[onebadmerc]

I have a question about working on a crusty, dirty, spiders infested engine compartment. I am working on a 73 Mustang that has not been started for 20 years and was wondering about getting spider bites. I bought a box of latex gloves to keep the grease off my hands, but will they protect you from a spider bite. Can a black widow or a brown recluse bite through latex gloves while I am reaching around in this engine compartment?????I know they are there, I have killed three black widows already while sorting through parts in the trunk and changing the tires. My girlfriend told me to put a bug bomb in the engine compartment and in the car before I start. I did this to my house this fall before winter and ended up with more spiders than I had before. Does anybody know what to do and will the latex gloves be ok for this??????

 

[lowROLLERchevy]

latex isnt any tougher then skin, so dont expect the gloves to save your hands

 

[mhamilton]

Yikes... if they're in the trunk, they're almost certainly inside the car too. You couldn't pay me to go inside that!

I would definitely do a bug bomb or something. Moth balls are good to keep anything away, but I would tent the car and do a bomb, or even use another car exhaust to gas them. Just kill them all, you won't have to worry about the gloves.

 

[poncho62]

Would hosing down the engine compartment not work....You know, "Down came the rain, and washed the spider out"

and, the rest of the car for that matter

 

[onebadmerc]

It definitely needs to be power washed. I have my dads 4hp gas powered pressure washer setting in my garage but I was waiting for nicer weather to pull it out. I hate spiders, especially black widows, and this car already had three too many. I will teach those little bugers if I get the motor started and BBQ them with a nice hot engine and transmission.

 

[RGassman]

re: Working on spider infested engines

Put a plastic tent over it, bug bomb it then pressure wash, wash it last so you wash the bug bomb poison off, you really don't want to breath that stuff at all. And you don't want those spiders jumping ship and moving into your home or other places in the shop.

 

[41willys]

Gas and a match will work too, maybe too good.

 

[farna]

You didn't really get more spiders when you "bug bombed" the house -- they just moved to the "safest" area enmasse!! I bombed the basement. Within a couple hours the wife was running out the house screaming about bugs coming out from "everywhere" (a few showed up...). Hmmm... bomb upstairs and down at the same time next time around, otherwise half of them move instead of get killed. Tenting the car or closing the garage and doing the whole thing (one in/under car, one or two in garage, depending on size) doesn't give them a place to hide.

 

[onebadmerc]

We bug bombed the upstairs and the crawlspace, I think we set off six down below and five or six in the house before we even moved in. Right after we closed on the house, we came over here and bug bombed it. I even set three of them off in the garage. When we started to move in, the spiders started to appear everywhere. The garage was the worst, it seemed like every time I unpacked something or moved anything spiders came out running. That isn't the worst of it, the spiders just kept getting bigger and bigger. The last one killed was about the size of a fifty cent piece. I think that last spider we killed in the house was born in 1910 the same time this house was built. I think I will bomb the car, then power wash it and vacuum it out. I hate spiders and this car is infested.

 

[johnsongrass1]

Maybe you can lure them out with a moth or something.

You could go get about a 100 praying mantids.

At work once, some guy's and I were taking bet's on insect's fight's. We had a small cardboard box with a lid made from boxing tape and we would drop some insect's in like mantids, spiders, flies, beetles, even some brought in there own found around the yard while some were ordering online. We had to place a rule that only those indigenous species were allowed if we were to keep things fair and within reason. Well, a few weeks went by and the clear winners were the poisoned spider, a black widow, and a praying mantis. UFC style money was collected and bet's were noted. The lid was closed and paper football tournaments proceeded. Two hours later, the predetermined time was up and with everyone looking, I opened the box and held up it for inspection. The winner was cleared and bet's were paid. All we found were four legs, and a fat praying minted. Other notables were, paper wasps, bumblebees, and at the bottom of the list, grasshoppers are wussies.

I know that spiders aren't really insect's but by rules they were grandfathered in so cut me some slack there.

 

[onovakind67]

I bought a big block Chevy a few years back and it had a huge Tarantula right on top of it. I sprayed it with carb cleaner but that didn't do any good, so I had to unbolt it and clean it with a brush. I guess it could have been worse, I've seen Scorpions as big....

 

[Augusto]

No big deal man, spiders die very easily when sprayed with any regular house type insecticide, better yet if you have a pump sprayer for your garden and use "Chlorpirifos or Diazinon" agricultural insecticides.
I hate spiders and I'm very good exterminating them.
Augusto.

 

[camaroman7d]

The Camaro in my Avtar came out of a field where it had been "resting" for years. It was full of black widows. It took months before I was sure they were all gone. Hosing down the engine compartment really won't help much. Since I totally disassembled the car I knew for sure I had touched/cleaned every nook and cranny. Even after stripping the interior, engine, tranny, front sheetmetal off, I would still come out and find new webs to the floor. If you looked under the car at night with a light you could see them waiting for food. Several late night visits with raid took care of a lot of them. With all that said and done, if I had to do it over again, I would have never brought the car into the garage until after I knew all the spiders were gone. I ended up with more than a few black widows in the house and garage (never had any before that). I would go buy a huge tarp cover the car and set off a couple/few bug bombs (outside). Make sure you wash the body of the car VERY well so you don't have paint issues when you get around to body and paint. I would put one in the interior with the seats removed (that should get the trunk too), and one under the car. Move the car and let it sit for a few days, see if you get any new webs, if so, I would repeat the process. Now if you plan to totally disassemble the car, you can kill them as you go. Keep a can of raid within reach (that's what I did). It sucks working under the car knowing you have a bunckh of eyes watching you.

 

[69er]

bug bombs

I have read about instances where bug bombs were set up in a garage or house that had a gas pilot light in their water heater. New gas stoves don't have pilot lights any more I believe, but water heaters do. (At least the water heater in my garage has a pilot light) Anyway, the resultant explosion I read about described an individual who had set up "a lot or too many" bug bombs and the place was destroyed-set off by the flammable chemicals in the bug bomb. Be careful. At least make sure your garage is well ventilated. I think if I was going to do "a lot" of bug bombs for an infestation I would turn the pilot light off just to be on the safe side. Do the instructions say anything about the spray being flammable?

 

[70ChvyNova]

I always use brakleen on bugs in the garage, they die instantly

 

[bigolblackie]

Its winter time now,does it get cold where you are? If it gets cold,bring the car outside for a whole day or two,and they should all die. imp:

 

[onebadmerc]

The car is outside, there is no way I am going to move it into my garage until it is cleaned up and the spiders are dead. I also don't have any room in my garage for it yet, I am still trying to get it organized from moving. The weather here was cold last week and we had some snow but it has been warming up the last few days. Today it was around 60 and the spiders were scurrying around when I was changing the starter solonoid on this car.

 

[edge]

Forget the latex gloves.

Invest in a pair of Mechanix Wear gloves. You can get them at most autoparts stores and Lowes. I just bought a pair from Lowes for about $20.

The Fast Fit are about $15, but do not have the velcro strap around the wrist.

Either way, they are a great investment and you will be surprised how well you can handle bolts, etc. There are many other to choose from: http://garage.mechanix.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=1

Let's just hope you don't find any of those Hobo spiders in there ain: They are related to the Brown Recluse and indigenous to the northwest.

Good luck, Ed

 

[weirdbeard]

You should google some of these scary spiders. I used the think every black spider was a widow and every brown spider was a recluse but after some research I am much more comfortable around spiders because I can identify them. One giveaway for a brown recluse is they are hairless and quite small. There body is no more than 3/8s of an inch long. Know your enemy! :evil: and stop being a puss.. :embarrass

 

[wild one]

Thought that i'd chime in and offer my .02 cents on this one. The last vehicle that I brought home was a field refugee, it had sat for 8 plus years and was full of all kinds of eight legged critters. Being a panel truck, plus the fact that it was full of spare parts I didn't want to take any chances (that plus it had literally hundreds of spiderwebs in it!). I bought a product made by HOT SHOT called the "No-Mess Fogger", followed the instructions and set one can off in the vehicle every other day over a weeks time and bombed it out in my driveway so that the little [email protected]@rds wouldn't find their way into my garage and/or home. End result, lots of DEAD creepy crawlies, no spider bites, and absolute peace of mind before starting on cleaning that project out to start working on it!

Here's a pic of the product, it should be available at any local hardware store (I bought mine at Lowes).