Spiders in the car

[MichaelB]

This is a different sort of situation. DD#2 has spiders in her car (central Florida). It's been more than a year and she can't get rid of them. She has vacuumed the vents, door seals, underneath the seats. Had the interior cleaned twice. Sprayed the interior with a combination of peppermint oil and water, and set numerous bug traps. Nothing seems to have any lasting effect. No idea what kind of spider.

She is reluctant to use poison spray - she has a 1 year old baby and doesn't want him breathing residual toxic air. I offered to present this to the forum and ask for advice.

 

[Sunset]

Where is she parking her car ? Perhaps that is the real source of the spiders. Are there trees above her , or is it in a garage or carport ?

When she parks, does she leave windows open to provide easy access to the interior ?

A photo of the spiders would help and is important as some are very dangerous, while others are simply annoying/frightening.

 

[REWahoo]

I read a similar story. The solution was to take the car to a professional auto paint shop and pay them to run it through their paint drying process. As I understand it, the high temps will kill the spiders and their eggs.

 

[Dash man]

I read a similar story. The solution was to take the car to a professional auto paint shop and pay them to run it through their paint drying process. As I understand it, the high temps will kill the spiders and their eggs.

+1
I had a friend who did this in Texas when he had a problem with Brown Recluse spiders that have a nasty bite.

 

[sengsational]

I had a black widow in my car for a while. She and I kept to ourselves for a week or two. She kept spinning webs, and I kept cleaning them. I thought she'd die, but I kept finding webs. Finally, one day she made an ill-advised position change and I smushed her.

As to solving the OP's problem, I'm not sure how to do it.

When I first saw the thread topic, I wondered if the solution to "Snakes on a Plane" would work. I never saw the movie, so don't know how they did it.

 

[LOL!]

I suspect there is some exaggeration by daughter going on here. Let's see some photos.

In general, spiders are good because they eat the things that you don't really want in your car.

 

[flintnational]

I read a similar story. The solution was to take the car to a professional auto paint shop and pay them to run it through their paint drying process. As I understand it, the high temps will kill the spiders and their eggs.

It may take a solution like this. We had spiders on the exterior of our mountain house. We had to set up a spray program that killed the spiders and then we had to keep spraying to kill the hatched eggs. Killing the spiders but leaving the eggs will not fix the problem.

 

[aja8888]

I ran over a bees nest in the ground many years ago when I was visiting a friend's farm. When I got out of the car, I was being attacked by bees so I ran like heck to his house (stung a few times). The car windows were 1/2 open and the car filled with bees. I left it there overnight and the next morning (things subsided) we filled the inside through the windows with bee killer spray bomb. Dead bees were coming out of the vents for a few days afterward and scared the heck out of me and the (at the time) girlfriend.

Spiders? No help from me if chemicals are not to be used.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

I suspect there is some exaggeration by daughter going on here. Let's see some photos.

In general, spiders are good because they eat the things that you don't really want in your car.

What I really don’t want in my car is snakes.

Running a close second is spiders.

Especially a spider big enough to eat a snake.

 

[flintnational]

What I really don’t want in my car is snakes.

Running a close second is spiders.

Especially a spider big enough to eat a snake.

If the car has snakes, I would sell it. Come to think about it, I don't even want to participate in this thread now that it has snakes.

 

[Dash man]

If the car has snakes, I would sell it. Come to think about it, I don't even want to participate in this thread now that it has snakes.

I met a snake in my car once. He was an Air Force LtCol I gave a ride too when he first arrived at our base. Nastiest snake I ever met. Was hitting on every female NCO while his teacher wife was finishing a school year in Alabama. Never did like snakes.

 

[flintnational]

I met a snake in my car once. He was an Air Force LtCol I gave a ride too when he first arrived at our base. Nastiest snake I ever met. Was hitting on every female NCO while his teacher wife was finishing a school year in Alabama. Never did like snakes.

Did you sell the car? I really don't like snakes.

 

[jollystomper]

What I really don’t want in my car is snakes.

Running a close second is spiders.

Especially a spider big enough to eat a snake.

Sorry, could not help myself...

 

[ERD50]

Nothing a good Chicago winter wouldn't fix!

There are some advantages to a cold weather season.


-ERD50

 

[MRG]

I ran over a bees nest in the ground many years ago when I was visiting a friend's farm. When I got out of the car, I was being attacked by bees so I ran like heck to his house (stung a few times). The car windows were 1/2 open and the car filled with bees. I left it there overnight and the next morning (things subsided) we filled the inside through the windows with bee killer spray bomb. Dead bees were coming out of the vents for a few days afterward and scared the heck out of me and the (at the time) girlfriend.

Spiders? No help from me if chemicals are not to be used.

Spiders? Don't let my DW know. She'd likely jump out while driving.

When I was a kid logging, actually skidding trees out with a dozer, and another guy cutting trees it got weird. When I came out with a couple of trees his saw was ideling. Long time, a half an hour later he's in the same place and his saw is still idle?

I ran the machine down there; expecting the worst. I thought he'd felled a tree on himself and couldn't call for help.

He'd actually cut down a bee tree, had his saw running rich to smoke the bees. The guy had no bee equipment! He harvested about half, eventually cutting the hive portion off. I'm sure they swarmed afterwards.

He shared the bounty with the crew.

Unfortunately my vote would be poison. Only because of DWs phobia.

Oh Lord, I'd forgotten about the black snake my brother put in my glove box at our mill. He knew I kept my Camels in there and would reach for a smoke! I did.

Later in life I'm afraid I brought a small snapping turtle into work and put it in a guy's top desk drawer. He didn't see the humor!

The turtle ended up in the "trunk" of my 74 Beetle. The innovative snapper crawled down next to the firewall! It took a half a day to get him to bite a wooden spoon and pull him out!

No creatures were permanently hurt, however it's probably not the best idea to do that.

 

[harley]

I often have spiders in my Highlander. I haul yard debris to the landfill, and for a couple weeks after that I have webs in my car. Helps clear out the gnats and flies. But they're just yard spiders, not too big, and they don't bother me. I had one walking across the ceiling of my car once while I driving. I kept an eye on her in the rear view mirror to make sure she didn't drop down on my head. But once she was out of range I forgot about her.

I don't mind snakes either, but if I unexpectedly saw one in my car while driving I'd have a hard time pulling over safely. The startle reflex can be pretty powerful. Like the time I saw a mouse in the kitchen and jumped up on the counter. I've had pet mice, and am absolutely not afraid of them. But I still jumped.

As far as the OPs DD, I think the paint drying process is a good idea. Sitting in a car full of poison isn't my idea of fun.

 

[Gumby]

There is almost always a spider in my car. We also usually have one that lives next to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom (although it has disappeared recently). The young wife and I don't mind them at all.

 

[ocean view]

Nothing a good Chicago winter wouldn't fix!



There are some advantages to a cold weather season.





-ERD50

This ^^ was going to be my suggestion as well. Either take the car to the upper Mid-west in the dead of winter or Arizona in the middle of August. One of the two extremes will take care of the matter.

 

[Texas Proud]

I suspect there is some exaggeration by daughter going on here. Let's see some photos.

In general, spiders are good because they eat the things that you don't really want in your car.

Of the daughter or the spiders

 

[Texas Proud]

Do the spray.... heck, it is so diluted from what we used to have when I was doing pest control it is a joke... no toxic fumes to worry about... more than likely the heat and sun will destroy any poison in a couple of days, but it still is not an issue if it stayed longer...


BTW, the stuff I used to be covered with, sometimes from head to toe, is now considered so toxic that the people have to use bunny suits to remediate it today... and believe me that if you put this poison in certain places it is still there today 40 years later...

 

[audreyh1]

We've had a couple rattlesnakes in our car. Twice we transported one from our yard to a wild area a few miles away. They were in containers. Still makes the driver (me) a bit nervous.

 

[SheitlQueen]

Worst thing I ever had was a plate sized Huntsman spider on the dashboard of a Jeep we rented in the Cook Islands. These things are HUGE and I am terrified of spiders and here is this thing right in front of me. DH tried to squish it, but it went under my car seat. I spent the rest of the time with my legs up on the seat, afraid it was going to crawl on me.

 

[braumeister]

If you haven't seen this one, you're in for a treat.

 

[WestUniversity]

I'm surprised leaving the car parked in the hot sun with the windows rolled up wouldn't kill it. I would think that amount of heat would kill almost anything...

 

[HadEnuff]

I'm surprised leaving the car parked in the hot sun with the windows rolled up wouldn't kill it. I would think that amount of heat would kill almost anything...

Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe after a few hours of that turning on the heat full blast for a while to get the ducts.