spiders???

[cherriesanglea]

anyone know if spiders can hurt my birds? i have seen a few small to med sized black spiders have no idea what type of spider they are but they are all over my house and i know that i cant spray my house without harming my birds what should i do???

[Courtzrocks]

I don't know? Not sure what the normal house spiders look like in america? We have huntsman spiders here, not dangerous but can get pretty big and scary looking and can give a painful bite if they need too but will not take on something they can't eat (my birds are safe, even the gecko's are safe). My tactic...throw things til they're on the floor then jump on the bed/table/chair and throw encyclopedias and shoes at them til they're dead. But hopefully someone will come up with something better.

[red192]

Courtz you are braver than me! I won't go near one to kill it! And when someone does kill it, I've gotta see the body to believe it that it's dead! LOL

[nvranemptynest]

OMG! Courtz, I am in tears laughing! I love your method of pest control. After having a bout with the brown recluse in the house, I have to examine them closely to make sure they are not poisonous, then I sick either a cat or dog on them. I trained the U2 to scream, "Bug!" whenever she sees them. Sometimes I feel like the ringmaster of my own private little circus here...lolol. None of this helps the original poster, though!

The vacuum is probably the best non-chemical defense.

[red192]

Originally Posted by nvranemptynest

The vacuum is probably the best non-chemical defense.

my luck it would leave an egg sack in there and babies would take over my vacuum and someone would finally miss me when I didn't show up for work cos I passed out of sheer fright! I DON'T DO SPIDERS!

[DarwinTheSun]

I wouldn't worry about spiders, they are not racing around aiming to bite people (funnel webs excluded...they are a bit over sexed). The only one you have to worry about for your birds in the US is the 4-5 species of black widow we have (they are black and make cobwebs). Recluses are not dangerous to birds, only humans that react to the bites (and those are over diagnosed).

I happily live with all the spiders around my house, or I take them outside if they are inhabiting the wrong place (the shower...). If you kill them, don't complain about the other bugs around your house!

[shibatimes3]

LOL! I am laughing at this thread as Peaches ate a small little spider the other day without me knowing it and I have been watching her like a hawk, scared it would hurt her! So far so good though! I think the spraying would be more harmful than the spiders?

[nvranemptynest]

"The only one you have to worry about for your birds in the US is the 4-5 species of black widow we have (they are black and make cobwebs). Recluses are not dangerous to birds, only humans that react to the bites (and those are over diagnosed)."


I have no idea what affect they may have on birds, but I am now quite paranoid about both spiders. When I was bitten by a black widow I felt like I had the flu/stomach virus for a couple days...not too big a deal to me...but I wouldn't chance them getting near the birds. The brown recluse (not even indigenous to our area) bites were the worst! Before I knew what the bites were, I treated them at home (lol...doctors say can't be done). My son was the first with 3 bites on his legs. He ran a fever and the bites became swollen and inflamed. Pulling dead tissue from my son was no fun! I won't expand on details here lolol! Suffice it to say he is scarred. Anyway, all but my husband were bitten & we went on a mad search of the house. The carpet had been pulled up for a bit to replace it, so the subfloor was bare. We found a nest and fully examined them, so we know exactly what hit us. Lol...after the hell we endured, I wouldn't chance them around the birds no matter what. I don't become paranoid about things easily, but there are certain creatures (big & small) around here for which I have a "very healthy respect".

[birdsnreps]

please dont ever let your birds play anywhere where you even think there might be spiders!! i lost a blue and gold to a spider bite, im confident thats what it was. she was over a year old, perfectly healthy, never had any probs wtih her. then after an afternoon of hanging out on the back patio,that night she started loosing her balance and acting a little sick, then the next morning she started having horrible diarrhea and vomiting, and then suddenly she was gone, in like half a day :( i didnt even have time to do anything for her :( i didnt see any spiders in or around her cage, but we live right next to a creek and lots of bushy trees, and down where we live, black widows and brown recluses are common.

[Courtzrocks]

We had a labrador that would play with spiders...but then he would kill them by rolling on them. Would try to make them play again but nope, dead as a door nail.

Yeah, we have nasty spiders here...The only ones I let live in the house are the daddy long legs (harmless to anything bigger than an insect) as they kill the redbacks and tiny ones in webs...as long as they stay near their webs..if I see them away from their webs, they're dead. Huntsmans are just big and scary, they're the scream and throw whatever you can at them ones cos they don't have webs, they walk/run where they please..yuck!