Any of you guys have moderate to heavy level problems with spiders in/around your layouts?
And what do you guys do about these pesky little [censored]
Im preparing my garage for a layout, and found at least one rather large shivers and a few others that I thought were black widows, but turned out to be whats called a ‘false black widow’ that happens to prew on the real ones.
If you model the '50’s, you could get a video camera and make some '50’s-style “Giant Spider” horror movies in whatever scale you model [:D]
Dian:
I first tried to train the spiders to run power lines, but they insisted on union scale wages. Then I got me some Hot Shot bug bombs and set them off. I only have occasional webs now. You will need to do this every two-three months. No bad residue or smell after a few hours.
REX
Gee Rex, the NLRB is going to get you for not negotiating in good faith, and will have to shut down the railroad and confiscate all your equipment!
On a more serious note good luck in controlling the “critters”, sounds loke Rex has a solution (Just don’t make the spiders any offers that can come back to haunt you later!)
Will
I have to bomb my basement every mid-to-late August. We get earwigs, centipedes, spiders of several types, and black crickets. The latter start making so much noise by the time I decide to deal with them that you can’t hear the TV.
Raid makes small canister bombs that you sit in 1/4" of water in a provided plastic cup. Open up the layout if you have removable mountains and skirting around any storage below, open drawers and cupboards, seal the room by closing windows and exits, and let 'er rip. Come back in four hours, air out the space, and you have the con…for now.
Depending on your building construction, you may have to do this once every two or three months.
The bugs at my house change from year to year, but luckilly, they are mostly outside pests.
Be careful about what you spray inside…many aresols WILL HARM PLASTICS on direct contact!
Try to prevent the aresol bug bombs from contacting your layout directly. Cover it with a sheet to prevent the droplets from contacting your layout directly!
As far as the spiders…they are a good thing! They kill the bad bugs! [;)]
Dian…not sure where you are at, but don’t be fooled…Black Widows aren’t fun to have around…what you think aren’t just might be!
Rotor
Dian
I think we all have had a problem with critters that lurk in the dark. I have an occasional Black Widow of which grabs my undivided attention. Glad to hear yours dont have the red hour glass and bad dispositions. I have a pest control company spray every other month and also set off a cannister in the train room when ever her relitives drop in for a visit.
The room type cannasters as mentioned above work great, if two would work for the square footage, I use three, its cheap insurance…Take care…john
Hotshot spray under the benchwork, then brushing with a small dusting broom around the top of the layout. I get them BAD, mostly cob spiders, they eat everything else…widows included.
Oh yea. The little devils I have are tiny, but they can sure make a mess if I don’t stay after them… Several months ago, I got busy with other things and hadn’t ran my trains for a couple of weeks. One day, I went out to my train room to get something and decided to run the train that was on the tracks around the layout a few times. When the head loco emerged from the tunnel after the first lap, it had cob webs all over it, so I pulled the backing off the mountain and looked inside and it was a mass of spider webs inside. It was a lot of fun cleaning it out (NOT!), but I learned a lesson from it.
Death to all spiders!..
Tracklayer
Well, living in Corvallis, Oregon. So theres only a couple spiders that are harmfull… The Black Widow, and the Hobo spider (lol). While clearing out half the garage that will soon hold a 20’ x ~12’ layout, a couple of those black widows stired out. So I investigated them all online, and like I said… The ones I found were in fact “false black widows” that actually prey on the real ones (and the hobo’s too, phew). Dont get me wrong, we still have the real ones, but as I have read (and being an Oregon resident 25+years and never seen one that I know of) they are rare occurances.
Lucky, the old owners of the house had completly insolated and sheetrocked the entire garage walls and celing, so its sealed up very well. I guess my only concern is if the bags on my 2hp dust collector will need upgraded to a higher cfm.
– I had the idea of running some sort of plumming within the garage walls with automatic insectiside sprayers, so every few weeks the inner walls could get a little blast [tup]
But, the walls are already finished :-/
I’ve got a spider story for you Dian.
A couple of years ago, I was cleaning my dog kennels, and took one of my dogs out to leash him to a tree out in the front yard until I got his kennel cleaned. Well, there was a big yellow and black garden spider hanging in a web that I didn’t see, and I walked right into it and it popped me on the neck then fell to my feet. The bite was like a bee sting, and I grabbed my throat and started freaking out because I had no idea of what the effects were. So I ran in and got on the web and looked it up. As it turned out the bite is harmless - but the panick attack I had was much worse on me than the bite…
We have a lot of black widows and brown recluses around these parts. As a matter of fact, I’ve killed both in the past out in what is now my train room over the years. So I always check before
Yes, I know what you mean… was it one of those ‘banana spiders’ ?
We were living outside Baton Rouge, LA well, actually, outside St. Francisville, at Lake Rosemond. Seen plenty of the brown recluse, and those big black/yellow spiders, they called Banana Spiders. Massive things, nearly the size of tarantulas, really… just not as fat and hairy… shivers
Woke up one morning, stepped outside to the back deck as usual, and noticed my empty feeder fi***ank I keep goldfish in to feed my other fish, had a screen top on it, and a coiled snake inside! Well, the wife had apparently an hour before caught a cotton mouth just off the back deck. was about a 4’ snake.
Glad I don’t live there anymore.
But I can relate to looking before I stick my head or hands anywhere… I’m not terrified of spiders, but don’t get me wrong… I most certainly get some strange adrenalin rush out of them, and then paranoia sets in!
…and my forst thought was “Find out what they’re eating, get rid of that and the spiders will follow”. Shows how much I know!
Another use for empty fi***anks…
set one up as a vivarium, label it for the nastiest spider you can think of, add “CAUTION! ENSURE LID IS ON TIGHT” sign and leave lid slightly off… I knew someone who tried this after he kept getting burgled (burglarised?). CD etc stayed put but his girlfriend left screaming and never came back.
Some people just won’t listen to rational explanations.
Had a similar thing happen to me, but my engine came out of the tunnel sputtering (with cobwebs). It finally stopped running and I had to pull it apart. It had run over a spider in the tunnel and its remains had got caught up in the wheels and gears. That was an unusual cleaning job. Yuck!
Yes, we have a clubhouse that has to be treated twice yearly right before our May and November open houses to get rid of black widow and spitting spiders. I usually purchase one of those 3 or 4 packs of aerosol bug bombs and set them about a week before the open house, and then post a notice on the front door for other members to keep out for a couple of days.
Be sure to remove any foodstuffs or pet foods from the area if you decide to try this treatment.
I had a BAD problem with em. I went around and caulked all the little gaps in my buildings walls. Bought GOOD bug bombs and set one off a month.(keep it aimed away from the layout and it should be no problem). Bought Ortho Home Defence spray.
Sprayed the base of the walls inside and out about once a month and the underside of the layout.(that’s where they hang out most of the time.)It sounds like a lot of work but it’s easier than cleaning em off the layout all the time.
Got bit on the leg by a brown recluse years ago. Almost lost my leg. It swelled up and turned black. NOT much fun.
put one on the track and make sure the others see u run him over with a loco the others wont ever bother u again
Works fine for O & HO, but the spiders have a better chance of winning in N & Z. [:0][(-D]
wow, am i ever surprised, never knew there was such problems with bugs, in the 10 years that my layout stood for, only once did we find a bug on it, it was a potato bug on the track… thing is, we tore down the layout this past spring, the layout had stood still for about 5 years,not a single train on it, and the tunnels and buildings were all bug free…
Dian - I have found that there are two advantages to living in the Florida Keys. 1 - You never have a boring hurricane season and 2 - Our house is a safe haven for lizards and geckos. We live in a large wooden A frame house on pilings surrrounded by a jungle litterally. We find little tiny gecko eggs on the floor almost daily from new hatchings. About twice a week we have to fish a new born out of the sink because they can’t climb out. Anyway the point to all of this is they eat all the bugs in the house. We leave the porch lite on at nite and watch them snag bugs constantly. As a result never have seen a spider in the house. We do get scorpions once in a while however, apparently to big for the geckos to eat. If you want I can send you some of the little guys and they can live on your layout. Give them some place to sleep and a little light and they would take care of your spiders.
Terry and WILMA for now