Needles N' Leaves

A Gardening Column by:  Jennifer Huefner

Bear Lake Landscape and Garden Center
Garden City

Hobo Spiders in a Hobo Trap

A tell-tale sign of fall is an increase of spiders coming into your home.  One of the spiders to be feared in our area is the Hobo.  These two hobos were caught in a hobo trap I have in my garage.  Thankfully, this trap prevented these poisonous arachnids from entering my house!  I'm no spider fan, but tend to be okay with them living outside.  Once they come in, they're enemy number one.  When I was a little girl, I used to be very frightened of spiders.  As an adult, I managed to see their benefits from a bug-killing point of view, and became more tolerant of the eight-legged creatures.  A few years back, my son had a red bite on his leg that would not heal.  We took him for treatment and found the bite to be from a Hobo Spider.  The treatment was cutting out the affected area, which then finally healed.  Since then, I've become completely intolerant of Hobo Spiders.  A quick internet search will reveal their toxic nature.  Hobo Spider bites are something worth avoiding.  Fortunately, there are a couple good ways to fight back their invasion.  First, hire a pesticide technician to come do a foundation, lawn treatment, and an interior spray.  

Make sure you tell them you are having problems with Hobo Spiders.  Then, place Hobo Spider Traps near entry places to your home like a garage, sliding doors, etc.  I also place one trap next to the wall under each bed, as we're pretty sure that's where my son received his bite.  I always sleep better with a Hobo Trap under my bed.  Come into our garden center and we'll show you the traps we use and sell.  Between the pesticide and the traps, our battle with Hobos takes vigilance, but seems to be helping tremendously.  Every spider in a trap is another spider that isn't in my home!  (As I write this, another son came to get me to show me a Hobo he found on one of our walls in the basement.  Instead of killing it like I usually do, I put it in a jar so you can see the actual spider at the garden center too.  Here's a photo we snapped of it before trapping it in a jar.  Hope you all sleep well tonight ;)  I'm not sure I will after all!)

The spider we found on our wall that is now on display at the Garden Center.