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Old 01-24-2018, 03:37 PM   #1
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Creepy Crawlies

Hello all. It’s winter in upstate New York, which means I’m spending my days daydreaming about being a live aboard where the air outside doesn’t hurt my face. One nice thing about living in the frozen north is that there aren’t really any bugs. No mosquitoes, flies, noseeums, and thank god, no spiders.

I’m not okay with spiders. I can kinda deal with smaller ones, say less than the size of a quarter, but those big hairy ones are the stuff of nightmares for me. I turn into a white girl and ‘can’t even.’

For those of you cruising in warmer climes, like Florida, the gulf coast, and the Caribbean, how often do you encounter these many-legged spawns of Satan in the winter months? Do you ever get any big bastards on your boat?
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Old 01-24-2018, 03:41 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by Wayfarer View Post
Hello all. It’s winter in upstate New York, which means I’m spending my days daydreaming about being a live aboard where the air outside doesn’t hurt my face. One nice thing about living in the frozen north is that there aren’t really any bugs. No mosquitoes, flies, noseeums, and thank god, no spiders.

I’m not okay with spiders. I can kinda deal with smaller ones, say less than the size of a quarter, but those big hairy ones are the stuff of nightmares for me. I turn into a white girl and ‘can’t even.’

For those of you cruising in warmer climes, like Florida, the gulf coast, and the Caribbean, how often do you encounter these many-legged spawns of Satan in the winter months? Do you ever get any big bastards on your boat?


Frozen North.. I hear you, oh yes I hear you!
During winter we do not have spiders obviously but in summer we have mosquitoes, flies, spiders and all sort of nice little bugs. But I am glad we have siders onboard, and if I could I would grow them as every evening they take out all these damned mosquitoes that found a way in!

L
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Old 01-24-2018, 04:30 PM   #3
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Yes, spiders and boats go together for some reason.....

This year, traveling in warm weather instead of plain old fashion cold weather winter like we used to, ant have invaded a couple times.

Spiders appear like magic...not sure hiw the ants get aboard, docklines or boxes.....
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Old 01-24-2018, 06:31 PM   #4
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I haven't tried it yet but I've heard that the kind of dryer sheets that are fabric softeners work to keep spiders away.


I use Ortho Home Defense a couple of times a summer, spraying the docks, lines, dockside fenders, shore power lines, etc. That has worked well for me.
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Old 01-24-2018, 06:33 PM   #5
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I thought my boat was spider haven. You mean I'm not alone with them?
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Old 01-24-2018, 06:34 PM   #6
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I like spiders. They suck the juices out of even worse bugs.
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Old 01-24-2018, 06:49 PM   #7
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The good news about spiders is they eat bugs.
The bad news is they digest those bugs into India Ink which they cr@p out onto your boat.
They like to make small webs under overhangs or handrails, spray them after dark when the spiders are out on the web.
SUSPEND Insecticide works well on spiders, and other insects,
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Old 01-24-2018, 07:13 PM   #8
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On my Great Loop trip this summer, I negotiated an "Agreement of Understanding " with the resident spiders on my boat. We established safe web zones and the line of demarcation (master stateroom door threshold). They were allowed to web ouside and in certain areas inside. There was no tolerance for crossing the line of demarcation and the galley was also off limits. They were made aware of the size limit (about a nickel ) pertaining to the "live and let live" clause.

Overall the agreement was successful with a number of the resident aliens figuring it out, getting Ted's Green card, and flourishing . There were some rebels that had to be repatriated or executed for capital crimes. Generally, you can't fix stupid. Given a choice between flying aliens and spiders, I'll take the spiders.

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Old 01-24-2018, 07:24 PM   #9
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Ortho Home Defense is a superior product on spiders. Use it all the time on my boar, the dock the assistance towboat and anyone on the dock that wants a couple weeks without spiders.

After a couple weeks, they always come back.

So far in my life...the only successful use of dryer sheets has been in dryers. For every person that swears they cure anything, I know or have heard 10 that say BS.
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Old 01-24-2018, 10:17 PM   #10
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The typical boat spider, in my experience, is the brownish/grayish speckled ones, no bigger than a quarter. The ships I work on will be covered with the damned things in the summer time. All of the smaller boats I've grown up with or owned have had them. I've spent so much time with them, that they really don't bother me at all any more.

I've adopted the same policy as Ted. They can hang out wherever they want, as long as it's not my room. I'll walk by 10 spiders on deck, but anyone I see within 15 feet of my bed, isn't going to make it. Likewise if they try to get too friendly and walk on me, or drop in from above and surprise me. Splattsville, population you.

I guess I'm more concerned with anything... bigger than that. The ones the size of a mouse that laugh when you step on them.

I can remember the day I became terrified of big hairy devil spiders. I was a little kid, maybe five years old. We were living in Florida at the time. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I reached up, flicked on the light, and there it was, about 4 inches from the switch. A creature straight from the depths of hell. It was black, furry, bigger than my hand, and i'm pretty sure it's eyes were glowing red. Then I realized that there were about three more in the room with me. One had a knife. I screamed bloody murder.

I've even asked my mother recently If I'd dreamed that, or if my memory had exaggerated it over time. She said no. I'm not sure if I find that reassuring or not.
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Old 01-25-2018, 12:45 AM   #11
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This should cheer you up.
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Old 01-25-2018, 12:59 AM   #12
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Yes Andy, that should be comforting.
We have Huntsman spiders in Australia, not dinner plate size but quite big, black, and hairy. Any found inside I wrap in a towel,(nervously) shaking it off the towel outside. As the vid suggests they are not(really) poisonous. Not like the funnel web, which are common and aggressive,and whose bite will likely kill you unless antivenene is administered. Our brave landscaper collected a number of them while working, taking them to a lab which "milks them to make antivenene.
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Old 01-25-2018, 01:01 AM   #13
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I like spiders. They suck the juices out of even worse bugs.


Thought that was my Barrister
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Old 01-25-2018, 01:21 AM   #14
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KILL IT! KILLITWITH FIRE!!

Lol, I figured it was only a matter of time before the Aussie crew made me regret posting this... You folks sure know your way around a spider! Christ, look at that thing! At what point do they just become king crab?? And to think, I used to want to visit Australia.
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Old 01-25-2018, 04:14 AM   #15
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KILL IT! KILLITWITH FIRE!!

Lol, I figured it was only a matter of time before the Aussie crew made me regret posting this... You folks sure know your way around a spider! Christ, look at that thing! At what point do they just become king crab?? And to think, I used to want to visit Australia.
And that's just the beginning. As well as world's most venomous spider, (Bruce's funnel web), we also have the world's most venomous snakes, the worlds most venomous octopus, (a pretty wee blue-ringed fellow), we also have one of the worlds most venomous fish, a wee ugly thing one can easily tread on called the stonefish, and the world's most venomous jellyfish. As a then visiting Kiwi, it did wonders for my enjoyment of snorkelling to see a sign on the beach at Magnetic Island, saying...
'Box jellyfish are found in these waters from about October/November through to March/April. (That was early October). If stung by a box jellyfish, CPR should be commenced immediately while someone else calls the emergency number for anti-venom to be delivered." Or words to that effect.
I've probably left some out.

Oh yes, PS. One small good thing to attribute to the Asian Gecko invasion, that came in in timber imports from Vietnam, is they appear to have eaten all the red backs around the house. (Black Widows to USians)
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Old 01-25-2018, 05:19 AM   #16
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Hmm, maybe I’m the exception but I have never seen a spider aboard!
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Old 01-25-2018, 05:50 AM   #17
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I have unwritten agreement with spiders - If I do not see it I do not kill it. In warmer climate they are everywhere.
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Old 01-25-2018, 06:58 AM   #18
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Those bug zappers that look like tennis rackets are the best for all kinds of bugs.
The first summer we cruised in Canada we had zero spiders to start but after about 2 weeks they were all over the boat. We noticed they get active at dusk so I went around the boat armed with a zapper.
58 confirmed dead spiders later it was too dark.
The next night I got 34.
After that they were in control. 1 or 2 minutes walking around the boat every evening at dusk.
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Old 01-25-2018, 07:48 AM   #19
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I operate an all transient municipal marina on Long Island Sound. We have a lot of "travelers" passing thru. Some headed north, some headed south. It's funny the O.P. is from upper NY state because the only person ever to mention spiders to me did so when discussing his travels on the Erie Canal. Later that season I made the mistake of mentioning spiders to a couple who were headed to the canal. They did not like spiders and were not aware you could wake up each morning to a small invasion of them. At least that was how it was explained to me. After seeing their reaction to this news I wish I never brought it up. Hope they survived.
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Old 01-25-2018, 10:30 AM   #20
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The darned things give me the heebee-jeebees, but I’ll tollerate some outside the cabin. If they dare come inside, I torture it and hang it in plain sight for others to see what happens when they transgress. When living in the Dominican Republic, I had to deal with tarantula breading season and angry cacatas. Somehow here on this over-groomed Gulf Coast, FL island, they throw enough insecticide around to control everything but noseeums. We’ll all probably die of deet over-doses, but I’m thankful.
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