Spiders

[Psychicwolf]

I have begun my annual battle with spiders. It's beginning to get chillier at night here in the valley and apparently I am Motel Spider. I don't have any problem with the little garden guys, the daddy long legs or the little black guys that scurry along the window sills. I usually just get them to climb onto something and take them back outside.
It is the hobo spider I have declared war on. The first year after my home was built my sister came out and spent the night. She described the next morning the experience of experiencing a really sharp pain on the back of her leg in the middle of the night and of jumping out of bed and seeing a large spider head off the other side. That bite turned into a wound the size of a 50 cent piece with necrotic tissue all around. She still has a scar 4 years later. Nasty things.
They tend to come inside this time of year and like to lurk in dark places. They are also very agressive and will lunge at you! I am the "sunshine committee" for these guys. Darth Vader in the hobo world. Fortunately their season of coming in is short.
What pests do you battle?

[Psychicwolf]

And here is a picture of my foe. Not for the faint of heart!
http://www.onewest.net/~dkv/hobospider/

[majda]

Hey Psychicwolf, living in the same part of the world as you do, I get those too. One thing I do is leave the 'Daddy Long Legs' alone. I find the more 'spiders' I have, the more 'Daddy Long legs' I get. The 'Daddy Long Legs' prey on and eat the real spiders. Works for me. The Daddy Long Legs are fearless, and will eat the Brown Recluse, Hobo, and Black Widow (never seen one of them here thank goodness). The Daddy Long Legs are highly poisonous, but their tiny mouths are far too small to bite a human. Thank goodness, because I used to play with them when I was very young.

[Psychicwolf]

I played with them too. I let them crawl up and down my arm. I usually move them outside because the cats are so sadistic to the less agressive spiders.

[SquidInk]

What pests do you battle?

Oh boy! How I could blow this thread way off course with my response... !

But I won't. I admire spiders. As a person who has made a living from time to time as a mechanic, I can appreciate spiders for the miniature mechanical marvels that they are. However, if I was left with a welt and a scar... well, one word... vendetta!