BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!

Subject: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: michaelr
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 08:56 PM

The old house I rent is home to many spiders. Normally they don't bother me, nor I them. HOWEVER:

Every year around this time, when it gets nice and hot here in California, a bunch of spider eggs hatch, and I get bitten while sleeping. This year, they seem to have hatched in my wardrobe!!

I dressed and went to work yesterday, and after a few hours I could feel the telltale itching. By the end of the day, I was covered in red welts and going out of my mind. I must have forty or more bites on me, several in very sensitive areas.

My question: Does anyone know any folk remedies or non-toxic approaches to encouraging the spiders to hie themselves elsewhere?

TIA,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 09:41 PM

spread curds & whey all over the wardrobe?....no..sorry, that BRINGS spiders. Osage Orange balls (hedgeapple) are supposed to deter roaches, but I doubt you can get those in CAL.

well, then, try this search

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Metchosin
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 09:44 PM

Chestnuts are supposed to work, but finding them this time of year might prove difficult.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: mack/misophist
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 09:45 PM

Eucalyptus or peppermint should discourage small insects and arachnids.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 09:45 PM

Bug bomb

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: khandu
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 09:54 PM

Moth balls ought to do it...they get rid of everything from moths to snakes to humans!!

K

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 10:01 PM

Sounds less like spiders than maybe you got into either some fleas 'er more than likely seed ticks.... But either way, light offf a bebugger fogger bomb in the wardrobe while yer away an' problem over, no matter what it is as long as it's a bug....

Now there are a few guys who come home with marks all over 'um blamin' the marks on bugs and, well, you ain't gonna get these marks from bugs so let me pose this last question to ya: Is this yer final answer, congressman????

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 10:07 PM

maybe yer got a case o the crabs laddie

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 10:08 PM

forgot to add..... use Oil of Melaleuca (tea tree oil)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 10:10 PM

Oils - place only three or four drops (each) on a scrap of cardboard and place in the closet (use it for spice/flour/sugar cabinet also.

CEDAR and CITRONELLA - (about $10/oz US)

Refresh once in the spring and once in the fall - also a drop is good, good in sweater boxes.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: number 6
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 10:13 PM

Don't know of any remedies but look on the bright side ... the spiders will kill the really bad bugs!

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:16 PM

What kind of spiders? Brown recluse? Black Widow? Hobo? Have you seen them?

Or is this a contact dermititis caused by something like your detergent?

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Alba
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:26 PM

Some other info that mnight help Michael,

The Essebtail Oil info is from a Vegan site I visit that has good info.
I use a few of these Oils myself for Bug control and they seem to work very well.

For detering Fleas,
Tea-tree, eucalyptus, mint, rosemary and lavender oil are all good bug repellents - ask at a Natural Living Center if they would be willing to make a spray up for you rather than buying each oil, much cheaper that way! and then spray it a few times on your Carpet and in your closet.

For detering Spiders
A spray made with chestnut and clove scents deters spiders.
Again a Natural Living Center they may be be able to make you up a Spray containg these oils.
Cedar and Citronella sounds good too.

Good luck!
Not pleasant for you
Best Wishes
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Amos
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:27 PM

For the nibbles themselves, try Tea Tree Oil.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Alba
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:35 PM

I can't believe the typos in my last post..I will spare your eyes fellow Mudcatters from anymore of them..lol

mnight = Might
Essebtail = Essential
I am off to bed:>)
Night all
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: michaelr
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 12:21 AM

We've had fleas before -- them I can see. These I can't. I'm guessing they're baby spiders, but I could be wrong. I don't want to use a toxic bug bomb if it can be avoided. After all, I gotta live here.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions. I'll be off to the local health food store to see what I can find.

What's a Natural Living Center? Is that what they call health food stores in Britain?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST,Fullerton
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 01:40 AM

Chestnuts really work

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: dianavan
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 01:46 AM

If you can see a flea, chances are you can see a baby spider.

I think you should go to the doctor to make sure you're not having an allergic reaction to something. Itching and welts sound like a reaction. Try to find the actual source.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 10:13 AM

Lavender oil deters most insects, including cockroaches. I rub it through all my cupboards.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Alba
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 10:19 AM

Michael "Natural Living Center" is what *I* call a Health Food Store:>)
Good Luck
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 11:49 AM

I agree with those who say you need to be sure of the source of the problem.

Spiders eat small insects. They don't eat people. A spider might bite you if you cornered it and frightened it, but why would many, many spiders approach you, getting under the covers, just to bite you?

If you can see spiders in your home, that means other insects are also present for them to eat. Maybe those other insects are the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 12:09 PM

Research a little before you try anything. It can save some grief.

Were this happening in my closet, my first thought would be to air the closet contents. Set up a line outside and hang everything after giving it a good shaking. You might even consider washing the washables. Dust the closet well, vacuum the interstices bugs might find to occupy.

Depending on what you want to repel, cedar oil, mint oil, garlic, hot pepper, citrus oil, they're all possible solutions. Not all of those are equally welcome in the closet, however. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 08:11 PM

Most "natural remedies" work more by repelling the varmints to prevent them from getting in and becoming established. If they're already hatching/hatched, they may eat you alive before you "persuade them" to leave, and they can do a lot of nibbling before they get big enough to travel very far.

The cruel, cold, hard, but honest advice is to KILL THEM. Bug bombs work, usually, although one professional exterminator told me a few years ago that the only way he could get rid of spiders was to get them "high enough" that they'd follow him out to the truck "to get another hit." (Due to all the bans on formerly favorite insecticides.) Fleas and some mites are similarly resistant to "legal" contact pesticides, but the aerosols seem to be fairly effective if you can evacuate all the pets and leave the space closed up for a couple of hours. Fleas are a special problem, since the aerosols can only get the live ones. Flea eggs can survive nuclear catastrophes and can live for years until hatching is triggered by the CO2 exhaled by the next victim.

If you're suffering from large numbers of bites, it's really unlikely that the culprits are spiders - unless they actually hatched in your bed. Due to their tendency to eat each other, spiders of the common household kind (cobweb spiders, usually) generally disperse fairly rapidly when hatched, although for some "grass spiders" (outdoor types) the "mother" may carry the hatched brood around on her back for a time. Fleas, lice, mites, and bedbugs come more to mind.

A couple of areas nearby have been hit in the last couple of years by something they're calling an "itch mite". They were also reported as the Oak Gall Mite last year in Nebraska.

Another one that's been fairly frequently reported is the Straw Itch Mite. The Straw Mite attacks "arthropods" like spiders(?), so might have been attracted to your spider population, but can cause itchy rashes in humans.

A brief and very general comment on mites is at Itch Mite. In common "medical" usage, "itch mite" refers to the "human scabies mite", but there are numerous other similar critters that can affect humans. The numerous varieties of very similar mites that attact almost every known kind of domestic animal are usually pretty "species specific," but occasionally one common on non-human species (say on wild bunnies(?) or house mice(?)) will bite and cause irritation on another kind of animal – like us – although in most cases they can only reproduce on the normal host species.

If it's a "human scabies mite," a very close examination with fairly high magnification may show a "tunnel path" where the critter has burrowed around. If you've scratched the itch, the visible clue may be obliterated. This infestation is contagious enough that if someone infected sat in your office chair for a few minutes you could be scratching 6 to 10 hours later. (Note that many people are "sensitive" about such things as scabies and/or lice, so a convincing diagnosis should be in hand before indiscrete suggestions are tossed about.)

A link in a previous recent thread on a related subject indicated that relying on your favorite physician to diagnose what critter's involved from "bites" is probably fruitless. They'll almost certainly blame spiders, and will probably be wrong - but that was just one entomologyst's opinion, although I think he may have been from California. The thread title was something about brown recluse/fiddleback spiders I think. (CRS in effect.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 08:23 PM

Weasels would be worse.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Metchosin
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 09:00 PM

Yeah, you could always Zappa them.....

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 10:43 AM

Put some hot rats in the wardrobe?

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: open mike
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 11:05 AM

hmmm--i could have SWORN i sent a message
to this thread but i do not see it..
so here it goes again..
I said:
i know where there is a grove of Osage Orange trees
that i pass on the way to the straawberry music festival
and i will scoop a couple up for you when i go by there
next month.

i said some other stuff too, but not sure what!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 11:27 AM

John in Kansas -- thanks a bunch for that info and the link to Safe2Use. I think mites must be what this is.

open mike -- ???

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 11:41 AM

Yeah Identifying the bites can be difficult. As they used to say in the navy.. Lowerdeck tars got a dose of the crabs (akak scabies)but the officers got lobsters (same thing different name)

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Alice
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 12:03 PM

Take everything out of the closet, wash all the clothing. Wash down all sides of the closet. Purchase some spider sticky traps and put them on the floor along edges of the bedroom and wardrobe walls. They are strips of cardboard with a sticky surface. Spiders walk onto them and are stuck forever. You can probably find the sticky strips at your hardware store.
http://www.bugsaway.com/glueboard.htm

Good luck.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 04:17 PM

A supplemental possibility:

A local infectious disease specialist has been retitled "Chief of Staph," having admitted to being "attacked" by a common staph infection.

In medical terms, the bug is community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
In simple terms, it's a highly contagious, aggressive bug that causes painful skin infections, and it's often mistaken (even by doctors) for a spider bite.

He's refering to the stuff as Frankenstaph. First symptom is it feels like something bit you. Later - often - theres a "pimple" that looks like a bite. It's resistant to standard antibiotics, but usually doesn't require treatment. It is highly contagious, usually by skin-to-skin contact with infected persons, so if you're the "only one that got bit" it probably wasn't this stuff.

Just one more look-alike possibility to be considered when you get the creepy crawlies.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Bert
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 09:20 PM

Alice has the answer. I would have been more blunt and said "Clean your bloody wardrobe!"

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 07:53 PM

Alice wasn't the only one with that advice. Plus a hint or two to repel bugs in the future.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Spiders Ripped My Flesh!
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 02:33 AM

Sounds like sand flies. No-see-ums. Welt up nicely.