Chesapeake Bay North - SPIDERS!

I recently put my boat in a marina in northern reach of the Chesapeake Bay and am shocked by the invasion of spiders there. I have 2 questions for the forum: a) is there a good repellent that works on the outside of the boat. One product recommended I haven't tried yet is called talstar. and b) how far down the Bay do I need to go to get away from the spiders? Below Annapolis?

Spiders are abundant at almost every dock I have been on North of Florida.
Home Defense by Ortho is a spider killer almost instantly, works fora week or so and then you need to apply again

I have no idea if it would work on a boat or on the east coast, but here in WA we have a farmhouse on acreage, and there are lots of spiders. We have the perimeter of the house treated monthly with a mixture of peppermint and rosemary oils (and I am not sure what else, but it is all organic) and it seems to work pretty well. Smells nice too. I don’t like the idea of harsh pesticides getting into our waterways . . .

We live on a river and have a huge problem with spiders. I spray a couple of times a year with Talstar. Seems to work pretty well. I spray inside the boat and outside but try not to spray the eisenglass. Not sure if it would hurt the eisenglass or not but don’t want to take a chance.

psneeld said:

Spiders are abundant at almost every dock I have been on North of Florida.
Home Defense by Ortho is a spider killer almost instantly, works fora week or so and then you need to apply again

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We got spiders on the dock in Florida too!

I forgot to mention that I spray everywhere on the dock that I can. We have low voltage lights along the dock which was drawing a lot of little flying bugs. I decided to turn off the lights and now we still have spiders but not nearly as many.

Same here on the Missouri River. I just hose them all off when I wash down the boat, and we keep one of those round telescoping dusters at the dock to remove all the webs. The people that do spray use Ortho Home Defense as one of the other posters mentioned. They say it works pretty well. I have mixed feelngs. I think the spiders do keep down a lot of the other flying bugs, and our boat is tight enough that the spiders almost never get inside.

Every summer we have a giant mayfly explosion for a few days. Swarms of mayflies, pretty gross. The spiders and fish have a feast. Our kids love swimming off the boat so given the choice, I guess I'd rather have them swimming with fish and bug bodies than a ton of pesticides.

I use “Bug Barrier” squirted the entire perimeter of my slip as well as around the cleats and on the lines to those cleats. Onthe boat itself, I go more natural with a mix of water, white vinegar, tea tree (anti mold), lavender, lemon, eucalyptus and Peppermint (for the bugs) I spray it all over and use it also on the inside of Bimini to ward off molds as well as bugs within the zipper enclosures

In Michigan we call May flies fish flies. We were in Tawas a couple of weeks ago and there was a hatch all three nights. I would take out Lab, Radar, out about 2 am for a poop run. He got onto the main dock where there is courtesy lighting. The fish flies were almost solid across the whole dock. He came to an abrupt stop, looked both ways and started picking his way through them trying not to step on them. It was hilarious. He zigzagged back and forth trying to find clear spots to step on. I was surprised that he even noticed them because when he is on a poop run not much distracts him.

Not sure why using pesticides means getting any ( maybe a tiny bit carried by wind) in the water. Being thoughtful and careful works for me.


Plus it's pretty rare on the Chesapeake or along the ACIW to find water free of pesticides with all the manicured lawns and golf courses along the way with runoff.

psneeld said:

Not sure why using pesticides means any or more than a tiny bit gets in the water if one thinks through the process and is careful.

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Oh I know, I'm not a fanatic about it. Actually when I watch the boys fill their mouths with river water so they can spit/squirt at each other, I usually think of all the bilge water discharged in the marina. Or worse. Trace pesticide is the least of it. Builds up their immune systems.

Depends on the chemicals...thought Home Defense was one of the lesser toxic brews to humans.


Can remember back to the misconceptions of DDT.

Spiders are good! They save you time and money. Just pull into your slip and stop. The spiders will tie the boat up. You no longer have to waste money on dock lines!

Quicker to tie up than wash spider poop off everything.

There is lots of spider habitat around...living without my boat won't crimp their ecosystem.

We found vacuuming them off just after dark then again the next night gets the remaining and keeps them gone for weeks.
That was Bohemia River, MD

In our previous boat kept in Northeast, MD, we had success with placing Bounce dryer sheets tucked into the underside of our canvas and around the inside of our cabin.

Spiders are rare around the docks at our marina in Mystic. I think it's the salt water.
Where we get the boat hauled for winter is freshwater and they are very abundant.

thanks for all the inputs. I think I'll start off with talstar or ortho for one or two applications and then see if I can switch to one of the natural defense strategies. A general comment - this area, Charlestown - Northeast Maryland has more spiders in density than you can ever imagine. I can wash and scrub outside with soap & water entirely and with 24-48 hrs, the boat is full of webs and spiders. Fortunately, none inside. I have that under control. I appreciate what spiders do to keep the overall bug population in control but the "webs" and the black marks they make on the gelcoat are unacceptable.

Well spiders can help keep the bug population under control somewhere else besides my boat. It is amazing the difference it made when I turned off the dock lighting so the bugs aren’t drawn to the boat. The spiders population has dropped dramatically.

For what it's worth, I'm berthed about 20 miles south of Annapolis on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, at Herrington Harbour North marina in Tracy's Landing. Not sure what the difference might be.. but we have a few spiders here and there, but nothing like an invasion

getting rid of Spiders

Here in the UK we use horse chestnuts (we call them conkers). You have to drill them to let the vapour out. Some people have said that they crush them and put them in water with a little pectin (used in wine making). Don't know how it would work in florida though.

I live on the wet coast of BC...spider nirvana...I spray every day during the season and then next morning there’s a whole new crop...l don’t like chemicals either but if there’s to many spiders my granddaughters won’t come to the boat.

Not sure which is worse, grandchildren or spiders. I am lucky, its too hot here for spiders and my grandchildren are not interested in boating. Our problem is Ticks and Mosquitoes.

Spiders were a big nuisance on the trawler when I was moored under my big vinyl covered shed because I kept the lights on out there for security. Never locked the boat up, but one time every boat afloat in my bayou was burgled but my well-lighted vessel. Later when I had good security with the Pilot up on a lift in there where a ladder would be required to climb aboard it, I turned the lights off. There have been virtually NO spiders on the boat for four years now.

Around the house I use a product from a local DIY bug treatment shop called Demon. It comes in bagged form which you simply drop into the garden sprayer with water. It can be used inside the house or anywhere outside which stays dry because it dries to a very light gray powder which gets on the spiders' legs to kill them. I used to spray in on the boat and onto the underside of the boat shed.

I’m surprised to say that there doesn’t seem to be a spider problem here in Longboat Key (Sarasota), FL, but then there didn’t seem to be an issue when we lived in Key Biscayne (Miami) either. Maybe they just bomb the hell out of these islands, I dunno. We see pest control trucks all the time. Now, no seeums, that’s another issue.

We have them on and around the Pamlico in NC. For the second year I am using Harris spider spray in a yellow bottle. Spray around web areas whenever I see them, but in general about two sprayings a season does the trick. Highly recommend it, use it on the boat and extensively on porches. The wasp population seems to be down too, although it does not kill them. Available from Amazon.

Just an aside; I once read that you are never more than 6 feet from a spider. I guess that doesn't include swimming.

Grow a spine people! Lived with these guys for almost two years.

I had a boat in Georgetown, Maryland , on the Sassafrass river,from 1989 until 1991, and the spiders were not bad. I returned there with another boat in 2013, and the place was infested! It was bad enough that we moved the boat away. We currently have our boat in a Marina just south of Annapolis, and spiders are not a problem. We found that placing dryer sheets in all of the cabinets on the boat Inside kept spiders out. Never found a way to keep them away outside.

Spider problem

Many years ago, while living aboard full time, I was turned on to a spray product called Bengal. It’s a roach spray but is excellent at keeping spiders at bay. The last time I bought any was from Lowe’s.