'Spider Shot'?

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

jamesbeat

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
615
I live in the UK at the moment, but will be moving to Ohio soon.

My question is about spiders, and the most effective way of dispatching them!
It's pretty embarrassing, so go easy on me, but I have the most terrible phobia of spiders.
At the moment here in the UK, I get rid of my eight legged foes by shooting them with a CO2 pistol. Given the nature of the beast, some kind of miniature shotgun would be much more appropriate, but I don't have much choice where I live.

When I move to the land of the free, I'll have a lot more scope to make my ideal spider gun. I was thinking of maybe pulling the bullet and powder from a .22LR and loading the empty primered case with a wad and the finest shot I can find.
Out of a revolver, I think this would be perfect for killing spiders, but since I only have theoretical knowledge at the moment, I'd appreciate some ideas.

And yes, I am talking about normal house spiders. Both myself and my wife are terrified of them.
I know it's stupid, especially as we have several pet snakes, but there you go.
Get all the jokes out of your system, and then we'll discuss my perfect 'spider medicine' :D:D:D
 
i read an article about somehow using a pellet pistol loaded with salt as an insect killer. The only prob with the 22 that i see if its possible is you will be throwing fine grains of toxic lead around your house. I dont know if it would be harmful or not.
 
That's a very good point that I hadn't considered.
I guess there's no reason why the 'shot' needs to be lead is there?
Salt would do the job just fine, or maybe some coarse sand?
The thing has only got to work from a few feet away, and spiders are very fragile.....
 
use a .410 shotgun shell. take out the shot and let the plug do the dirty work-

welcome!
 
I like the idea of the shotshell, but I'm thinking about noise....

And I can't use a newspaper because it might crawl up it and 'get' me....
I know, I know.... :D
 
Welcome to the USA! Don't forget to join the NRA! I used to shoot mosquitos in the house with a CO2 pistol loaded with--nothing. Just the blast of carbon dioxide would do the trick. The gas "slug" alone would blow 'em to smithereens, but you gotta get close.

Now if you're hesitant to get close to a disgusting, crawly spider, you might try rubber bands, great sport, but hard to aim "off the thumb" or maybe one of theose rubber band guns available at many toy shops. We get those hairy and very ugly brown "hobo" spiders around here. In our old house they were attracted to the moisture in the shower. Nothing like lathering up and looking up at the ceiling to see a big ugly 8 legged thing staring at you. I would normally give 'em a shot of hairspray to "drunk 'em up a bit" then let 'em have it with a rubber band. With utmost prejudice, I might add.
 
Just thought of another special "load." Put a lightly oiled felt cleaning pellet in a .177 caliber pistol (spring piston or CO2) and have fun! The Webley Tempest is good for that and would make you feel right at home!

Good luck and don't let the spiders bite!
 
James --The spiders you've dealt with in England must be the vicious sort for the need of firepower you are looking at. Although we have some Nasties here Black Widow, Brown Recluse etc... Most could be dispatched quite well with a flyswatter. I certainly wouldn't want to be firing off .22 shotshells here in 2RCo Manor. If I had to shoot them I'd use a spring activated rubber dart gun.
 
You're right about the blast of the CO2 being enough to kill a spider, I often didn't know whether it was the pellet or the gas that killed the beast, you can see the shock that the blast gives the spider.

The only problem I have had with the CO2 pistol is that if I shoot from a bit more of a distance, say a few feet, the blast won't kill them, and it often took several pellets to stop the spider. Not that they are particularly hardy, it's just that they're all legs.

I think this rules out the felt wad idea too ironvic. I need something with a pattern like a shotgun.

If you don't have a spider phobia, you may not understand this, but the worst possible outcome is missing and making it run off. Then you KNOW there's a spider on the loose, but you don't know WHERE.

I need to be able to tell my wife that I definitely got the damn thing!

The reason that I thought of a sort of 'flobert shot revolver' type idea is that it would be quiet, yet give me several rounds of a scattergun type projectile.
Also, I'm planning on getting a .22 revolver for plinking and maybe firing CB caps at home, so making a 'spider load' for this gun would be the logical thing to do.

I know how stupid all this must sound, and by all means have a chuckle, but it's a pretty big deal for us.
It's ridiculous, I'm more scared of a harmless house spider than I am of venomous snakes!
 
cci makes .22 caliber shot shells. they are capped by a plastic nose. should be easy to break off and remove the shot. the primer alone should have enough force to take care of the spider (if you reload the case with something appropriate.) to top it off it would not be so loud as to bother your neighbors.
 
Gordon, thanks for that link, I've never seen that product before and I'll be ordering some directly!
Let's not take the fun out of this though, aerosols are not as cool as guns :eek:D

2RCO are you trying to scare the hell out of me?! Wait until I have moved before telling me about that kind of thing or I'll end up stuck in the UK!

Actually, believe it or not, I am only marginally more scared of a black widow than I am of a house spider, I guess it wouldn't be a phobia if it was rational.

I don't want to fire actual .22 shotshells in the house, what I'm basically trying to do is make a .22 shotshell minus the powder, ie just a primer for propellant. That way it won't be too noisy or powerful for my intended purpose.
 
Wrc376, that's pretty much what I'm talking about. Would it be possible to put some kind of projectile in it so that I didn't have to rely on the blast alone to do the work?
The salt idea has intrigued me, and I'm thinking it would give me longer range than the primer alone.
 
James also if your fear is that bad I would highly suggest hiring one of our fine exterminator services like Orkin to spray for spiders.

--I can see your point on the phobia mine is the inverse of yours normal house spiders give me little concern but snakes scare the hell out of me! My nephew has a python that would die a swift death if left in my house.
 
come to think of it... im gonna make some for myself- i saw a movie called arachnophobia when i was young and my dad kept tickling my hairs when i wasn't paying attention :(

im a spider wussy for life too-
 
I'll tell you a secret: get a cheap paintball gun and a cheap CO2 canister. Don't load it with anything other than gas. Put the barrel directly up to the offending bug. Pull the trigger. Then start looking for all the bug parts.

An 800 PSI shot of CO2 goes a long ways to dispatching insects, spiders, etc.

Note that we also have these nice things called fly swatters here that let you kill things from a distance, but the paintball gun is more entertaining. For larger, more durable, spiders, WD-40 kills them near-instantly.
 
2RCO, you should meet my Boa, she's soooo cuuuuute!
It's weird isn't it? I mean, my Boa is far more capable of hurting me than a house spider is. In fact so is my cat.
Well, I guess that's why they call it a phobia....
 
I just use a Mapp gas tourch, can get'm at wal-mart.
bernzomatic_trigger_start_torch_f.jpg
;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Skribs
  • Locked
Spiders
Replies
11
Views
1K
Robert
Robert
brockgl
  • Locked
New to Hunting... Really Excited! But--Spiders!
2 3
Replies
53
Views
2K
f4t9r
F
L
  • Locked
Decision point. Which state to live in? CO, UT, WA, NH
2 3 4
Replies
81
Views
3K
Pete D.
Pete D.
O
  • Locked
People who enjoy hunting intelligent mammals...
2 3 4
Replies
98
Views
4K
JShirley
JShirley
J
  • Locked
An open offer to all anti-gun politicians...
Replies
14
Views
601
Pismopal
P
Back
Top