Exterminating a shed

The Cool

Hi guys, hope I'm in the right place here, looking for some help.

Myself and himself moved into a new house in the summer which has a big shed in the garden. I've had the notion of cleaning it out and doing it up and maybe putting a pool table or something in it. Only problem is - it's full of cobwebs and big spiders, which we are both quite phobic about! - and we would like it not to be, obviously.
Obviously just like a house I'm not gonna expect it to not have a single spider in it, but I want to clear out spider city so we can use the shed without it being like a scene from arachnophobia.
Does anybody here have any advice on how I might go about clearing it out? I have no idea where to start! Thanks.

sky6

Is it a Timber or a block Shed.? They love Timber. Does it have any Windows as there not to fond of light. You have 3 problems to solve.

1. To get rid of them try using smoke bombs as they don't like Smoke. Someone else might have a better product.

2. You need to stop them coming in. so find out where they are getting in. Is it under the Door where a gap might be. Or is there small Holes or Gaps in the Walls where pipes etc are going through.
Make sure around the base of the Walls on the outside is kept clean and free from overgrown grass or weeds etc. they love dark ground cover.

3. you need to keep them out. The best thing to keep them out after attending to the above is to gather plenty of Chestnuts and just place them around the Shed on the floor or in any presses that might be in the Shed.
They absolutely hate Chestnuts. It's the aroma of the nut oil seeming is what the don't like. This definitely works.

elfy4eva

I feel for your phobia, but just suck
it for the few minutes it takes up and
get a yard brush in all the
nooks and crannys and sweep the
feckers out of their hidey holes.
(There's probably a lot less of them
than the cobwebs would suggest!)

Give the place a good sweeping out
and air it out for a while to get rid of
all the airborne dust.

Remember they aint gona bite ya!

If you honestly can't bring yourself to
do it make it a test towards your
fellas masculinity! Or pay a gruff
yardwork hardened neighbour
(everyone has one) a few bob to do it!

The Cool

It's a block shed, properly roofed and everything but I can see there's a gap of about an inch under the door so if I could block that it would probably help keep them out once they're out! Fortunately it's a concrete floor so it's not like they'll be living under floorboards, as happens in the house. So that probably helps!

Thanks for the tips about the smoke bomb and chestnuts - sounds quite handy. I'm very bad with spiders but if I can let something go off in there and come back in half an hour to find them all dead, I probably wouldnt be so bad. Will tackle this on Saturday!

sky6

I thought the Door might be where they are getting in, as a lot of Sheds just have a Step to seal the Door against. You can either fix a piece of Rubber to the bottom of the Door or create a chamfered concrete edge to close the Door against and keep them out. I see you don't like Spiders but remember it is an irrational fear as they are totally harmless. One or Two Smoke bombs should do the trick. It might be wise to inform your neighbours what your doing as you don't want anyone phoning the Fire Brigade and getting a big bill for wasting their time. Unfortunately it's the wrong time of the year for collecting Chestnuts. But make sure to do so in September as they definitely work in keeping them out. I had a similar problem a few years ago in our House. It seemed like they where getting bigger and bigger each year until someone told me about using Chestnuts. Now we hardly ever see any.