Boots N Spiders

whitewolf · #1 09/27/06, 10:38 AM

I have this horror of putting on my boots and being bitten by a recluse or blackwidow. I always turn them upside down and bump the floor with them a couple of times, but still wonder if one is hanging on in there, just waiting. What do ya'll do to keep critters out while your boots aren't on your feet? Or do you you just take a chance? Just cuurious.

Whitewolf

Dink · #2 09/27/06, 10:41 AM

Your not alone Im still trying to find something I can run down in there just to make sure there arnt any but its kind of an odd angle.

katlupe · #3 09/27/06, 10:44 AM

I never thought about that before! Now, I'm going to have to find a way to protect boots & shoes from that happening. Because it'll be all I can think about (I just hate spiders!!!). Maybe somebody will know.

gccrook · #4 09/27/06, 10:44 AM

I dump my boots, but you really do not have to worry about getting bitten but a brown recluse if you have socks on. Their fangs are much too small to penetrate any material. Not real sure about black widows fangs yet. Probably too small also. Most bites occur on exposed skin.

perennial · #5 09/27/06, 12:02 PM

hubby went to put his shoe on the other morning - they were kept in the hallway to the garage - well he felt something and it was a millipede - yuk
my shoes are put in the house now at night! I'm of course always "tapping"
my shoes out to make sure there isn't anything - there are LOTS of creepy crawlies here in VA

whitewolf · #6 09/27/06, 12:41 PM

That makes me feel a little better, gccrook...I think. I have considered buying some of those bowl covers that have elastic around them. Thought about getting the small ones and just put them over the top of my boots....don't know how "tight" they would fit, but it might work. I have been making a habit of taking an old tube sock and putting it over my hand and arm and running my hand down in my boot....checking...but didn't know how easily I could be bitten doing that. I guess the worst thing I have found in mine was a "slug"....gross!

Whitewolf

Michael W. Smith · #7 09/27/06, 12:43 PM

Hmmmmmmm . . . . . . . a little bit obsessive / compulsive huh?

My guess is before any spider would even get a chance to try to bite you, it would be squished by your foot. The smaller ones you wouldn't even know about, the big squishy ones - you would feel a wet spot!!

januaries · #8 09/27/06, 01:11 PM

I always knock the heel against the floor then shake them out. Once I had a humpback cricket in my shoe. Once, after I got to work, I felt something in my boot under my toe. I jerked it off and shook it -- a scorpion fell out. I could have sworn I'd shaken them out that morning, but maybe I forgot.

via media · #9 09/27/06, 01:28 PM

My shoes ALWAYS come in the house with me because I still feel sick when I recall the time my brother's friend stuck her bare foot in her shoe and squished a toad.

*barf*

/VM

Snuffy Smith · #10 09/27/06, 01:58 PM

I have Brown recluse. I keep my shoes up high off the floor. I shake them out every morning, then run my hand up in there to make sure.

Dubai Vol · #11 09/27/06, 02:05 PM

When we bivouacked in the desert, we were advised to check our boots for scorpions every morning and our sleeping bags for rattlesnakes every night. Thump the heel on the ground, turn the boot over and give it a whack. No worries!

Keep in mind that 99+% of spiders are completely harmless. They're your best friends. The few that are poisonous can't kill a healthy adult, so you really are worrying about nothing. At worst, (and you may as well worry about getting struck by lightning,) you'll be sick and have a good story to tell. "I remember when I got bit by a black widow..."

Spiders are your friends!

Farmer Willy · #12 09/27/06, 03:43 PM

If you've ever smelled my work boots you'd know it's the spider that has to worry, not me.

woodsmokeinherhair · #13 09/27/06, 06:14 PM

My neighbor has several metal sheds out back. They tell me that they keep some rubber boots out there and have found tarantulas inside of them hybernating, lol. I dunno .... If I am putting on a pair of shoes that I haven't had on in awhile, like overnight, lol, I check em good and smoosh the toe (I gots short feet and my toes leave ample room for something to stay in there and travel around with me until it gets it's nerve up to bite me! lol)

Woodsmokeinherhair!

Ardie/WI · #14 09/27/06, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by via media

My shoes ALWAYS come in the house with me because I still feel sick when I recall the time my brother's friend stuck her bare foot in her shoe and squished a toad.

*barf*

/VM

I warned my ex a dozen times not to leave his boots laying sideways in the garage. He didn't pay attention until the day he pulled them on and started for the car....and stopped. The had been a mouse in one and how it was a wee bit flattened. Oy vey.

holleegee · #15 09/27/06, 06:47 PM

our dog leaves voles (those tiny moles) in our shoes if we leave them outside. You learn real fast to check your boots before you put them on!

wvpeach1963 · #16 09/27/06, 07:03 PM

I have put my feet in boots with a dead mouse in them before, while not pleasant
I always figured that was part of nature and not to be avoided unless one cares enough to always check before. Good reason to have several pairs of boots so they can air dry out the mouse or at least let your brain believe that its so.

Spiders never bothered me until I woke up and had crushed a wood spider on my pillow and in return it had bitten me on the cheek.

Blasted sore hung on for six weels or so, started as a puncture and landed up the size of a nickel. Like to never went away.

oddly enough I had a horse fly bite me in the same spot on the cheek the other day. Figure its part of country life.
Have to say the horse fly hurt like the dickens , but the sore went away in a week.

Not that spider bite, so I will watch those buggers from now on. So much of being a fan of Wilber's buddy the spider from Charlotte's Web. Come to think of it I'm not much a fan of pigs .

Bubba Can Dance · #17 09/27/06, 08:36 PM

To keep all these little and big critters from getting in your boots just pull a knee hi hose down over the top when you take them off. If you don't have any knee hi's ask your wife for a pair. :-)

millipede · #18 09/28/06, 02:36 AM

like already mentioned, if you're wearing socks a brown recluse can't bite you. In most instances I'd guess you'd squish the spider before it had a chance to bite anyway, but you never know.
One time I put my shoes on real quick to go outside for something. No socks. While walking around out there I felt some pain on the bottom of my foot. I think I pushed down more to see what I felt, and I squished a spider. Just something like a wolf spider fortunately and I suffered no ill affects. But, most of the time I do shake them out just to be sure.
Black widows do not travel from their webs very often(they do, just not often) so they're not as much of a problem in houses as brown recluses...
putting a pair of hose on like just mentioned probably would work quite well. It would look kind of weird, but you'd have less to worry about.

freegal · #19 09/28/06, 06:46 AM

Just stuff crumpled newspaper or tissue paper in them. We always do this when we store our out of season shoes & boots, too. Or stuff your socks in them.

whitewolf · #20 09/28/06, 07:12 AM

Thanks guys....I am feeling a little more comfortable about this.....really like your idea millipede about the knee-hi's. And yes, Dubai Vol......I have no problem with spiders.....I don't kill them unless they are in MY territory and they have to be recluse or blackwidows then. I read somewhere that wolf spiders favorite food are brown recluses....so the wolf spiders run around here all they want (except when my two house cats find them). People tend to think I am a little strange when I tell them not to kill a spider they see in my house.....lol. Thanks again guys.

Whitewolf