http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018669374Oh my.
Liberalynn (6,683 posts) Wed Sep 24, 2014, 03:53 PM
Have to Go Down to the Cellar! I don't want too.
It's an 1884 dirt cellar and there are spiders and their webs down there. I once even found a dead rat. I normally try to stay out of it as much as possible but the furnace company is coming for the annual maintenance. As a courtesy I usually try to clean out around the furnace so they don't have to walk into a web.
I know Daddy Long Legs in NY State aren't poisonous spiders, I know I am lucky to have a house with a furnace in it, but it seriously creeps me out.
When I was younger my Mom used to tell my sister and I if we didn't behave she'd throw us to the monster down there. Okay so as a grown-up I know there's no monster but that's how creepy it is.
NYC_SKP (61,736 posts) Wed Sep 24, 2014, 04:24 PM
6. Yup, a broom or mop or long handled something, and good lighting!
If you have or can bring in good lighting, drop cord or clamp on or even a couple lamps, it'll make it easier for you to avoid webs and easier for the service folks, too.
And spiders don't like light, so I think that'll help!
^^^Skippy.
woodsprite (6,523 posts) Wed Sep 24, 2014, 04:53 PM
9. You could put the light on a day or so before they come.
Give those spideys a chance to move out or hide before you have to spend time down there.
I couldn't figure out why my hubby kept the basement light on in his work area. It's because, as much as he gets on my case of being afraid of spiders, he doesn't want any in his work area. We have wolf spiders in our basement. No fun at all! Needless to say, our basement is one big pit of stuff I've kinda written off, because I won't go down and get it unless I have to. If I do, I carry something that I can squash those suckers with.
marzipanni (5,793 posts) Wed Sep 24, 2014, 06:55 PM
17. We have a 1916 cellar
5/6 dirt crawl bend-forward-and-try-to-walk space, 1/6 concrete SRO cellar. With cobwebs galore.
The already dessicated rat in the far reaches I saw last year is no longer there. I guess Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, knew how to take care of it; it turned back to dust. (My back was achy after bending over and "walking" when I first saw it, so I put off going back with dog-doo tongs and a bag to collect it. )
Our neighbor has a friendly little tabby cat who likes to slip down our cellar stairs near the back door when the dog isn't watching, then jumps up on to the water heater and climbs on up into the wall space where she found a napping spot in the recess of the walls above built-in cabinets. Sometimes she comes up the cellar stairs festooned with cobwebs dangling from her whiskers.
I never minded the daddy long-legs spiders, but then one time I saw a black widow hanging from a joist.
Three or four summers ago, old dirt cellars in various places on this property--seven of them--were filled in; the owners had no idea most of them were even there, as they dated from the 1920s and before.
They were ordered filled in because I'd descended down into one, the neighbor with me, to see all what was in there.
At one point, I put my hand above my head, on a ledge.
I felt something, and immediately froze.
I'd been just about to wrap my hand around a big old snake there, but due to lightning-quick reflexes, I stopped right where I was at. The snake was very much alive, and it must've been half a mile long, given all the time it took to slither its way under my hand. It knew I was there, but I hadn't yet put down my hand hard enough on it to annoy it.
I'm sure it was the longest two minutes or so of my life, just standing there, absolutely still, waiting for it to pass through. The bigger fear of course was that I had no idea what kind of snake it was.
