Huntman spiders ... Should i pay for pest control ??

[smiles4u]

Thanks all for your wonderful advice & suggestions

Pest control was just an extreme option ... was thinking it wouldn't harm my DD if it's done on the ' OUTSIDE of the house ' ... that would have been my ONLY intention (i like any Mother naturally wouldn't chose to put my child at risk before any spider ... i just wanted to make that clear to anyone reading this)

My concerns are also that my DD is still at a curious age and she might just play or touch a huntsman spider if she saw one.

To anyone who has a fear of these spiders and experienced having them come into the house (for some reason mainly on the floor) as often as we do i would imagine would want it to stop if not slow down the count of them somehow coming into the house.

Special thanks to those who suggested CITRONELLA ... looks like that's the go and sounds like a great plan & idea

[smiles4u]

Whoops i forgot to ask before - Where is the best place to buy this Citronella ??

[Snacks]

I'm pretty sure I've seen it at the grocery store? But you could probably find citronella oil at Bunnings. You can make up your own citrus mix with essential oils too.

[smiles4u]

Oh thanks a million Snacks ... Bunnings sounds like the place then ... Well, Bunnings here i come, LOL

[AnyDream]

Smiles I just wanted to add - are you sure they are actually huntsmen...in my experience the hunties are the ceiling dwellers, and it tends to be nastier species like black spiders and white-tails that dash about on the floor. I had our last house sprayed twice because it was totally infested - I was finding 1-3 spiders a DAY - many of which were in places like - on a towel you're about to use, in the piece of clothing you just picked up. Ugh. And they were actually poisonous species (incl lots of redbacks) - the doctor had a poster in their office of the ones to watch out for. So make sure you know what species you're finding...it might help to ask someone with local knowledge.

[smiles4u]

Yeh, unfortunately they are MARYDEAN ... also DP witnessed them too. Guess i've seen too many in my years to know them now, LOL (also i did check on a website recently) BUT THANKS heaps for your advice

Thanks to all for your wonderful advice & suggestions ... Citronella is looking like the go

Pest control was an extreme option as i've mentioned above ... obviously for OUTDOOR use only as it's the Huntsman's coming IN to the house ... i like any other Mother naturally wouldn't put my child at risk before a spider if i thought it would cause her health problems (so sad other Mother's would think a Mother would do so).

So, Bunnings here i come ....

Thanks again to those with KIND replies & an understanding of how i feel as For Me it is a really horrid feeling to live with each day ... My thread was NOT a question asked of who is scared of huntsman spiders or not ... (Sorry to put a damper on those that got a buzz out of it) !!!!!! ... Lucky i have a sense of humour

[briggsy's girl]

Smiles I just wanted to add - are you sure they are actually huntsmen...in my experience the hunties are the ceiling dwellers, and it tends to be nastier species like black spiders and white-tails that dash about on the floor. I had our last house sprayed twice because it was totally infested - I was finding 1-3 spiders a DAY - many of which were in places like - on a towel you're about to use, in the piece of clothing you just picked up. Ugh. And they were actually poisonous species (incl lots of redbacks) - the doctor had a poster in their office of the ones to watch out for. So make sure you know what species you're finding...it might help to ask someone with local knowledge.

MD - our hunties are almost always down low. we've caught them and checked, and yep, definitely huntsman. we do sometimes get while tails (but not very often) which get splattered, and we found some young red backs (which my bro dealt with (i prefer to not know how!).

[Lulu]

Poor smiles - looking them up on the net....sorta makes me hide under the desk.

It did strike me as odd too, I've never seen a hunty run across the floor (I've had one chase me down the hall on the ceiling though *shudder), it sounds like your ones have big spider BALLS

We have plenty of redbacks and HUGE white tails and as much as the huntys scare me, its the others that I'm really worried about. I got the citronella from bunnings, just be careful with it on the paintwork xoxoxoxo

[AnyDream]

Ok, well good luck with the Citronella, do post again and let us know how effective you find it.

[Lulu]

I crack myself up - your huntsmen dragging their balls across your floor.....

Sorry, getting off the puter now..

[smiles4u]

Yeh Lulu can you imagine i check the net last night about an hour after my scary episode only to have a heap of pictures of more huntsmans staring at me ... eekkkkk !!

Thanks for the tip about using as i was wondering as our house is weatherboard & i was worried about the paintwork peeling with the Citronella

Marydean ... will def keep everyone posted with results

THANKS again all xox

[smiles4u]

whoops double post, darn computer !!

[~Hestia~]

We were having terrible trouble in our house years ago with huntsman spiders.
My DH bought a plug in pest control unit & it is fantastic. You just plug it into a wall socket & they supposedly emit an ultrasonic signal that deters them. We have had it for years so I can't tell you if ours is specifically for spiders or if they are for general pest use. We don't seem to get any other creepy crawlies though.
Ours is called Pest Contro Electro-Magnetic. Like I said we have had it for years & have not have one spider, not even a daddy long legs, ever since we plugged it in.
We also have pets & they don't seem to be affected by the high frequency sound.
GL with whatever you do, I can't stand spiders!!

[Nicambhar]

do u have geckoes? reason I ask is, we have geckoes and they love eating the spiders. I had a massive huntsman crawl up the wall and within seconds it was gone, the gecko snapped it up and spat the legs out and sat there smacking it's lips for ages after it's tasty meal *blerk*.