Spiders infestation

[GuernseyFrench]

I have had troubles with spiders in the garden for a few years but now with DS starting to be in the garden playing with the lawn, I want to sort it out.

The spiders are quite little, black with short legs. We do have a nest as every years they start carrying eggs.

I get allergies to their bites and do not want DS to be 'attacked'

Do you have any remedies to either move them away or kill them?

PS yes I know spiders are good but not when there are so many of them.

Are you sure they are spiders and not ants? (I'm assuming you are in the UK)

jen I live in the Channel Islands and yes I'm sure they are spiders

I'm slightly scared of spiders although not out of doors because I understand that's where they belong and I can walk away from them.

I'm not trying to be unsympathetic but this is nuts! Of course there is no way of getting rid of spiders in the garden, since they don't bite humans how can ds be 'attacked'?

I don't get it, do you have weird spiders in the Channel Islands?

Maybe this is a joke?

it's not a joke, it's serious but I see I can't get any help here!

Guernsey, I'm guessing English is not your first language.

What you say sounds sensible for 'ants', but ridiculous for 'spiders', as the other ladies have said.

So maybe demonstrate, (perhaps with a Google image?) what these small black human attacking, egg carrying, garden nesting ants spiders really are?

I was alarmed by what the op said about biting and carrying eggs etc. so I checked for native species of spiders that do this and couldn't find any hence the questions.
As you said spiders are good for killing flies so I've never seen any insecticides specifically for killing spiders but I would have thought ant powder (not being sarcastic) would work on them, sprinkle it where you see them most often, might reduce the population a bit.

You're being a bit mean on the OP. My sister has terrible trouble with spiders under her decking. They are EVERYWHERE. If I had her garden, I'd be posting this question on here too.

OP sorry to make you but I still think this is nuts!

I don't believe that they bite, I think you just don't like them. It seems cruel to try and kill spiders in the garden

of course spiders bite.. DP has had many a spider bite, but only when we lived in our spider-infested house

OP-you need to find the spider nests and get rid of them (small tiny white things that look like the end of cotton buds, but bigger. Find something that eats spiders and introduce to your garden.

Of course, you'll then have the problem of finding something that eats the thing that eats the spider, and then...

oh, you get my point

Thanks Jareth it nice to see that it does exist, especially after reading some of the comments.

can't help myself...

biting spides in the UK

Note - it's only 1 out of 640 species. Most spiders in the UK (unlike here in Australia, for e.g.) do not possess gnashers capable of piercing human skin - so even though they have big fangs and carry venom, they are harmless to humans.

However - they are spreading around...

I think that BBC article is a little out of date. According to the natural history museum there are a dozen or more species of biting spider in the UK.
www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/identification-guides-and-keys/spider-bite s/

For the record I've been bitten by a spider before. Horrible bite too, it left a puss filled lump that took weeks to heal.

I don't really see what everyone's finding so strange about this post

Have had another careful look at your article and still cannot pick out the spider which ties to these comments from the OP.

"The spiders are quite little, black with short legs. We do have a nest as every years they start carrying eggs."

"I get allergies to their bites "

You however got an unlucky nasty poisoned bite, similar to some of the reports of incidents from NHM. I really don't find that strange at all. Also Jareth's DH seems to have been bitten indoors. I understand the eggs are in the cotton puff things she refers to, not loose and carried from place to place. Not strange either.

But - the annual habits,the outdoor-ness, the egg carrying , the 'allergy' , from the OP are "strange" to me, and don't really relate to any of this NHM stuff at all in my view.

I looked at the site some days ago and didn't find any picture or report that was relevant. Maybe there's something I've missed.non broken link

Although Thumbwitches link does show that there is a single biting spider in the in a few spots of the UK, it also says it's not a bad bite and the chances of coming across it is remote! Let alone a whole bunch of them. So I think it would be perfectly safe to go out in the garden without trying to zap the insects that live there.

Um, hate to say this but I have 2 spider horror stories, in one of them I was bitten and it didn't look like Thumbwitches spider either! It was one of these

Guernseyfrench, Any chance you could take a photo and upload it to your profile so we can have a look? I do believe you about the biting etc, my hand blew up like a balloon after I was bitten....

But the spiders in the links aren't 'quite little, black with short legs'.

No I know seashore, but I'm just pointing out that there are other spiders on the mainland and throughout the Channel Islands that do bite and cause a nasty reaction.

Have a look at Catinthehats link, it shows a lot of biting spiders here in the UK.

As an aside there is a plug in repeller that you can buy to repell spiders, It emits a noise that the spiders don't like so they leave the area

I'm actually afraid of spiders, I was able to look at Thumbwicthes link cause that spider wasn't too big but another link there (was is Catinthehats?) opened with a huge wolf spider and I just shut it off! Scary! I'm not as scared of them as I used to be but I can't look at that picture [embarrassed]

Thats ok seashore, don't be embarassed! Without you having to look, catinthehats link shows lots of spiders that can cause a painful problematic bite. ( probably not helping, sorry). I dislike spiders, especially the really big ones. I hope the op comes back and has a look at the list to id which spider shes got, I'm intreged now!

Actually I was wondering if it might have been a nest of ticks and not spiders at all that the op has? They are 'quiet little, black with short legs', currently I have a tick bite on my ankle, it's so itchy, awful I don't know if ticks carry their eggs around? Ants do if their nest is disturbed.

OP do you think they were ticks?

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! OMG?????? Have you heard of lymes disease????? Do you feel ill????

www.ndsc.ie/hpsc/A-Z/Vectorborne/LymeDisease/Publications/File,1821,en.pdf

Do you have a bullseye mark anywhere???

Read this too..

www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/lymedisease.htm

You have just described my WORST nightmare.

Sorry if I've freaked you out at all but Lymes disease is not well known about in your area and it can be devastating!!!!

Read up and get yourself checked out! Hope You are ok!

Aah thanks KAQ, it's ok, don't worry,this was just a regular little tick,it was so tiny it had just hatched so I won't get any infection cause it hadn't bitten anything else but they are awful things and the bite mark stays itchy for ages I know about lymes diease, it's from deer ticks which are much bigger and a different colour, actually we have them in this area and I've seen their ticks in the grass but luckily I haven't been bitten by them yet! I know lymes disease can cause blindness (the author Alice Walker contracted lymes diease from deer ticks). The deer tick problem is relatively new in this area, two deer escaped from a national park and now the place is teaming with them! Rutting season is a bit scary!

I'm going to check your links to find out more though, thanks