One of the Ogr forum members says he has Black widow spiders by his layout ! SCARY !!
I have Daddy long legs in my basement . more of a pest ! I hate the webs !
There must be a Safe Way to keep those things out of our houses & layouts ?
Share your ideas !
Thanks in advance !
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You can try one of the sonic rodent and bug deterrent devices. They are not intrusive and don't use a lot of electricity. I have them in my train room and don't see many bugs since installing them. A bug bomb sill work too. You just need to stay out of the room for awhile when you set it off. No residue that I have found. I use them in my barn.
I've read that a few drops of peppermint oil on several cotton balls scattered around is an effective spider repellent.
Shop vac 'em
I have a bunch of little helpers. They are called daytime gecko's. They not only work hard but are beautiful. Don
My go to method for spiders is ultra hold hair spray - even the nests. They can't move, and they can't breathe. Hair spray is also far less offensive odor-wise than many spider kill sprays, and, it can reach those hard to reach places. Obviously, you have to use discretion as to any surface you spray on the surface could be damaged.
The shop vac sounds good. Do you have to be careful with the content of the disposal bag/receptacle for the vac, or do the spiders get killed by the vacuuming action itself?
[I was going to recommend my mother's trick which was carefully placing several sealed lunch bags with a few mothballs and small air holes. After thinking about the possibility of children mistaking them for candy, I did a little research. I now think moth balls aretotally unsuitable because of their toxic nature if ingested. Their airborne vapors which can also be harmful.]
" A bug bomb sill work too. You just need to stay out of the room for awhile when you set it off. No residue that I have found. I use them in my barn."
I live on the bug-o-rama Gulf Coast. I use bug bombs for all my insecticide needs - house and shop/RR building. Nothing else, except a little Raid in the garbage can bag every week when I put in the new one.
I bomb the house twice a year and the shop once, typically. Most years go by without seeing a roach (the Prime Target) inside. I have not seen residue on anything. I don't put one in the kitchen; the stuff permeates the whole house anyway. I cover any dishes in the drain board. I put one in the attic.
Then I leave for 2 hours; do errands; go to lunch; I open the windows and turn on the attic fan (yes, I have one - a treasure that the "modern" world has forgotten) for a while. Done. No fan - just leave them open longer.
Shop: I casually drape a bit of newspaper over my locos and cars on the layout that are nearest the bomb. No residue...but the dust may soak it up...!
Bug bombs are often characterized as hard to deal with and mess-makers. Neither is true. I do change brands as it hits me.
I've used this and it seems to help reduce the number of critters in the basement. Treat the foundation of the house annually and it helps.
Spiders aren't my problem (although I hate them too) - we have camel crickets! Suckers are ugly as anything and can jump 5' without trying. Glue boards collect them nicely. More on them here
Bob
RSJB18 posted:I've used this and it seems to help reduce the number of critters in the basement. Treat the foundation of the house annually and it helps.
Spiders aren't my problem (although I hate them too) - we have camel crickets! Suckers are ugly as anything and can jump 5' without trying. Glue boards collect them nicely. More on them here
Bob
I use this stuff around the foundation to keep the carpenter ant population away form the house. It also helps to keep the spiders away. Used around the outside perimeter, they don't enter the house to begin with.
Cats. I have cats and they do a decent job at keeping bugs out. They don't get on the layout, but they do like laying on boxes under the layout.
Home Defense is great stuff. I also use a less powerful version in our kitchen garbage cans. Don
Im trading in shop vac for the gecko or an anole. Currently i have yellow jackets in train room, using fly swatter.
Just be careful out there. Could be another Darwin Award winner.
Did he get the trains out intime?
Oh man!
"The Bug Man" is a bug & pest exterminator in our area (central Arkansas) who visits Mottler Station quarterly and applies products that keep small red ants, spiders, and roaches out. He also places small glue-lined paperboard boxes in most likely hiding places; they trap bugs that wander by. At my request, he puts two of those in the train room. It works!
Lowe's and Home Depot sell those "bug boxes," so anyone can buy them.
Mike M. (ritrainguy)
My wife insists we have Terminix treat our house and shed quarterly. No, we never had termites. Most bugs never get near the trains.
We had the Bug Man come around every couple of months and saw him do very little. I can do better with "Home Defense". All doors, windows and any pipes coming into the house. Also around garage doors. I hate centipedes and if they do come in an open door they only make a foot or two before they die crossing the Home Defense. Don
Don, If my wife saw that one, she would probably drop over dead! She hates centipedes! Ours are usually only about 1 1/2 inches long, however.
scale rail posted:We had the Bug Man come around every couple of months and saw him do very little. I can do better with "Home Defense". All doors, windows and any pipes coming into the house. Also around garage doors.
We were actually told by Orkin that many bugs actually come from the attic. We had two different varieties that would almost magically appear in the spring and fall. When we added insulation to the attic, we used a patented insulation that helps resist bug breeding and survival in the attic. I have only seen 3-4 bugs upstairs now after 4-5 years. We still get some spiders in the basement though, usually around the basement windows. I'll have to try some of the products suggested above, as I do "shop-vac" the basement windows in the train room.
Probably much easier to do a foundation spray as suggested above. The other spiders generally succumb to ultra hold hair spray.
Great story about Frank alias Spider Man!! 
Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611 posted:scale rail posted:We had the Bug Man come around every couple of months and saw him do very little. I can do better with "Home Defense". All doors, windows and any pipes coming into the house. Also around garage doors.
We were actually told by Orkin that many bugs actually come from the attic. We had two different varieties that would almost magically appear in the spring and fall. When we added insulation to the attic, we used a patented insulation that helps resist bug breeding and survival in the attic. I have only seen 3-4 bugs upstairs now after 4-5 years. We still get some spiders in the basement though, usually around the basement windows. I'll have to try some of the products suggested above, as I do "shop-vac" the basement windows in the train room.
Probably much easier to do a foundation spray as suggested above. The other spiders generally succumb to ultra hold hair spray.
When any spiders or centipedes are spotted that survive the foundation spray, I am summoned to get out the sweeper and hose and suck them into the bug vortex!
Mark, this last summer we were going in the pool one hot day and a palm frond had dropped in the pool over night. My wife, Vicky picked up the pool net. It has a long hollow pole attached to the net. Out shot a huge centipede past her and landed on the lawn. Well, she has gotten used to the things as much as you can. She got the Home Defense and gave it about a dozen shots. It stopped moving. About twenty minutes later we were enjoying a drink in the pool, her back was against the side of the pool. We were talking and I thought I saw the lawn moving like a snake was in it. Suddenly (her) centipede shot toward the pool right at her. I grabber her just as he hit the edge of the pool. If she was alone it would have landed on her shoulder. I'm sure it wasn't trying to get her but it's our creepiest story of living in Hawaii. Did I say "I HATE THOSE THINGS"
Don
I would hate those things too!!
If you have bugs in your basement you have bugs elsewhere in your house too.
Pest control contracts are something every homeowner should invest in. I’ve had ours since moving into this house 14 years ago and our exterminator automatically treats our house and the areas outside four times a year. The only bugs I find in our basement are dead ones.
I realize it’s easy for me to spend your money but; hire a professional exterminator and have them treat your home on a regular schedule. It is, in my opinion, money well spent.
Curt
I spray Home Defense every spring. Very rarely see a bug in the house, except the occasional fly that comes in through a open door. Seems to work pretty good.
juniata guy posted:If you have bugs in your basement you have bugs elsewhere in your house too.
Pest control contracts are something every homeowner should invest in. I’ve had ours since moving into this house 14 years ago and our exterminator automatically treats our house and the areas outside four times a year. The only bugs I find in our basement are dead ones.
I realize it’s easy for me to spend your money but; hire a professional exterminator and have them treat your home on a regular schedule. It is, in my opinion, money well spent.
Curt
Curt,
We don't have many bugs, but your advice makes sense. I will have to look into the extermination process again. Last time I checked, a warning was that the spray would get on the windows, and we would be responsible for cleaning. Given the dearth of insects in our home, I didn't follow up for info from other exterminators.
One spider can be too many. Years ago, I spoke with a man who sold firewood to make some extra money. He said that while stacking some firewood he was bitten by a brown recluse spider - hiding between the logs - and sustained permanent neurological damage. That got my full attention.
Ortho Home Defense sprayed around the house twice a year seems to take care of the little buggers here in New Jersey.
I do have a cricket or two in the garage that need to leave.
Tried hair spray - didn't kill the buggers and they looked just fabulous, darling ! 
Farmer Bill -
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I've seen electronic devices that you plug in your wall outlet, they emit a signal that keeps the little buggers away.
Speaking of which, early this week I was out driving my truck on a dark rainy morning when I spotted a spider crawling on the inside of my windshield. It look pretty familiar as I've seen pictures of this species, I thought, hey this isn't an ordinary spider. It ended up going under the dash but thankfully came back up. I pulled into a parking lot and grabbed a piece of paper and smashed it. Well, I got out a strong flashlight examined it and it turned out to be a Brown Recluse spider! You don't want to get bit by one of these! A pretty nasty sore can occur with the death of skin tissue around the bite that can take months to heal. I've been living here in the Arizona desert for 14 years now and this is the first time I've come across one of North America's most venomous spiders other than the black widow.
Spiders are not bugs.
The Spiders catch all of the stink bugs and the house flies in their webs.
Andrew
I had a spider problem. I thought about getting a gecko. Then I figured I might have a gecko problem. Don’t need that. I just finally broke down and got the dust ball thingy out and herded some close friends out the door and into the street. Some of these guys were as big as a silver dollar, and I was almost on a first name basis with a few. Oh well, some friends are just no good for you and it’s time to move on.
Cheers, BK
I use a vacuum in the rafters of the basement once or twice a year, but that's about it for spiders.
Centepedes freak me out much worse and the bites make a spiders look like skeeter bite, just shy of a bad bee sting and lasting longer with skin breakdown and a scab before it's done. I actively hunt any I see.
I get a few black crickets inside every year and have a window set in concrete that yields flys without an entrance or exit for them...? but that's about it.
We spray for spiders every year. Since the train room is in an enclosed space, 1 non opening window. Every couple months I run an ozone generator. It removes odors from the stale air and takes care of bugs. Has an automatic timer so I just turn it on and leave the house to do errands.
The only insects I ever see around and under my basement layout are daddylonglegs. These guys aren't spiders but they are arachnids and are related to the scorpion family. They are totally harmless to humans and keep other insects in check. I never kill them. They are welcome. BTW I've had a fascination with spiders since I was a kid and yep I've been bitten a few times but I still like them..
wild mary posted:The only insects I ever see around and under my basement layout are daddylonglegs. These guys aren't spiders but they are arachnids and are related to the scorpion family. They are totally harmless to humans and keep other insects in check. I never kill them. They are welcome. BTW I've had a fascination with spiders since I was a kid and yep I've been bitten a few times but I still like them..
If you get me your address I can send you some from Vegas.
Chris Sheldon
Aliquippa & Southern posted:Every couple months I run an ozone generator.
Thank you, now when postwar trains arrive in the mail I can tell my wife they are just ozone generators to keep the bugs away. Can't be too safe.
Chris Sheldon
Ok, which one of you did this?
I don’t know if the Stink Bug epidemic was nationwide, but they certainly had their way in the northeast during the past decade. Thankfully their numbers seem to be decreasing as their liquid excrement hardens to brown spotting that can be hard to remove from plastics. I am still in the process of removing this crap from my models as these bugs seem to have no boundaries. Getting to the OP’s question, there are a plethora of insecticide hacks for various insects to be found on Pinterest. I like the ones that utilize natural ingredients (as the aforementioned peppermint oil) that are pet friendly. Plus, you never know when you might see an “ambulance chaser” commercial advertising “if you ever used (insert pesticide name) and have suffered (insert malady) call 555-123-4567 for a settlement- now! 
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