Help! Spiders in the sand box

[joannqn]

We have one of those plastic crab shaped sandboxes in the back yard for DS3. He loves it except for one thing: every time we lift off the lid so he can play in it, 5-8 spiders go scurrying out in a hurry. While they are scurrying out, I'm pulling sand toys out and using one of the shovels to pick up and toss any slow spiders. I hate spiders so it gives me the creeps to be scooping spiders and I worry about leaving any behind, or them crawling back in.

 

I have no idea what kind of spiders they are, and I can't find them on my google searches. They are about 1/2 inch long with a light brown round abdomen and pure black cephalothorax and legs. Occasionally, I found another kind of spider but almost all of them are this kind.

 

Any ideas of what kind of spiders these are and how to keep them out of the sandbox?

[yslek]

Ugh. Just reading your post gives me the heebie-jeebies. (((shudder)))

 

No idea about the spiders, but wanted to send some sympathy your way. They creep me out, too. Your poor dc. :(

 

According to the arachnologist at the Bruke museum in Seattle (http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/), there's no way to positively ID a spider just from looks alone. Many websites claim to do so, but they're apparently bogus. The only way to know for sure what kind of spider you have is to check out it's reproductive parts under a microscope. I doubt you want to get that close to a spider! ;) If you're ever visiting the Burke, though, I've heard you can leave a spider specimen for the dude there to check out, and he'll let you know what it is. :D

[ChristusG]

No idea, but yes, we've had this problem with our sandbox as well. I have no come up with a solution except to grab a shovel and toss any that I see. It's icky.

[joannqn]

Ugh. Just reading your post gives me the heebie-jeebies. (((shudder)))

 

No idea about the spiders, but wanted to send some sympathy your way. They creep me out, too. Your poor dc. :(

 

According to the arachnologist at the Bruke museum in Seattle (http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/), there's no way to positively ID a spider just from looks alone. Many websites claim to do so, but they're apparently bogus. The only way to know for sure what kind of spider you have is to check out it's reproductive parts under a microscope. I doubt you want to get that close to a spider! ;) If you're ever visiting the Burke, though, I've heard you can leave a spider specimen for the dude there to check out, and he'll let you know what it is. :D

 

Thanks for the website. I actually knew the correct answers for a few of the myths. Yea! It was nice to read that there are no brown recluse spiders here, despite what I've been told. And while there are times where I'll just "wave as it passes by" to a spider, I can't let the giant 2-3 inch across spiders go by. Those get a call to DH for removal even if he's at work. Fortunately, he's only had to deal with two of those.

[Kim in Appalachia]

When my oldest was young we had a plastic turtle-shaped sandbox. We had to move it and when we picked it up we found somewhere between 50-100 black widow spiders. Our neighbor said that the sandbox was the perfect place for them. It was dark and dry underneath the rim. I threw the thing out.

 

I no longer like those type of sandboxes. We have one just made of wood with a special plastic on the bottom for the weeds. There could be spiders under there as well, but mentally I feel better about it. :001_smile:

[Heather in AL]

When my oldest was young we had a plastic turtle-shaped sandbox. We had to move it and when we picked it up we found somewhere between 50-100 black widow spiders. Our neighbor said that the sandbox was the perfect place for them. It was dark and dry underneath the rim. I threw the thing out.

 

I no longer like those type of sandboxes. We have one just made of wood with a special plastic on the bottom for the weeds. There could be spiders under there as well, but mentally I feel better about it. :001_smile:

 

Yup-- I just stopped in here to warn about this. We found one *in* the sand box, and decided that was enough, so we got rid of it. Luckily, there were none under it, so we didn't think anything of it. A few days later, dh was talking to someone at work who mentioned that they found several hundred under theirs!!

 

The good news is that they are one of the easiest spiders to ID, so that's a huge step in not being surprised! I'm glad my kids outgrew their sand box years ago. I don't miss it one bit.

[myfatherslily]

Yeah, we quickly abandoned OUR plastic turtle sandbox when we found three black windows there one day. Two years later, we've just put it back out. This time it's on an unused portion of our gravel driveway and I'm not using the lid. Hopefully that will result in it being just as "safe" as the rest of the yard (where there are other black widows plus ticks, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and the occasional snapping turtle).

 

Is there any type of safe insect spray that you could spray around the outside of the sandbox to discourage them from climbing in?

[Disney Dreaming]

:eek: I didn't know that they hid there. I HAVE found them in my garage. That is hubby's job to get rid of them. I would have thought that brown recluses would hide in sand though since they are know to hide. Mental note to stay away from any sand boxes. My dd(7) would never get back in if she saw one, she is TERRIFIED of them.

[Wheres Toto]

I spray vinegar in the sandbox to help keep bugs and spiders out of it. I try to remember to spray all over the top right before I put the lid on each time and it seems to be helping. We live in the woods so have a lot of creepy crawlies around but I've never seen any black widows, thankfully. We have the plastic frog sandbox. We've moved it a few times and never saw any spiders underneath. It's getting too small for our two kids so once we redo our house and yard we're going to do a larger wooden one with only a lattice/screen cover to keep out cats.

[joannqn]

Fortunately, we don't have black widows here. There are only a few small populations in this region and none of them are in Tacoma (that I'm aware of). Anyway, in the 18 years I've lived here, I've never seen a black widow...and I know what they look like from living in southern CA where I encountered them frequently.

 

The brown recluse doesn't live here either.

[Badgirl4life916]

Tonight here was a swarm of black widow type spiders crawling all around the sand. I've never seen anything like them before. They were shaped like black widows but a little smaller and more of a brown color. There were hundreds. Does anybody know what species they are? At the Dry Creek in Roseville CA.

[LauraClark]

As if spiders weren't creepy enough-ZOMBIE SPIDERS!!!!

Edited May 15, 2021 by LauraClark

[Lori D.]

Spiders in the sandbox! Zombie Threads on the Boards! YIKES! We're under invasion!

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