Scary spiders in my bathtub

September 20, 2004 2:02 AM

Spiders and bathtubs. Great big hairy jumping spiders keep magically appearing in my bathtub. How do they materialise thus (given the windows are shut etc)? Spontaneous generation?
posted by Mossy to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

up the drain pipe and out into your bath through the plug hole - try keeping the plug in!
posted by floanna at 2:05 AM on September 20, 2004

...or thru the overflow. Spiders like water & can survive a deluge.
posted by i_cola at 3:34 AM on September 20, 2004

not if it's boiling water, they can't *evil cackle*
posted by twine42 at 4:24 AM on September 20, 2004

They also do not like a variety of things, like bleach. Or bleach's Albanian cousin, Drano.
posted by geoff. at 5:37 AM on September 20, 2004

Spiders like water & can survive a deluge

If only there were a singsongy rhyme about this so I could always remember it! ;)
posted by luser at 6:17 AM on September 20, 2004

Response by poster: Incy wincy spider..

Time to get the bleach out. Muahaha.
posted by Mossy at 6:29 AM on September 20, 2004

Big, hairy jumping spiders probably = wolf spiders. Are they scary-fast, too? Wolf spiders aren't really harmful to humans, but they do bite.

Just be happy you don't have these coming out of your drains!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:44 AM on September 20, 2004

The other issue is that the porcelain surface makes it harder to get out of the tub if they've dropped in from the ceiling... so it may just be that you _see_ more spiders in the tub because they haven't had a chance to scurry away — as they would if they were on the floor in your bedroom.
posted by silusGROK at 7:56 AM on September 20, 2004

Roaches used to climb out of gaps in the back of my medicine cabinet and around the sink. (very grateful to have moved.) Look for gaps around the tub as well.
posted by callmejay at 8:46 AM on September 20, 2004

I'd go with silusGROK's explanation. We have a big spider problem at the house. I think they are just crawling around and dropping everywhere.

I also see a lot in tubs and sinks but thats only because thats one place they were unable to get out of - they're just natural spider traps because the sides are too smooth for even them to walk on.
posted by vacapinta at 10:38 AM on September 20, 2004

Yup, C_D and silus have it right: They are wolf (e.g.) or similar spiders which crawl or drop into the tub and can't get out. I had the same problem in an apartment in St. Louis. A vacuum or dustbuster with a mothball in the bag worked for me.

This is the end of spider season so they're plentiful and large. I also wonder if they're looking for places to spend the winter or something because they're much more common indoors at this time of year.

Some potential bad news: They might be hobo or recluse spiders (mossy's profile doesn't say where he's from so don't know if either is possible - hobo's are in the NW (but spreading), recluses in the MidWest). Both are poisonous. Wolf spider is much more likely and they're not poisonous. The bite is, from personal experience, much less painful than a bee sting.

Some good news: It isn't likely you'll have a simultaneous spider and roach (or any other insect) problem.
posted by TimeFactor at 11:32 AM on September 20, 2004

Response by poster: I'm in Oxford, UK at the moment - I'm not sure we even spiders that are arachnaid enough to puncture skin..
posted by Mossy at 12:10 PM on September 20, 2004

Brown Recluse Spider bites can be very, very bad. (Warning: graphic, ugly, nasty)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:48 PM on September 20, 2004

I've had this problem before, as well. I also had a few wolf spiders that were probably about five inches across if you counted the legs. I dislike spiders a great deal and I can tell you that having a spider that large in your bedroom is the opposite of fun.
posted by The God Complex at 9:56 PM on September 20, 2004

(five inches in regular scrunched-up leg form, that is. if you actually spread the legs out i'm sure you'd get another inch and a half out of the little sons of bitches)
posted by The God Complex at 9:57 PM on September 20, 2004

mossy, if you have one in your tub, there are others around as well. Just can't see them without the white background.
posted by th3ph17 at 1:04 AM on September 21, 2004

behind you!
posted by andrew cooke at 6:37 AM on September 21, 2004