You make sure there are no pesticides, poisons or toxic substances in your garden. Your vegetables are organic. You’ve created a wonderful oasis of nature… then you look next door. There’s a Poison Man spraying who knows what all over their house. I imagine it’s to kill a spider or two. Impossible to talk to the neighbors. They need to spray like they need to mow their lawn with a two stroke engine. Anything else would not do. Not at all. Doing things differently could potentially lead to spidergeddon or eliminate the turf’s lawn-ness.
I imagine a conversation…
“Dad, I saw a spider. I’m afraid. It might be a black widow under the eaves of the house. It might jump on me and I’ll get all red and puffy then lapse into a coma and turn purple and die. Do something!”
“Not to fear, dear. I called Dedbug Inc, and they’ll be here in the afternoon. They offered me a great deal. Ten gallons of poison per month, sprayed all over the house. Rest assured that although spiders are hard to kill because they have such tiny feet, a stream of this stuff will kill them faster than you can say avada kedavra.”
“Oh, Daddy! You’re the greatest! I knew you’d protect me! By the way, I threw out your tomato sauce cans. They used BPA! That stuff could make you grow man tits. I could be hormonally damaged by eating that sauce! It’s horrible what big industry does without regard for our health!”
“Well smoogums, I’m going to the store and can buy some real tomatoes. I really wouldn’t know what to do without my weekly pasta.”
“Oh, thank you Daddykins! Make sure you buy organic tomatoes. I read that even small traces of pesticides, especially combined with other pesticides, can make you sick over time.”
“Pesticides in food, that’s not good at all. Do you want to come with me, Peachycakes? You can pick your favorite fruits…”
“No, Daddy. I want to watch the Poison Man kill the spiders. I just wouldn’t feel safe if any of them were up in the eaves, four feet above my head where they could drop down at any moment.”
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Did they even ask what poisons were being used? Did they inquire as to the toxicity to humans and pets of these products? Would they have received meaningful, honest answers?
Seriously, I’ve lived around black widows all my life. At least three of them lived permanently under the drinking fountain at my elementary school. Yet, I’ve never met someone who was officially bitten by one of these spiders. I say officially because a lot of people tell me they’ve got “spider bites” – although they never saw the spider and the bites were on flat places on their body or their belly. Most spider bites would logically be on the hands or feet, since the extremities are more likely to come in contact with a web. So, they were climbing under a drinking fountain and sticking their belly into a web? Not likely.
According to a bit of quick internet research, a spider weighs 0.035 oz (1 gram). An adult human weighs 2,880 oz, or about 82,286 times more than the spider. Unless the human is fat – then the difference will be larger. Common sense dictates that there is not a real risk here, especially if people don’t stick their appendages into spider webs.
In 2011 alone, there were thirteen fatalities due to lightning strikes in the USA. Even more people were struck and chronically injured. Do people install lightening rods on their homes or come inside when there’s a thunderstorm? No. But they do worry enough about spiders to hire people spray poison around their homes.
Try looking for deaths from black widow (Latrodectus sp) bites on the Web. One source said zero USA deaths in ten years. Virtually all other spiders are even less dangerous. So, why go to all the fuss when it’s you’re probably more likely to die of a lightening strike than a spider bite?
I tried to find out exactly what chemicals are typically used by exterminators. No data. They used RegisteredTradeNames instead of actual chemical names. I looked for an LD50 amount, a standard used to determine how toxic something is. Nothing.
LD50 is the median lethal dose, in mass of pesticide to mass of subject. The indicated dose would typically kill half the subject population. I imagine the other half would not feel so great, either.
When I worked in a nursery long ago, we recommended Diazinon to kill ants and Chlordane for termites. These chemicals were all considered safe if used as directed. The general public can’t legally buy either in California now.
There are times when exterminators are necessary. A restaurant seething with cockroaches and maggots is a public health issue. A few spiders, probably all harmless, under the eaves is not.