I am wondering how long it will have an effect when you get the house sprayed. Last night we had a spider next to my husbands side of the bed (and as we are currently sleeping with the matresses on the floor he was not happy with it ).
We moved in last August ... is it time to renew it?
Thanks,
Sabine

OMG don't mention spiders!

What kind was it?

I had an AAAAAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH I-want-to-run-screaming-around-the-house-except-it-might-wake-DD-and-anyway-the-Huntsman-is-in-the-hall-and-it-might-jump-on-me-when-I-go-past experience at about midnight last night . I had to work up the courage to go and kill it while I still knew where it was . Ewwwwwwww!

It's at times like these I most hate being a single-handed parent . DH did offer moral support and say "my hero" when it was dead, then share a big glass of port with me .

Steph

They usually guarantee it for around 6 months. Though if the infestation was extreme like ours was it's gonna take a while to kill the buggers.

well done sm for kill that evil spider i hate the little and big ones my self.

Around 6 months I think.

You can buy for $18 a DIY kit from the supermarket. Same stuff the pro's use apparently and is suppose to last 6 months. You can do an outdoor one as well which will last around 3 months. I bought some the other day after finding a redback in my house a few weeks ago right at doggy level (and crawling baby level which thankfully is not a concern right now).

Usually I just catch the big ones and put them outside.

Ours just lasted 12 months, but was only guaranteed for 6. WE did get a respray of one room done after the first spray though.

I think it was a Huntsman ... but I was asleep and got only his description of it . Had a look around today but found no more.
And there is no chance for me to catch them and let them out. I use the vacuum solution for these "problems".

When they guarantee for 6 month - I will look for a company to renew it. How much will they charge approx? Are there big differences?

Happy to recommend Canberra Pest Control who we have used for outdoor jobs.

As much as I hate the @#$@#$@#$@#$@#$ Huntsmen we *very* rarely get them inside and I would much rather have a complete freakout moment once a year or so and kill the odd smaller black ones (which don't freak me out at all) than have the inside of our house sprayed. I'm not even keen to get the outside sprayed which would do away with the untidy cobweb factor.

I have never seen a Redback inside - only outside and in the (detached) garage. I might feel different about spraying if I had ?

The other Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk experience I had this summer was walking thru a cobweb on the nature strip while putting out the bins late at night...

Steph

We had a redback infestation (and cockcroach) a couple of months ago due to a 'months unknown water leak' under the house, which we now know is where they were breeding. We called Canberra Pest Control and they were fantastic! It cost roughly $200 and we have not seen a redback or cockcroach since! They double powdered under the house (due the leak) at no extra charge, and they did all of inside, all outside walls and all fences. I remember getting home after they had been and I couldn't believe all the dead spiders everywhere - mainly outside, but there were quite a few in DS' room as well!

Sooo, after my long winded post - I would definately recommend Canberra Pest Control as well.

(also, I even called them up prior to getting them in about another problem - and found they are always happy to give advice over the phone and don't do the total sales pitch!).

We are a bit concerned about the chemicals they use.
On one hand .... we really don't like the spiders etc. - but on the other one .... knowing that chemicals all over the place is not really better.

Aaarrrggg!!!! I hate these problems.

Steph .. good luck that there are no spiders in your house for the next days/weeks/month!!!

At first I was also worried about the chemicals, but in the end, when you had as much stuff breeding as we had, we didn't have much choice with a young one running around who is fascinated with everything that moves (and putting it in his mouth!), and to be honest you did say which implys that you were happy to have your house sprayed with chemicals?

It's such a scary choice - chemicals or spiders . At the moment we're going with the spiders because we can at least see the danger.

I'm trying to remember that (apparently) daddy-long-legs are territorial and will keep the redbacks away, and my older sons are pretty good at disposing of redbacks outside.

Daddy long legs didn't keep the redback away in this house... I have a very impressive collection of spiders around here at the moment.

Generally I am more than happy to leave them alone (as long as they are not poisonous) but with Alex around and that redback in such a dangerous place I am now a little more concerned...

Also finding a spider crawling across Alex's face in the middle of the night wasn't particularly amusing. I just need a time now when I can do it (or get Paul to do it) without Alex being in the house.

Sabine - I got a quote for a standard 3br house a few weeks ago and they estimated $195

I'm really happy with Canberra Pest Control too. They did inside, outside and walls here too. They're the ones that came back and redid one room under the warranty when we still had a couple of small spiders, even though they thought the new spiders came in through the skylight.

I'd rather the chemical risk than the spider poison risk with littlies around, and Shea has never been affected even with his chronic lung disease.

For me it's more the long term chemical effects I worry about than a short term cough or allergic reaction.

Link between pesticides and acute childhood leukemia

But now you've all got me checking the corners of the room and wondering if it's time to break out the can of emergency spray locked in the cupboard over the fridge .

Kath1978 we did not know that the house was sprayed in the first time. We just saw all the dead spiders and somebody mentioned the spray-thing to us.

We do not have any dangerous spiders in Germany and I thought here you would have them only outside - haha!

Nut, i am afraid for the day to see a spider crawling on Emmas face.

And yes, we will do the spraying again. I assume that the amount of spiders will increase in the winter month. They love it warm and cosy as well and my in-laws did the garden and everything is on the move now .

I had a huntsman experience about a month ago (when DH was in the USA so I had to deal with it myself), I have guinea pigs, which are apparently susceptible to all kinds of things, so I left one hunstman alive that was sitting over their cage, the daddy longlegs that was just around the corner ate him for breakfast the next day (the huntsman was as long as a thumb including legs so much bigger than the daddy longlegs)

BTW cockroach spray (as nasty as it is, make sure you wear gloves - my can leaks all over my hands) kills the spiders dead in 5-10 seconds . I found the flyspray did nothing for the side-plate sized huntsman that I nearly touched on the inside of my back door even though he was white with spray..

Hi - good to have this info, as we will be spraying soon. One of my friends recently looked under her doona before getting into bed, which she didn't do usually. There was a big horrible spider in the bed under the doona. I think it was a Huntsman. Not poisonous, but still not who I'd want for a bed partner. I never used to look under the doona before getting in, but now I always do.

FWIW, Daddy Longlegs are actually VERY poisonous, but they have such small fangs that they can't even pierce our skin. They're designed for other insects. We've had a plague of DL around here this Summer & Autumn. Only the odd Red-Back outside but the ones that really freak me out are the White-tails. They haven't been too bad this year, cross fingers. Good luck with it.

Yes - the main danger with daddy-long-legs is squashing one then accidentally wiping your face with the squashed venom . We're scrupulous about washing hands after squashing spiders in this house...

Okay so spiders are not my specialist topic...

Are Australian daddy long legs a different type of spider to the UK ones? I had always thought they where completely harmless.

I'm with Binchen on this, I never thought there would be so many spiders and in my house

the worse was on a drive to QLD when 5 mins down the h-way dd says there is a spider in the car. Yeah right, she calls antsp spiders we thought. Only when we stoped in Sydney for dinner did I see the thing crawl across James' car seat . I refused to get back in until it was found - the car was packed high with our camping gear - dh was not impressed.

Since moving to Australia I have never seen so much "wildlife", including our first mouse about two weeks ago.

What are the black ones with stripy white legs? I see them all over our house?

Also how should I be killing them?

What do you do with your washing line - I tried lemon oil and it has had no effect?

I have hundreds of spider questions, but I think that will do for now

Karen

Our rule of thumb is either spray 'em then wack 'em with a swatter, or just wack 'em & then remove in a tissue to a bin or the garden. Spiders are fine outside so long as they leave us alone - Red-Backs & White-Tails aside - but inside our house, they're fair game.

BTW, there's several THOUSAND species of spider in Australia, most of which are largely un-detailed scientifically. Most are ground-dwelling, which to us is an excellent reason to insist on shoes when outside.

Or if you like you can just put a cup over them, and slide a piece of cardboard underneath to trap them in there, then put them outside.

This is the best way for big huntsmans etc. I try not to kill spiders, but I do step on red-backs or whitetails if I see them.

How about a thread on snakes? - has anyone seen any in Canberra? One of my neighbours in Gungahlin said she saw a brown snake on her driveway once. And my work colleague lives on a farm near Bungendore and said she sees them all the time. We are thinking of taking visitors from overseas bushwalking in/around Canberra, but I would hate for them (or us!) to be bitten by a snake. Not a nice memory of Oz. It will be during winter though - so maybe all the snakes will be in hibernation ...? Sorry - off topic.

I use to volunteer at the Zoo and Aquarium and snake season was always good fun... You'd see brownies in the bird enclosures and every time the weather started to warm up we'd have to go and very caredfully (with full protection) move logs etc.

There was a brown snake on the bike path near the playground at the Palmerston shops at the start of the year. And my DS just missed one as he ran across some open ground up in Gungahlin.

But if you make a reasonable amount of noise, they won't bother you if you leave them alone...

I was chattig to an A&E nurse the other week and apparently there are more dangerous suburbs in Canberra to live in. The snakes get washed down the hills into back yards in a couple of places. People are getting bitten in Canberra's suburbia, she has been here 18 months and has treated a few herself.

About those daddy-long-leg spiders being 'very posionous' check out http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/longlegs.asp

On the snakes, I have lived backing onto Mt Ainslie reserve, and very close to Mt Taylor and Farrer ridge and I've never even seen a snake. I really wouldn't worry about them.

And in a worst case scenario, in Canberra you would just go straight to hospital and get anti-venine injection and be fine. People really only get into trouble with snake-bites in the middle of nowhere.

I bet you never see a snake the whole time you are here.

Please dont bet me that. I have seen more spiders than I have seen in my whole life before.

A couple of months ago doing a delivery in Gordon & a Gardener came up to me with a 60 cm brown snake held in his shears, very alive & quite unhappy. He asked me (foreign accent) what he should do with it & I told him that officially they were protected but as he had hold of it & the family he was working for had a toddler if it were me, it would quietly, quickly & as painlessly as possible, die.
I read in the Cbr Times at the start of summer that if you spot a snake in your backyard, ring up Parks & Gardens by all means but they no longer come out to remove it. The advice was to just leave it alone & it'll "probably" go away after a few hours. Hello? What about the dog, cat, budgie, kids, wife, ME? What do we do, quarantine our backyard till we THINK that it's safe. We actually live only 2 blocks from wide, open horse paddocks. I took a stray cat to the RSPCA recently after it turned up very sick on our drive (after checking with all the neighbours), verdict was snake-bite.
Oh, the thing on Daddy Long Legs being poisonous I got from a mag. article on various spiders, their hunting & survival techniques etc. I think it came from a study on various species of spider. Even the authors were surprised at their results. But I'll bow to the superiority o the www .

The CSIRO released a report on the population of snakes in the ACT a while back. There is one Brown snake per 5 acres and they are teritorial. I can't recall any other species though.

We have had a number of snakes on our 2.5 acers this summer including one on Sunday.

DH and DS (18mths) were gardening, I shouted out did he want a cuppa, he shouts back yep just let me finish burying the snake. I freak out as DS is near him and start ranting at DH.

Apparently he was digging in the garden and dug up a 2 foot Brown snake who objected to the intrusion. DH chopped it's head off with the shove because DS was standing beside him and he reacted automatically. DH usually just waits for them to move off and tells me about them the next day once they are long gone.

According to the guy who runs the reptile centre at Gold Creek 9 out of 10 bites are when people are trying to kill a snake. They don't attack unless they are cornered and frightened.

Kate

Tricky topic......all I know is that my BIL just died of cancer last Christmas, after years of working for a pest control company......can`t be proven that it was the chemicals of course but it`s still a bit of a worry. Think I`ll take my chances with the spiders, even though I got bitten by one the other day getting the junkmail out of the letterbox!