Attack spider?

[stuckmotor]

We're reluctant to use insecticides to kill ants in the kitchen and have unsuccessfully tried several alternatives, from vinegar to cucumber peels. Today, I noticed that the parade behind the sink had slowed to two or three ants. There was a little spider on a web above the parade route so, wanting to observe further, I put a note requesting that the spider not be killed.

It's probably wishfull thinking on my part that the aunts are afraid of the spider. I've seldom even seen an aunt in a web. Has anyone noticed that aunts avoid spiders?

 

[topbuilder]

My aunt gets on a chair and screams. She avoids them at all costs...

 

[topbuilder]

Yeah, she was a spinster. Never got close to a web though. Made us kids clean 'em up.

 

[davesl708]

My aunt just kills the spider. Use Simple Green to kill them on the spot.

 

[stuckmotor]

All there's replies were funny. The attack spider probably isn't going to work out though. I went back into the kitchen shortly after typing the origonal message and the spider was gone. Maybe the ants got him.

 

[DrRod]

we once had a pet frog, which means you have to keep a cricket farm. In fact, I spent much more time raising crickets than anyone ever spent with the frog. But one night in the middle of the night I went down the hall to the bathroom where the frog and crickets resided and noticed a nice straight line of big black ants marching down the middle of the hall. Once in the bathroom, I saw a prehistoric battle between ants and crickets. The ants were winning and carrying off the dead crickets to their nest [which is another story]. So even if the spider was still around, I'd bet on the ants.

 

[westcliffe01]

I have seen the battle between a black widow spider and a cockroach many times its size. Once that black widow got its fangs into a joint on one of the cockroaches legs, it was over. Clearly that venom is exceedingly potent.

 

[oldballs]

Let me guess.........your aunt is a black widow. Okay, I'll go to another thread.:thumbdown:

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have heard that you are never more than 7 feet from a spider anywhere you are. I would think outside in the grass you would be much closer. Ants can usually dispatch much larger creatures due to overwhelming numbers on the attack.

 

[turnkey4099]

I had to dispatch one yesterday. Ready step in the shower, opened curtain and a big 'wolf type' spider was running around trying to climb out. DThat think was FAST! Took me some time before I finally caught him in a wad of toilet paper. Sent him on his happy trails down the toilet.

 

[bigdeano]

Boric acid powder is supposed to work on ants I think. They track it back to their nest where it kills them. Just going from memory, so read up on it.

 

[stuckmotor]

Ho's

Boric acid powder is supposed to work on ants I think. They track it back to their nest where it kills them. Just going from memory, so read up on it.

I believe my brother tried boric acid last year for an extended period. The ants marched right on. These ants are in the home of my 90 year old mother who's an invalid. My brother lives with her, so he calls the shots.

 

[stuckmotor]

The spider is back. I don't see any exoskeletons in the web but the ant parade has continued to deminish. Time will tell whether they return. For now, I'm protecting the spider.

 

[JRobyn]

Maybe try diatomaceous earth. I put a tablespoon or so in the cut-off bottom of a solo cup with a drop of honey in the middle as an attractant. Supposedly kills anything with an exoskeleton, but harmless (even beneficial) to mammals. It cut WAY down on our ladybug problem.

 

[bigdeano]

Sometimes I get tiny ants in the kitchen looking for food. I spray around the foundation and back door (outside) with malathion. Knocks them right out. I mix up a gallon in my pump up sprayer. Costs very little.