Have we talked about spiders?

As we all know, vehicles are a perfect hiding places for a variety of insects and critters. I had a visitor in the old Mercedes door jamb today. No I didn't kill it. It went into the relocation program out into the woods where it belongs.  

Looks like a wolf spider?  Big guy, too.  Good on you for not squishing him

I would be -1 car. Fire damage, probably.

Mr_Asa said:

Looks like a wolf spider?  Big guy, too.  Good on you for not squishing him

Yep, he/she is a wolf spider and had a 3'-4" leg span so plenty big. I am not sure how the spider felt after getting dropped off in the woods but I certainly felt a lot better knowing it was there and not in the car. Parting was not sweet sorrow in this case.

I have spiders but can usually only find the webs they make.

I'm a habitual re-locator, in general they are very good insects (I know, I know) to have around...I will however destroy their webs when they put them in awkward places.

My Dad was in pest control, after retiring from the Navy, for the Public Works department on the base in San Diego. He once brought me home a tarantula someone had left in base housing in a terrarium. Fun for a while, he died (she?) after a year or so.

The relocation process must have been interesting.

Spiders are your friends. Please do relocate them if you're not phobic. 

I found a brown recluse in the garage last year & relocated it back to the fence on our property. There's plenty of bugs to keep it well-fed & places for it to shelter. 

My truck has always had spiders on it or in it. They never seem to stick around too long though and it has only been driven 30 miles in the last three years so I just leave them for now. 

I grew up in a couple of 1880-1890 vintage houses in central FL. Those houses weren't nearly as tightly sealed as modern homes. Lots more insects getting in.

I got kind of fond of these. I had one that lived in my bedroom for years. 

I have a spiny-backed orb Weaver living on my back porch. I think it's a female because it has the spines. I walked into her web while inspecting the screens one day. She was in her web which was pretty spectacular as it spanned most of my screened in porch. Once I realized what happened, I backed out of her web to not cause any more damage. 

I hate spiders but we need all the help we can get with bugs in here in Florida, so I left her alone. She looked like this:

stanger_mussle (Forum Supporter) said:

I have a spiny-backed orb Weaver living on my back porch. I think it's a female because it has the spines. I walked into her web while inspecting the screens one day. She was in her web which was pretty spectacular as it spanned most of my screened in porch. Once I realized what happened, I backed out of her web to not cause any more damage. 

I hate spiders but we need all the help we can get with bugs in here in Florida, so I left her alone. She looked like this:

Wow!  She's crazy looking.

Same pretty face, new address. Safe in the woods.

I always called those crab spiders.

Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) said:

Spiders are your friends. Please do relocate them if you're not phobic. 

Think of it as a witness protection thing. With all them eyes they must have seen something.

I live next to a creek and get tons of them. Outside, they keep the flies and mosquitoes down so we happily coexist. An inside spider is a dead one, however, as my family have all been bitten in our sleep, so no tolerance exists.

I've gotten better at scooping them up and taking them somewhere else when I find them in the house.

A spider of that size, though, would've had me freaking the hell out.

Good on you for relocating, we refer to those as “ dock spiders” ( yes, they’re wolf spiders) here at the lake.  One was sunning him or herself this afternoon when we were heading out, about a 3” diameter on the legs.   They love hanging out in / under the docks, my kids used to name them...

11GTCS said:

Good on you for relocating, we refer to those as “ dock spiders” ( yes, they’re wolf spiders) here at the lake.  One was sunning him or herself this afternoon when we were heading out, about a 3” diameter on the legs.   They love hanging out in / under the docks, my kids used to name them...

They also like to come out at night and warm themselves on the side of the house after it's soaked up the summer daytime heat. If you shine a flashlight on them their little eyes glow like deer or alligators eyes. It can be a little freaky looking.

I'm not particularly fond of spiders and give them a wide berth unless they are in the house. In lower Alabama we have a huge spider most people call banana spiders. I think they are actually Nephila or golden silk orb weavers. The big ones have bodies that are probably a 1 1/2" long not including the legs. They weave very thick webs that if you walk into one you really know it. Don't really know if they are poisonous or if they bite because I make it a point to stay away from them.

Black widow spiders are super-common around here.  I could probably go out to my garage right now and find a few.  I try to clean them out a couple times a year.  I kill all that I find with extreme malice.

Relocate them?  Yah, sure.

I'd kill a black widow even if I found it outside.  Any other spider, I leave 'em alone.  We have beautiful, huge garden spiders and various other species, but we don't tolerate them in the house.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

The easy button to eliminate spiders is get a sprayer and fill it with soapy water. Mist  around the web. And in that area. Bye bye spider 

Brown recluse will be dispatched with extreme prejudice. All others get shushed out the door.

I guess it’s kind of like honeybee vs. yellow jackets for me.   Honeybees, relocate.  Yellow jackets, white faced hornets, bring it... I wiped out a nest of those white faced shiny happy people Saturday night way way up right at the peak of the roof.   Might have something to do with me being swarmed by a bunch of yellow jackets when I was about 4.  Yeah, I remember you E36 M3heads...