Arachnophobia got me down... Spraying for pest near reef tanks?

[Curtis Scott]

Maybe someone has dealt with this issue before.

 

I just found a couple black widows* in my reef tank room. Looks like for-going the pest control this year has just back fired on me. 

 

Planning on having pest control come spray outside my house ASAP this week.

 

Keeping my reef tank in mind, what are my best options for inside my home? Anything I should or should not be allowing the pest control guys to use around my tank?

 

*If there were just regular spiders I wouldn't mind

[treesprite]

If you are having spraying indoors where you might touch sprayed surfaces, be extra careful about washing your hands before putting them in the tank.

[gmerek2]

Here is all i know on the spider. most of this you probably already know.They aren't as aggressive as in the movies lol.Afraid of people they run and only bite as a last resort (if teeth even developed enough) They are rarely fatal and identification often mistaken. My wife works in the ER almost 10 years now and has only seen one real bite despite the 100s that come in claiming they have been bit. These people usually get diagnosed with a skin cyst or herpies not saying I would want to live with them either hehe but I would kill them with a newspaper and possibly treat the outside. I would worry about overspray, setting a bucket unknowingly on the poison spray trail, a poisoned bug crawling in the tank to seek the light then dying and what treesprite said.

[surf&turf]

Just spraying won't kill them, our pest control person told us, spiders don't clean themselves and their long legs keep them up out of the poison. Good luck, we just smash the ones that make it into the house and leave the rest outside to catch bugs.

[londonloco]

When we had our addition built, we gave the contractors the use of our basement, and they left the door open, a lot.  I had a BIG spider problem that year.  Our pest control company put down spider traps.  They are open ended small cardboard boxes, the insides are lined with glue with something else mixed in the glue that draws a spider to them, when the spider enters them they get stuck and can't get out.  They work fairly well, took a few weeks and I saw a marked decline in spider activity.  We also had a garden snake come in and lay eggs.  We knew this because one day we found 6 baby snakes stuck inside one of the boxes.  Never found mama tho.....

 

[Curtis Scott]

If you are having spraying indoors where you might touch sprayed surfaces, be extra careful about washing your hands before putting them in the tank.

 

Good point.

 

Here is all i know on the spider. most of this you probably already know.They aren't as aggressive as in the movies lol.Afraid of people they run and only bite as a last resort (if teeth even developed enough) They are rarely fatal and identification often mistaken. My wife works in the ER almost 10 years now and has only seen one real bite despite the 100s that come in claiming they have been bit. These people usually get diagnosed with a skin cyst or herpies not saying I would want to live with them either hehe but I would kill them with a newspaper and possibly treat the outside. I would worry about overspray, setting a bucket unknowingly on the poison spray trail, a poisoned bug crawling in the tank to seek the light then dying and what treesprite said.

 

That is a little reassuring, thanks.

 

Just spraying won't kill them, our pest control person told us, spiders don't clean themselves and their long legs keep them up out of the poison. Good luck, we just smash the ones that make it into the house and leave the rest outside to catch bugs.

 

Another good point.

 

When we had our addition built, we gave the contractors the use of our basement, and they left the door open, a lot.  I had a BIG spider problem that year.  Our pest control company put down spider traps.  They are open ended small cardboard boxes, the insides are lined with glue with something else mixed in the glue that draws a spider to them, when the spider enters them they get stuck and can't get out.  They work fairly well, took a few weeks and I saw a marked decline in spider activity.  We also had a garden snake come in and lay eggs.  We knew this because one day we found 6 baby snakes stuck inside one of the boxes.  Never found mama tho.....

 

Can you remember which traps they used? The ones online have some mixed reviews and exterminators usually have better ones.

 

----

 

Thanks everyone!

 

After posting this thread, I did some additional research and found out spray or anything toxic like that is not a good idea at all for inside a house when you have a reef tank. I have decided to have the outside sprayed and simply put down glue traps inside near my tank and around the basement. 

[londonloco]

I'm sorry, I don't have any left.  I think we just went to Lowes and bought more.  I know the pest control co we used did not put anything down that would have harmed our dogs, cats or fish tanks inside the house.  I had them many many years.

[sachabballi reef]

amazon sells them just search spider traps

[hawkfish01]

Hardware stores(hd,lowes) also sell them....be in same place as ant bait etc..

[wangspeed]

Spray outside to keep the non-spiders from entering.  Makes it less desirable for spiders indoors.  The spray itself won't kill spiders, like folks are saying.