Is there any suggested way to keep spider and other insect population down in a basement setting? I'm building a layout in my basement and the constant spiders/spiderwebs are getting annoying. Is there any way to remove and keep away the spiders and other insects effectivly?
If you mean other than calling in a professional exterminator, you might try some of the aerosol fumigation bug bombs by Black Flag in packages of 3 per. Wal-mart usually has these in the garden area.
You will need some way of sealing off the basement for a day or so when you set these things off, though, and be extremely careful if you have a gas water heater or any other device with a pilot light. Read the directions very carefully before purchase.
A less hazardous treatment would be to get a product called Home Defense or Home Pest Control that come in spray bottles and apply spot treatments. Wear a good respirator and don't go into the basement after treatment for at least one day.
No matter what you try, your biggest problem is going to be keeping the product from seeping into the upstairs and making people ill.
I was figuring they make things to kill the spiders that are there, but I need something that will keep them away... Also I would like something safe, fairly fume free, and pet friendly even though no pets will be in the basement, just being causcious.
I would start with a household ant spray. Get the kind that you spray around baseboards, and is generally safe for using in the kitchen, etc. Treat the basement floor, around any windows, and also outside around the whole foundation.
Remember, spiders are carnivorous. It's hard to poison them, because they won't eat that kind of stuff, so the approach I'm suggesting is to go after their food supply. You might also put out some ant poison, because you might get lucky and have the spider catch a few bugs after they've partied on the free banquet. Some fly paper might help, too, to pick up any airborne dinner for your spider population.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
True, eleminate there food why would they stay... Another big factor is that in my area the winters are colder and alot of insects come in from the cold looking for somewhere warm to stay...
Eliminating the food source won't work. Spiders are dumb. They will spin a web and hang on it till they starve to death. Doesn't eliminate the web problem. Here's what you need.http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/spiders.htmMost chemicals won't effect spiders. Certain spiders like widows and recluse require a special chemical just for their species. I've only seen one brand of bug bomb that says it will kill spiders. (forget which brand??) And this won't leave a residue to keep them from coming back. A powdered perimeter chemical seems to work best. Bad thing is most spiders don't always walk on the ground to get into your home. (through the chemical) They are VERY hard to keep out.You should see the big honkin spiders I'm seeing on my new job!! One was about 4" across and looked like one of those rubber joke spiders!
Raid is a Johnson & Johnson product line. They make a blue box filled with three small plastic cups holding a canister. The product is called "Fumigator". They are made in Canada, but cannot be sold here. So, my Dad, a snow-bird living in Arizona for several weeks of the year, brings them up for me. He gets them at Wal Mart.
You must expect to isolate a defined space...close doors and keep children and pets out. You displace any suspended ceiling tiles, open cupboard doors, pull open drawers, and spread out any piles of stuff so that air can get into them. You then place a tbsp or two of water in the plastic cup, remove the paper cover from perforations on one end of the canister, and insert the canister into the water, perforations down. In seconds, you'll hear a puff and a hiss, and fumes will begin to issue from the canister. That is your cue to leave, barring the entrance. You return four hours later, air out the room(s), close things up, and vacuum up all the arthropods that have dragged themselves out into the open. In an active reproduction cycle, you might be wise to repeat the process in about two-three weeks to get any new hatchlings.
Insects get in through gaps in your sill-plate, dryer hose vent, open windows, up under siding and through the vapour barrier, under your two or three main doors,...the list goes on. You'll never be completely bug free.
Finally, for a warm and fuzzy statistic....you are never more than three feet away from a spider.
-Crandell
I use a product I spray around the outside of my house at the foundation and it works for at least thee months,I buy it at Walmart in the garden section.
I also spray it around the window frames, etc.
I have a large basement and I don't have any spiders or other critters at all and my house is 22 years old.
Thanks for the information, I'll probably try a few things. They are not bothering me too much at the present but I'm worried about the future when the layout begins to take shape I don't want insects invading my minature world and taking up residence in my buildings/locomotive and such.
I would suggest you get a bunch of little army men and maybe a few fighter jets to take out the little suckers!!!
Mainetrains
'there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear' Modeling the Hard Knox Valley Railroad in HO scale http://photos.hardknoxvalley.com/
I tried to find the bottle of stuff with the sprayer, but I must have used it up and tossed it out.I was going to give you guys the name of it, but now I can't remember what it was.It was a big plastic bottle with it's own hose and sprayer attachment.I spray around my foundation and all my windows , especially the basement windows, and any openings( gas, dryer vent, etc.).It's guaranteed to work at least three months.I did buy it at Walmart
The K4Kid
TheK4Kid I tried to find the bottle of stuff with the sprayer, but I must have used it up and tossed it out.I was going to give you guys the name of it, but now I can't remember what it was.It was a big plastic bottle with it's own hose and sprayer attachment.I spray around my foundation and all my windows , especially the basement windows, and any openings( gas, dryer vent, etc.).It's guaranteed to work at least three months.I did buy it at Walmart The K4Kid
That's probably either Spectracide or Ortho Home Defence. Wally World sold both of those in gallons like you described.
The most effective method I have found for spider control is something called a spiderswatter and another instrument called a broom. A spiderswatter bears a remarkable similiarity to a good old-fashioned flyswatter which can be used in a pinch.
WHEN YOU FIND'EM SWAT'EM!!! WHEN YOU FIND THEIR WEB BROOM'EM!!!
Keep in mind that the above advice only applies if you are
smarter than a 5th grader
You need to do this house-wide! You want them to vacate the property! You don't want to chase them out of the train room into the closets.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Interfering with webs does work, but it does require constant interference. I had a property out near Mudgee, and if you followed the tracks of the local wildlife it was ok, but off 'the beaten track' was like a Spielberg movie. We could keep the critters away by swatting the webs for a while, but if you took a break for a couple of weeks it was like you never tried. This stuff is available in the YouEss and may be worth a shot;http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/SPEC/pick-cobweb1.htm
Indoors is a different situation, but the above process should work. Locally we have a couple of products that have a timed burst of standard insecticide, the unit mounts on the wall and has a battery and a replaceable pressure pack of bug spray. It can be set to go off at various intervals. Personally I would turn it off while in the room, but....
My current method is Ortho Home Defense and I also knock down to disturb the webs. I spray once a month around the eaves, windows, doors, and baseboards. I also have a spa and gazebo that attract the buggers. I do use the bombs occasionally but unless you buy the residue free you will be cleaning your layout including track. I did run across a rather large black widow and a brown widow and the Ortho worked but it seemed to take some extra spraying. My neighbor has a service come in and spray the house and yard so I attempt to time my duties with them.
The Ortho is not 100% but between that and knocking down the webs I have reduced their presence.
John
Hi loathar,
You jogged my memory!
It was the Ortho Home defense!
Thanks!
Ed
well if you have cracks in your walls or floors, you better get some sealer, as for bugs, keep a sweeper down there...
hello there, I don't know how well this will work, but I have heard that if you place hedge apples around your home it will keep spiders and insects at bay. I have never tried it yet, have been wanting to though.
Things that didn't work:
Asking them politely to remain outdoors.
Sending a note to their mothers.
Offering free transportation to someone else's layout.
Teaching them to use their web building materials to secure scenic elements on the layout.
Threatening to arrest them for trespassing on railroad property.
Buying plastic spiders dressed in provocative atire to distract the males into the seedier side of the basement where they are set upon by larger spiders.
Chicken. Ok, this works outside to control ticks for a dog breeder I saw on TV this morning, but a chicken patroling your layout poses it's own problems.
Praying manti. They tend to wander very slowly around the layout and have no sense of approaching trains.
Have I been any help? I hope not!
Plus I believe it is illegal to trap a praying mantis. Now, if you pay it for the work, it might be ok. But if one shoudl get hit by a train, the scale OSHA is gonna be all over you. Especially if your crossing signals are non-operational.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I would suppose the fact that I don't even have crossing signals makes it worse. I could always employe one of them as the crossing gate, every time a train comes they can step out in the middle of the road... Sure there is a litle occupational hazzard but they can eat all the spiders they want for free!