# Spiders



## Statesman15 (Mar 24, 2018)

Hi all, I've posted a couple of times on here, but figured I'd introduce myself. I bought a Precision 23 in March and have been learning as I go on the Delaware River just north of Philly! Unfortunately, work has me travelling more than I thought (headed to Buffalo for a couple months next week) and haven't gotten to sail a ton.
Grew up sailing optis, lasers, and 420s did a little racing on a Hunter 28 and on J22s and cruised a Catalina 30 a few times. 

Anyways, my first question is, does anyone else have a problem with spiders all over their boat?! I was at the boat having a couple of beers with some friends and all of a sudden, as soon as the sun dropped below the horizon, we were overrun by spiders and it didn't seem like many other boats had them. Why me? Any advice on getting rid of the buggers?

Happy sailing,
Andrew


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

repellents and the usual way to get rid of insects doesn't seem to work with spiders so you just have to be very vigilant and careful. the brown recluse is very common to this area also.

Spiders seem to be bad in this whole area, also chiggers and ticks, I had a number of spider bites that got infected from just sitting around the yacht club, you can't be too careful! 

it made me paranoid every time I sat down for put my arm on an armrest or lifted up a sail or cushion.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

I believe it was in the Connecticut River where, in the right light, it appeared as if my wire had spawned gossamer strands from deck to masthead, streaming in the gentle breeze. Not being a fan of spiders, I loosed some whoop a$$ on those tiny buggers in the form of several cans of smelly bug spray. I guess my timing was good as we were never infested, but I think quick, continuous, diligent action with a very toxic agent is the only solution to spiders.


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## tschmidty (Sep 25, 2008)

Miss Muffet's Revenge works well for me. Was also surprised when I first visited my boat at a marina and it was covered in spiders. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FGIJXK4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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## bshock (Dec 11, 2012)

I regularly have big nasty spiders during the summer. I find that spraying the bimini, dodger, and other nooks and crannies around the cockpit with Ortho Home Defense keeps them away for sometimes a few, maybe four, weeks at a time. If it rains a lot, then more frequent applications may be necessary.


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

We may toss the occasional spider overboard for the fish but otherwise let them be.

At anchor one time we had two spiders spinning webs on either side of the cockpit. We each chose one and made a bet on whose finished first. Beer/wine in hand, sunset in the background, relaxing. It was nice.

Welcome to SailNet.


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## bshock (Dec 11, 2012)

I tried to let "our" spiders be, but there will be dozens just in the cockpit if I don't treat for them. And their poo stains the gelcoat. Another half dozen spiders at least will be in the mainsail, another half dozen in the RF genoa. Picture a black grape with legs. Worst part is if you smash them (accidentally or otherwise) they stain the deck. I only get to my boat on the weekends, so the spiders really get the most use out of it. If they would trim the sheets once in a while, or clean up after themselves, I might be able to overlook their mess making habits.


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## thecrabbycaptain (Jul 22, 2018)

I would rather have a spider than a roach ANYDAY!


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

bshock said:


> I tried to let "our" spiders be, but there will be dozens just in the cockpit if I don't treat for them. And their poo stains the gelcoat. Another half dozen spiders at least will be in the mainsail, another half dozen in the RF genoa. Picture a black grape with legs. Worst part is if you smash them (accidentally or otherwise) they stain the deck. I only get to my boat on the weekends, so the spiders really get the most use out of it. If they would trim the sheets once in a while, or clean up after themselves, I might be able to overlook their mess making habits.


We must have very polite spiders that clean up after themselves. Seriously. Other than the webs, we don't have any of the other stuff.

Although I may have jinxed us.


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## denverd0n (Jun 20, 2008)

Spiders eat other insects. If you have a spider problem, it is because you have other insects onboard that they are eating. If you focus on getting rid of the other insects, the spiders will leave on their own. If you focus on getting rid of the spiders, it will just be a matter of time before they come back, to feast on the other insects.

Beyond that, I would mention that a lot of people are terrified of the possibility of being bitten by a spider. In fact, there are over 3,000 different species of spiders in North America and the bite of exactly TWO of them present a significant danger to humans. Those two being the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. Every other species of spider that exists in North America is no more dangerous than an ant bite; less dangerous than a bee sting.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

denverd0n said:


> Spiders eat other insects. .


Insects of *any* kind are *not* welcome aboard Skipping Stone. Neither are rodents. Since we have no children or pets, we can and do use the most effective poisons to control these invaders.
Do people who reside in houses allow spiders free reign? Or rodents? I would hope not.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

In the years we were in Lake Ontario we would accumulate many 10s of pounds of spiders by the end of each season. Some were quite large, and pretty creepy. But mostly we just left them alone. 

They’d hide in crevices during the day, but as soon as the sun went down they’d all come crawling out. Our cockpit turned into a bit of a horror show, but unless they were in the way or something, or tried to come inside, we mostly ignored them. They kept the other bugs down. And unless you threaten them (by intention or accident), they mostly don’t bite humans. 

Now that we’re in Newfoundland we’ve left most of the spiders behind. They don’t seem to like this climate for some strange reason.


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## bshock (Dec 11, 2012)

We don't have problems with spiders getting into the cabin, just on the exterior of the boat. And like Mike says, once the sun goes down, Boris comes out of the folds of the bimini and sets up shop. If you are sitting in the cockpit after dusk, you'll start to feel them on you. Either way, there will be a new mess of green spider dookie beneath their webs.


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## SeaStar58 (Feb 14, 2018)

With the increased import of wood products and produce from South America there has been an increase in the numbers of Aggressive Spiders here in the USA. I have caught a number of what turned out to be Chilean Recluse Spiders (potentially lethal) here in the Tampa area and have been bitten twice by spiders out in the wild in Florida with the scars from the second bite still remaining after a decade showing the fangs were about 1/2 inch apart. The Aggressive Spiders will chase after you if you back off and may even stalk you and try to drop on you from behind. Most insecticides for use inside a home will not work on many of the aggressive spiders leaving you with blunt force trauma to dispatch them with or the very potent hornet and wasp sprays of which it may take a large amount to even slow them down.

The bite that left the scar turned most of my left arm black and blue leaving me feeling as if I had been beaten by someone wielding an ax handle. I was incapacitated for 4 days but suffered no necrosis so I was fortunate especially since I was out alone where medical attention was not available. I did not see or feel that spider and was wearing a long sleeve chambray shirt which it appeared to have bitten me through. After the initial bite I felt groggy and went back to my camper, got increasingly dizzy passing out from about 1PM until a little after Midnight and was not capable of breaking down camp enough to be able to drive out for days.

One problem now is that many spiders, even if they are not lethal of themselves, carry flesh eating infections that can be disfiguring and are potentially lethal.


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## Statesman15 (Mar 24, 2018)

denverd0n said:


> Spiders eat other insects. If you have a spider problem, it is because you have other insects onboard that they are eating. If you focus on getting rid of the other insects, the spiders will leave on their own. If you focus on getting rid of the spiders, it will just be a matter of time before they come back, to feast on the other insects.
> 
> Beyond that, I would mention that a lot of people are terrified of the possibility of being bitten by a spider. In fact, there are over 3,000 different species of spiders in North America and the bite of exactly TWO of them present a significant danger to humans. Those two being the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. Every other species of spider that exists in North America is no more dangerous than an ant bite; less dangerous than a bee sting.


That's a good way to look at it, wouldn't have thought about their food source being the reason they're taking over as there are a lot of other little bugs always by the water.

I'm not so worried about being bitten, these aren't either of the brown recluse or black widow. I've been bit enough by wolf spiders and others to know it's mostly just annoying.


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## Statesman15 (Mar 24, 2018)

bshock said:


> We don't have problems with spiders getting into the cabin, just on the exterior of the boat. And like Mike says, once the sun goes down, Boris comes out of the folds of the bimini and sets up shop. If you are sitting in the cockpit after dusk, you'll start to feel them on you. Either way, there will be a new mess of green spider dookie beneath their webs.


Nothing too bad in the cabin, though I read dryer sheets help, so I may throw a few down there. But it makes it hard to sit in the cockpit past sundown when you have spider paratroopers dropping in on you even as harmless as they may be. And as if I needed another reason to clean the decks!!


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

capta said:


> Insects of *any* kind are *not* welcome aboard Skipping Stone. Neither are rodents. Since we have no children or pets, we can and do use the most effective poisons to control these invaders.
> Do people who reside in houses allow spiders free reign? Or rodents? I would hope not.


I don't mind spiders in the house. When I do I put them outside the house. Also, once I saw one of those tan millipede things take a moth three times its size and wring its neck, I have more tolerance for them, too. Although I will swish them down the drain if one happens to be in the sink. I don't see them often.

We had a chipmunk that came down our chimney and spent about a week with us until it ran out an open door. We found dog food hidden away for years after it left. My mother named it Munk. For whatever reason it didn't seem to bother her.

Mice, on the other hand, are subjected to glue traps. I don't like poison in case one gets outside before it dies and one of the birds of prey eats it.


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## jephotog (Feb 25, 2002)

capta said:


> Do people who reside in houses allow spiders free reign? Or rodents? I would hope not.


We have lived in home with bad spider problem but did not use any chemicals to rid ourselves of them, unless it looked like a brown recluse or in the shower we did not go out of our way to kill it. In San Diego we had black widows in our backyard. I can remember at least twice when pulling my kayak out having a black widow on my arm.

I am not really bothered by spiders and my wife likes them, at one point she had 4 tarantulas she bought as cute little spiderlings and raised. We are down to three now and when we got back from an overnight out of town on Friday my wife said my Greenbottle Blue is missing. She spent a few days tearing apart that room and others trying to find it before it died.

Last night while sitting downstairs watching TV, my dog started growling and dancing around the coffee table. I looked up to see this thing crawling towards my bare feet. It's about the size of my palm. It would have crawled over my foot if it weren't for my trusty dog.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

jephotog said:


> I am not really bothered by spiders and my wife likes them, at one point she had 4 tarantulas she bought as cute little spiderlings and raised. We are down to three now and when we got back from an overnight out of town on Friday my wife said my Greenbottle Blue is missing. She spent a few days tearing apart that room and others trying to find it before it died.
> 
> Last night while sitting downstairs watching TV, my dog started growling and dancing around the coffee table. I looked up to see this thing crawling towards my bare feet. It's about the size of my palm. It would have crawled over my foot if it weren't for my trusty dog.


I'd like to give you a "like" for this interesting view into your life, but I'm sorry, I just can't. shiver, shudder.... lol


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## jephotog (Feb 25, 2002)

capta said:


> I'd like to give you a "like" for this interesting view into your life, but I'm sorry, I just can't. shiver, shudder.... lol


Here is some more spider goodness to share. I used to live in Salt Lake City. I was too busy to sail much but when I did visit the Great Salt Lake Marina I got to experience a spider overload. I got access to a dinghy at the marina that probably had not been sailed in years. I probably had to brush out 100s of spiders to get the boat ready to sail. Then when out sailing more spiders wood crawl out from hidden cracks.

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46367206


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

jephotog said:


> Here is some more spider goodness to share. I used to live in Salt Lake City. I was too busy to sail much but when I did visit the Great Salt Lake Marina I got to experience a spider overload. I got access to a dinghy at the marina that probably had not been sailed in years. I probably had to brush out 100s of spiders to get the boat ready to sail. Then when out sailing more spiders wood crawl out from hidden cracks.


I can just imagine our charter guests' reaction to a big hairy tarantula crawling out from under their bunk as they prepared to settle in for the night!
We would certainly have a reputation, but probably not one that would get us bookings. lol


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## denverd0n (Jun 20, 2008)

Donna_F said:


> I don't mind spiders in the house.


Same here, as long as it's just the odd one now and then.

If we see more, then we know we have another problem and we start trying to figure out what that is. For example, a few years ago we started seeing spiders in our bathroom. Further investigation revealed that ants had gotten into a bag of cough drops that we had under the sink. The spiders were there because of the ants. We got rid of the ants, the spiders soon disappeared.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

Yup, not a big deal to me having a few spiders in the house (or in the boat). My last house was a winterized cabin on the shores of Lake Superior, so I guess I got used to having a bit of Nature inside pretty much all the time.

BTW, spiders do not hunt humans. Some, like Brown Recluse, are aggressive in defending their turf, but there is no evidence that spiders hunt or stalk humans. https://arthropodecology.com/2012/02/15/spiders-do-not-bite/


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## SeaStar58 (Feb 14, 2018)

Sometimes it just rains spiders:


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## mstern (May 26, 2002)

Good gravy, where do you people live that your lives are overrun with spiders!?!?!

I am routinely called to dispatch the little buggers whenever one is seen in my house, but they are mostly little, rather innocuous looking critters. There are some exceptions. Once, my wife saw a very large, very hairy spider in our garage when entering the house. I've never seen her so spooked. I was sent out to kill the thing, and damn, this animal was big: probably the size of my palm. I did manage to terminate him (her?) with extreme prejudice, but I must say that I was ready to jump into my car and drive away if he charged me. When I went back inside to report the successful mission, my wife informed me (quite seriously I think) that we were putting the house on the market and moving. But I guess it's all what you're used to: this is a girl that grew up in NYC and thought very little of seeing cat-sized rats, and roaches so big that they would give you the finger if you tried to step on them. But a spider? Eeeek.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

Capta, tarantulas are good eating in some parts of the world. 

For the most part, the spiders build their webs in locations where they can catch flying insects, which tend to be prevalent near the water. Once you get the boat away from land for a few days, the spiders usually drop off and you don't see them again until you get back to a marina where they can access your boat via the dock lines. A sailboat, by it's very nature, is ideally suited for a spider to build it's web. Lots of near, vertical things relatively close together to attach the web to. Your best option is to spend more time sailing and less time at the dock. 

All the best,

Gary


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## Attikos (May 26, 2018)

Every morning when aboard, one of the first things I do is get out the extender pole, screw the mushroom brush onto its end, and take down the spider webs that were spun overnight. They're little spiders, and they make little webs, but when the Sun catches them right it makes the boat look like it's festooned with fishing line. Being no fan of pesticides I just leave them alone. They pay the rent by keeping my boat free of gnats, flies and mosquitoes.


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

capta said:


> I can just imagine our charter guests' reaction to a big hairy tarantula crawling out from under their bunk as they prepared to settle in for the night!
> We would certainly have a reputation, but probably not one that would get us bookings. lol


On the positive side, tarantulas don't spin webs? :wink


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

This winky emoticon looks...demented.:wink


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