I hate spiders because I have seen the effects of a Recluse or Widow bite....nasty and very long lasting.
Anyway I am sawing a whack of Walnut that was piled up at my logger/neighbors house for about a year so it has all kinda insects on it. In the middle of a log I felt something on the underside of my forearm, then a sting/bite. I knocked the spyder off onto the log. My first though was, "oh great a Brown Recluse", but upon closer inspection I knew it wasn't.
I captured the little bugger than gassed him with rubbing alcohol:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13550/spyder_004_28Custom29.JPG)
I looked it up and it appears to be either a American House Spider or a Comb Clawed Spider....both rather harmless.....{wheeew}
http://www.insectidentification.org/insect-search-results.asp?MM_insert=form1&search=Brown&search2=Tan&search3=Arachnida&search4=Tennessee&Submit=Search+the+Database
Snakes don't bother me, but spiders get me antsy real quick.
I was bitten in the ankle one time by a brown recluse... Got ugly but cleared right up in only 3 years. :o
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Last spring, I was moving an air-dried stack of Walnut into my newly built solar kiln. During the day, I found two ticks stuck on me at the beltline. When I showered that night, I inspected myself and didn't find any more. The next morning, though, as I was brushing my teeth, I noticed a dark speck at the base of my neck...another tick.
My wife grabbed it with tweezers and finally got it to turn loose but my neck was sore for a couple of weeks. Those are the only ticks I've had on me in years but they evidently loved that Walnut.
Quote from: Indiana Robinson on June 03, 2012, 06:11:46 PM
I was bitten in the ankle one time by a brown recluse... Got ugly but cleared right up in only 3 years. :o
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That's EXACTLY why I fear them.......3 years...holeey..sh :o
Are Walnut's more prone to spiders than other wood species? Or is just a coincidence?
I'm not sure if this would be bad for the wood but a trick we use when pulling in a vehicle or piece of equipment to restore, We will put a tarp over it big enuff to touch the ground on all sides then throw a bug bomb under the tarp. We let it sit for 24 hours, uncover it and hose it down with water real good. I have yet to come accross anything that survives this treatment.
I'm glad that your spider was not a Black Widow or Recluse.
A can of wasp spray rides with me under the operator's seat. Our main pest to take up residence in, on, & around logs are fire ants.
Quote from: Magicman on June 03, 2012, 10:19:40 PM
I'm glad that your spider was not a Black Widow or Recluse.
A can of wasp spray rides with me under the operator's seat. Our main pest to take up residence in, on, & around logs are fire ants.
MM, does the wasp spray do a number on fire ants? Never tried it on the ants.
Best thing for a fire ant nest is a tea cup full of gasoline.
Indiana, you got lucky with that brown recluse. A friend of mine got bitten on the foot some years ago. She was in and out of the hospital over that for about 10 years. They finally ended up amputating her leg.
If you think you've been bitten by one of those critters, get medical attention RIGHT NOW!!!
Quote from: leroy in kansas on June 03, 2012, 11:36:47 PM
MM, does the wasp spray do a number on fire ants?
Yes, immediate.
MM,if you have time and don't mind doing it, take some ERC sawdust and spread it around some or your fireant nests. I am curious as to whether it will have any effect on them. Some species of ants will completely avoid ERC mulch. Was wondering if fireants like, hate it, or ignore it.
I don't think it kills them, just makes them move. Need some proof as we do not have fireants in our area.
Nomad, that's terrible. The problem is with the Recluse's hemotoxic venom spreads within minutes. There are no real treatments to date that have been proven to lessen the effects. This does not mean I would not go to the Dr, since they might be trying new stuff all the time that may or may not help. Nasty little buggers.........
I read something the other day that claims that these liquid hand cleaners that is in every resturant will get ticks out,just put a glob of it on the tick and it will back right out.
i never tried it but it could work!
Piston, the only thing I can think of is that the bark of a big 'ole walnut has lots of deep crags....maybe they just like those hiding places better than smoother barked trees?
cedarman,
I'll drop you a box of fireants in the mail so you can try out your cedar dust experiement. Don't worry, though, I'll use one of those flat rate boxes and pack it tight to keep expenses down. :D
DDVP---the fist of god when it comes to bugs, and it's still legal but kinda hard to find.
I use either a hot fogger or emulsion. Better living thru chemistry...sawed into a yellowjacket
nest last fall while clearing some windfall cottonwood---got stung pretty bad, had a headache for two days.
Came back with a loaded sprayer and only took a few squirts and the ground was covered with twitching
bees.
I use a quart pumpup sprayer for general purpose use...I spray the walls in livestock sheds and it keeps the flies away for weeks, I mean NO flies, you can even add it to feed so the manure kills flies....
...its the active ingrediant in the old shell nopest strips for anyone old enough to remember those..You could
hot fog a huge wack of logs for almost nothing...
I got bit half way up my calf by a Hobo spider, didnt even know it about a hour latter it was acting like a bad misquitto bite. Then it just kept getting woarse. After four hours it was big red welt with a white dot could barely walk on it alot of pain, finally went to hospital they treated me with heavy duty antibotics shots and after third day they almost cut a hole in my leg and pack it, the area did look like flesh eating was happening but it eventually healed up. it took two weeks before I could get back to work. 6 years later you can still see dent and discolor in my leg. I definitely do not want to go through that again. Stay clear of webs that look like a funnel and are low to groung, tall grass and old wood piles. Especially sept. Oct. Hobos are most aggressive.
I got bit behind the ear by what I first thought must have been a mosquito, but later was told by the doc was a spider. The venom did nothing more than a mosquito but the fangs were apparently dirty & gave me a staph infection. First round of antibiotics didn't work. The infection got into bone & spread across my face & jaw, & around my orbital bone. Took some serious antibiotic treatment to curb it, but still left me with hearing loss in one side and months of check-ups on my eye to ensure I had no vision loss due to the infection eating a hole in my retina. I looked and felt like I caught the wrong end of a boxing bout. All because of an itsy bitsy spider.
We have had a large population explosion of Brown Widows,,, until recently I had never heard of a Brown one, only the Black Widows.
For Fire Ants, or ants in general, pour a fairly stout mixture of water and Blue Dawn Dishwashing detergent on the pile after you stir them up a bit. Kills em' dead.
I dare say I hate spiders almost as much as Magic hates sweetgum. The last few years there seems to have been an influx of brown recluse around here and they said it was due to our milder winters we'd been having, after this last winter I'm sure there was a population explosion if that's actually the case. I don't even know what one looks like but I have seen the effects from their bite and really hope I never run into one.
Never been bitten by a spider before but get ticks all the time, liquid soap( shampoo, liquid hand soap,etc) on a piece of gauze or cotton ball, hold over tick for upto 60 secs and so far they back out every time!!
We have an abundance of black widows around here. I have to get the house & shop sprayed every so often. The bug lady (our local pest control) says that any smooth shiny spider with big abdomen & thin legs around here is a relative of the widow. All have vicious bites. The spider in the pic looks just like our black widows. Most of them have a red hour glass on the belly but some do not. I'm lucky to have not been bitten, but I have seen them in my garage. They say the pain from a widow bite is worse than child birth.
Quote from: qbilder on June 04, 2012, 03:26:27 PM
They say the pain from a widow bite is worse than child birth.
Ouch,,, I don't wanna be in a situation of being able to compare those two !!
Sandhills, google brown recluse and click on images. They are about the size of a penny. Don't have big abdomen like a black widow. Behind the head and on the abdomin that have markings that look like a fiddle. The google images also showed results of bits.. not pretty.
The issue with spider venom is that the enzymes in it actually start to digest the flesh it's injected into.
So you end up with small area of dead and decaying tissue around the bite site. Sort of like gangrene. This is why they are so slow to heal, and so prone to secondary infections.
So yeah, if some mystery bite or sting is not healing, get proper medical attention as it's something that can develop into a serious wound.
Even spiders that are not usually considered dangerous to humans still have similar venom and can cause the same effect.
Ian
For spiders (usually garden spiders) and webs in the shop, I use Demon WP. A couple of applications per year usually keep them under control. Reading the label, it also sounds like some nasty stuff so I wear a Tyvek suit (from work) and a dust mask when I spray the stuff.
I don't think Cedar sawdust or chips will have any effect on ants. I cut down a large, dead Cedar that a storm had taken the top off. The main trunk was infested with blsck Carpenter ants. The heartwood had rotted like many large Cedars are prone to do and the ants moved in and made themselves at home.
Been there. About 15 years back I got bit while moving a load of treated SYP in from from NC, never did see the critter. I ended up with a crater the size of a quarter on my wrist. It took nearly a year to heal, and left a pretty good scar. Made me sicker than h... too. I did the antibiotic thing with it and about a month out the MDs decided it was a likely a brown recluse bite, nearly unheard of here in Maine.
Quote from: qbilder on June 04, 2012, 03:26:27 PM
The spider in the pic looks just like our black widows. Most of them have a red hour glass on the belly but some do not.
X 2 You better keep a watch on that bite... The spiders in your links are brown...the one that bit you looks black...Banjo
Treefeller, for sure, carpenter ants like to live in big cedar logs that are partly hollow because it is so easy for them to remove the doughty wood. But there are several other ant species that scientific research has shown will avoid cedar mulch. My question is what effect sawdust or cedar mulch will have on fire ants.
Quote from: Banjo picker on June 04, 2012, 09:24:06 PM
Quote from: qbilder on June 04, 2012, 03:26:27 PM
The spider in the pic looks just like our black widows. Most of them have a red hour glass on the belly but some do not.
X 2 You better keep a watch on that bite... The spiders in your links are brown...the one that bit you looks black...Banjo
No, it is my bad photography. The white paper towel in the sun fooled the auto shutter into closing too quickly. The result was a brown and tan spider that looked black. It was definitely brown and tan with a big belly........not a Recluse.
I had a buddy who's last digit on his right hand index finger was bitten by a brown recluse in the afternoon. He went to be early and by midnight almost died. They rush him to the hospital and the amputated the finger to save him.
Not saying it can't happen, although this is one reason I will seldom wear short sleeve shirts in the woods or when bucking up firewood, along with gloves. Another good reminder to shake out all bedding and clothes when camping.
Got stung on hand by some kind of yellow wasp yesterday. Never seen the nest until I got hit. Sprayed some scotch guard foaming fabric cleaner all over the nest (all I had) and it totally immobilized the wasps. I crushed the nest and wasps. But my hand is swollen so much today I can barely see my knuckles. And so itchy i'm going crazy. Glad it was me & not my 6 yr. old boy. I grew up in Ohio & bee stings hurt for a few minutes. Here in the desert, everything stings, bites or sticks & the pain lingers. Was sawing a maple log I had lying around for a few days & dang scorpions came crawling out from under the bark. Got some juniper & oak to saw that has been sitting for months & i'm half scared to touch them. All this talk of bugs & spiders is giving me the jeepers.
me too qbilder put on my welding helmet today little bug in it i guess but my mind said spider after reading these posts i guess. sure got that that helmet off in a hurry :D
Quote from: crosscut on June 05, 2012, 11:29:17 PM
me too qbilder put on my welding helmet today little bug in it i guess but my mind said spider after reading these posts i guess. sure got that that helmet off in a hurry :D
Any critter inside of a welding helmet always looks 40 times bigger than actual when it crawls into your field of vision. :)