in North America that are capable of this kind of damage are relatively few—primarily the brown recluse and the black widow IIRC.

wumhenry · #26 (**permalink**) 08-30-2006

According to the doctors, it was a bacterial infection, not venom or allergy to same. Question is, how was the germ introduced? They asked me how it got started, and I said I didn't know but suspected spiderbite. They thought that was possible.