spiders

[f1_indy2000]

I take most of you are like me and have your layouts in your basements and assume you have to deal with spiders also. How they are getting in or why they would want to venture into certain death from me is puzzling. Is there a repellant that will get rid of them and other bugs for good? Something that is safe? The real peak time for me is in the fall that makes sense but I seem to have a lot of them now. I hate being creaped out when I'm trying to enjoy my trains HA

 

[SP4439]

Put them to work as conductors and switchmen! The nice thing about that is you wont get sued by your "employees/family" when they get run over! lol yes spiders are a PITA on the layout.

 

[f1_indy2000]

excellent! now thats funny.

 

[UP2CSX]

Alabama has about 9 gazillion different kinds of spiders, all which get on my layout at one time or another. Nothing chemical I used works to keep them at bay. I vacuum them up regularly but they always come back. We also have chameleons and one got in the basement a few weeks ago. I see him running for cover when I turn on the lights. He hasn't seemed to cause any damage to the layout except for knocking over one of my little people occasionally but guess what...no more spiders since he showed up. I guess they eat about 10 times their weight in spiders a day. So there's your answer. Get a chameleon and turn him loose. He's both decorative and useful.

 

[Screwjack]

Hedge Apples???

Put some hedge apples in your basement, no scientific proof that it works, (at least that I know of) but it seems to work great! Doesn't kill them, just keeps them away.

http://hedgeapple.com/ Check it out...

 

[Ren]

I think RAID makes a spray aimed towards spiders and other creepy crawlies, check 'em out.

 

[vato loco]

I got some stuff that works! Talstar........ You have to know somebody with a licence to get your hands on sum! Sends those eight legged freaks to Heck!

 

[vato loco]

Get a chameleon and turn him loose. He's both decorative and useful.

I had an Anole and a florida Gecko living on my layout........Lizard poop is worse than the spiders Plus if yer an N scaler like me a adult Anole can knock over a yard full of cars chasing their dinner

 

[Selector]

Raid makes a fumigator that you can set off yourself. They are sold (maybe not in all states) in Wal Mart. They come three to a package, which is a smallish blue box. You set off one in a basement that is near 400 square feet, two if bigger, and you must not allow access for four hours. You must also open all drawers and cupboards, displace a few suspended ceiling tiles, open closets. Then let them rip. Four hours later should have you bug free. I would repeat in a month at most to get any hatchlings unaffected by the first wipe-out.

 

[Larry]

You think you've got spider problems, how about mice? They play havoc on my layout.
They have learned how to eat all the stuff out of the traps w/out getting caught.
I guess I need a cat.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Security surveillance cameras caught this critter trespassing around the ingot stripper track in my steel mill. He climbed to the top of every single ingot (6 altogether)

 

[f1_indy2000]

You think you've got spider problems, how about mice? They play havoc on my layout.
They have learned how to eat all the stuff out of the traps w/out getting caught.
I guess I need a cat.

I have a cat that can deal with the mice or why I don't have any. I bet he'll enjoy playing with the wolf spiders. Thats what I seem to have a creapy problem with. I hate them things! On my dads layout has remenants that a mouse has been having a good time because it leaves turds all over the place, HA

Screwjack, you are right, in the fall I get the hedge applies and place them all around the basement. I have to pick them up after a while because they will leave a stain on the floor or in my case carpet. But the Spiders bolt for the window well and live there or hybornate. Who know but I would like for them to be gone.

 

[f1_indy2000]

Security surveillance cameras caught this critter trespassing around the ingot stripper track in my steel mill. He climbed to the top of every single ingot (6 altogether)

Intruder Alert! die will yah. BAHAHHAHAAAA

 

[DirtyD79]

Like Screwjack said try hedgeapples a.k.a monkey balls. You can buy them off that site hedgeapples.com although I found most of them while driving around and stopped to pick some up.

 

[UP2CSX]

LOL, Ken, you probably have the only union spider in the country. OSHA will be after you for not providing a hard hat. Darn nice photos, BTW.

Chris, one of the advantages of the BIG scale is that my little chameleon can't knock over anything too big. He's only about 2 inches long but I watched him track a spider down Main Street and he can jump about three feet to get one. No signs of chameleon poop piles yet but maybe they blend in with the Alabama soil on the layout.

I never heard of hedge apples before but here is what the University of Iowa says about them: The use of hedge apples as a pest solution is communicated as a folk tale complete with testimonials about apparent success. However, there is an absence of scientific research and therefore no valid evidence to confirm the claims of effectiveness. Although insect deterrent compounds have been extracted from hedge apples in laboratory studies, these do not provide a logical explanation about why hedge apples would work as claimed. At this time, there is nothing to recommend the use of hedge apples for pest control.

 

[Screwjack]

I have a cat that can deal with the mice or why I don't have any. I bet he'll enjoy playing with the wolf spiders. Thats what I seem to have a creapy problem with. I hate them things! On my dads layout has remenants that a mouse has been having a good time because it leaves turds all over the place, HA

Screwjack, you are right, in the fall I get the hedge applies and place them all around the basement. I have to pick them up after a while because they will leave a stain on the floor or in my case carpet. But the Spiders bolt for the window well and live there or hybornate. Who know but I would like for them to be gone.

f1_indy2000; Put them on a paper plate or put something under them. That's what I do.

As for the University of Iowa, they are probably right, but all I know is it sure seems to work for me. I knew it was an old folk tlae or wives tale, my mother-in-law told me about it. Like I said though, it seems to work...

 

[Rico]

Owwww.... hot hot hot!!!

 

[Selector]

We have those spiders you imaged up here on Vancouver Island. They're "hunter" spiders, and they seem to favour windows and window frames....except indoors. I happen to like them because they keep the flying and other crawling insects down to an acceptable minimum.

BTW, the common house spider is more dangerous than most people know. I'm not talking about the little fast moving guy in the photos above...I mean the ones you see on the wall or on your carpet. They can inflict some damage when they bite, and if your immune system is compromised, or you are generally elderly or very young, there is more risk to you.

Of course, then there are the much more dangerous Black Widow, Brown Widow, and the Brown Recluse. I am not aware of reports of the latter up in the PNW, but we have all the others, including the Wolfies. I have sat in a back-woods biffy thinking it was clean (it had been erected earlier that spring...the wood was still brand new), only to find when my eyes adjusted to the interior darkness, and my tender parts were dangling, that the interior was a playground for about 15 really large ones.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Solution?

Simple solution!
Get your double barreled 12-gauge and execute those suckers!!

Even if you miss a direct hit, the noise will deafen them.
Then, when they cross the train tracks, they will not hear the train coming and the engineer can call the coroner.

Depends on your era as to whether your have to file an accident report.

Anything else I can help you with?

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I never heard of hedge apples before but here is what the University of Iowa says about them: The use of hedge apples as a pest solution is communicated as a folk tale complete with testimonials about apparent success. However, there is an absence of scientific research and therefore no valid evidence to confirm the claims of effectiveness. Although insect deterrent compounds have been extracted from hedge apples in laboratory studies, these do not provide a logical explanation about why hedge apples would work as claimed. At this time, there is nothing to recommend the use of hedge apples for pest control.

Hedge apples do work! My grandmother (father's side) used them in her home to keep spiders and roaches out. Before she started using them the pests were about to carry the house off. After she got a bunch and set them around the house the pests became scarce. A note on the scientific evidence part: Many home medical remedies have little or no scientific evidence, medical or otherwise, saying that they work, but most of them work nonetheless.