Bugs

The car isn't the problem... When we have unresolved fears they're like a magnet that attracts that which we fear so often that we get over the fear. The spiders and crickets mean you no harm, nor do they want to be stuck in your car. So stop having someone kill them and simply put a small shot glass size container over them and slide a postcard underneath to contain them. Then release them in a bush or any kind of nearby vegetation. Once you can learn to do this instead of freaking out it will be something that happens rarely...

 

Not everyone can deal with their phobias that easily.
But is seems like a LOT of people have no empathy for things that they have never experienced.

The hardware store sells "bug bombs" that you can set off in the car and then let it sit overnight.......but you then need to air it out good before using it again. And hope that you aren't allergic to the bug poison.

 

i get a spider now and then. i think there is one living inside my rearview mirror.
i hate when they drop down from the visor, right in your field of vision at 60mph.
agree with the bug bomb. squish every last spider until they are blotted out from the face of the earth!

mice too.

 

Well first of all..
Are you parking outside? Under a tree or something?

Don't mean to trigger your fears, I do not like them either, but spiders exist in mass in the world around us.
You're best bet is to wait for winter...when you just won't see them.

This is more serious problem than it can appear.
When I was little kid, I had horrible nearly phobia level fear of spiders. I saw them everywhere. I eventually overcame this. But I still don't like them. In a very, un-ecological, non-Ghandi, out of balance with nature way...I overcame this fear, when I discovered I could kill spiders. It's hard to be too afraid of something you discover you can defeat with a house slipper. But I apologize to all those that will tell me how wonderful spiders are...and how horrible it is to kill them.

I live with spiders now, with this compromise. If I see them? As long as they stay out of my way...I leave them alone.
If I find them in my Shower, or crawling on the ceiling above my bed.....good luck in the Spider after life. Those are the rules of engagement for me and spiders.

But like the OP, I still have a strong buried fear of spiders.
And I say it's serious, because if you do see one while you are driving, you can't afford to panic or be distracted. Serious accidents can occur.

I've had this happen to me, and I have to use all my Jedi Power, to NOT panic, not react.
Basically I just try to pull over as safely as possible and then deal with the situation. Which is either sending the Spider to Spider Vahalla, or---I'm trying to get better about this----moving the spider to a different environment..where at least it has a chance.

To the OP...this can be hard. But you if you see a spider? Especially while driving, you just have tell yourself to NOT panic and not react in a reflexive manner.

I suppose you could try bug sprays and chemicals, but how long would that be effective? Plus I don't like the idea of spraying a lot of toxic chemicals around me, and on/in my car.

You can get over a inordinate irrational fear of spiders. It just takes time. And...IMO...maybe, a house slipper.

Again NOT to increase fears, but some spiders can be venomous, toxic. The Brown Recluse Spider being one. Therefore, non-engagement is often the best choice.
If I'm trying to move a spider? I do it using a container so I never have to touch it, or allow it to have the chance to touch or bite me. This is IMO very important. Better dead, crushed spider than YOU bitten by a Brown Recluse.
Read some pretty horrific stories about people bitten by various spiders.

 

This is true.
BUT....
As above...when I was a kid, I had a horrible fear of spiders.
My parents tried to help me overcome this fear, by sitting me down in front of a television Science Special about "The Wonderful World of Spiders". They were thinking once I saw the "real world" of Spiders this understanding would have me overcome my fears.

Guess What?

Spiders are damn scary!

They are basically fast moving, multi-legged, multi eyed, multi-fanged..web spinning vampires!


After watching repeated slow motion footage of the trap door spider waiting for and attacking it's next victim, I finished the documentary, even MORE scared of Spiders than before I sat down.

Getting over irrational or inordinate fears IS a good thing. BUT..
A lot of spiders are venomous, they can be dangerous. This is real.

My grandmother lived in Missouri, early 1900's..and her mother taught her to be afraid of snakes. All snakes. This was a fear she that stayed with her her whole life.
Was her mother being cruel? Bad parenting?
I'm saying no, because Missouri has a plethora of dangerous, poisonous, deadly snakes. Instilling in her, to be afraid of ALL Snakes, was survival. With limited access to medical care, people died of snake bites. It wasn't uncommon.

I'm going to say the similar about spiders. I approach any spider, assuming it could bite me, and could be venomous.

 

some spiders are deadly, why risk it? they don't care about us.

 

Bug bombs are composed of deadly neuro-toxin and using one in an enclosed space that's 1% the size of the space they're recommended for will entirely destroy the interior of your car and the sick and the elderly who may ride in your car might end up in the hospital.

The simple act of putting your car in a hot parking lot for a couple days where the interior temps get up to 120-130 will kill anything that's in there without deadly poison that will kill you and your loved ones.

But bugs will come back in... I've been a tree pruner for 30 years and sometime I haul tree prunings home in my Prius and sometimes in Summer this leads to all kinds of bugs, especially spiders in my car and they weave webs and I keep a clean car so in a few days they've either made it out or crawled into a a crevice and died from the heat.

The last place a spider or insect wants to live is in a car with no food or water that periodically cooks in an oven. They don't want to be in their just as much as you don't want them to be in there. They will be grateful If you not only peacefully help them out, but spend more time watching spiders and insects and admiring them in general. Go to a zoo or somewhere and learn more about them. Fear is driven by ignorance. The more you learn about what you fear, the more you'll realize they mean you no harm and there no reason to be scared of them.

 

The ratio of deadly spiders to harmless spider is incredibly extreme. I've been gardening and composting with spiders and bugs almost everyday for 30 years and never once have had that fear, nor will I... I get bit by stuff all the time... Yellow Jackets venom being the most fascinating, in terms of it's drug like effect.

But your point / problem bisco is very much the same as the OP... If you live your life being driven by irrational fears, they'll keep getting worse and worse and instead of being happy on a living planet with all kinds of beautiful life forms going about their day, you'll live in terror of everything trying to kill you unless you kill them first and your hatred will just keep growing and growing. The OP is expressing an irrational fear on a help forum for car repair. There is no cure for this person on this forum, just people like yourself who make the fear even worse.

 

I don't doubt this is true....it was probably in the science special that scared me more than The Exorcist when I was a kid.
But the ratio doesn't really do you any good, IF you get bit tomorrow by a Brown Recluse.

Proponents of harmony with the little venomous vampires will tell you they are called "recluse" because they are apt to scurry away, and don't seek contact.
Oddly, this doesn't make me feel much better.

 

get them before they get us i my exterminator.

 

Fear of getting bit by a spider is what we're talking about, not actually getting bit. As a tree pruner/gardener in CA, OR, & WA for 30 years I've been bit by all kinds of stuff and I'm still alive and have never experienced anything other than mild swelling.

Statistically the odds of you getting killed in a car accident are way, way, way higher... Last I checked 1% of us will die that way...

 

BOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the exact kind of thinking that is turning the entire planet into a rotting cesspool of death. The more we love and nurture all life, the more healthy and vibrant and full of life our planet will be!

 

Many wildflowers and mushrooms are dependent on seed and spore dispersal from small rodents. Without rodents whole mountains of wildflowers and mushrooms will vanish. Likewise, spiders perform a valuable service keeping the population of other insects from getting out of control. When you kill off all the predators that eat bugs, you have a population explosion of bugs...

 

But also..we aren't talking about all the other things in existence like car accidents that are statistically higher risks to existence. Sure the chances a spider bite kills you or does significant damage are much lower than many, many other things we do and/or come in contact with. That's really not the point.

Our fears are often based on realities. And the reality is, some spiders are dangerous. So I think it's wrong to say a fear of spiders is totally irrational.
It's taken me a lifetime to basically reach a general rule of non-engagement. If they get too close? I'm not usually forgiving.
Go take a look at some of the necrotic flesh loss attributed to spider bites, and the pain and suffering that has caused some people. It really is horrific. Go to Google Images and enter Brown Recluse Bite...
I guarantee next time you stick your hand into a darkened cupboard, or feel a unexplained brush against your skin, you'll think about it.

The very real fact, that the odds of bad things happening with any engagement with spiders is extremely low, doesn't really matter too much to me. The fact that it could? Is enough for me to say a general respect...if not fear for spiders is NOT totally irrational. I'd rather error on the side of flat spider, unbitten me.

 

bring on the mosquitos and ticks!

 

FEAR OF SPIDERS IS TOTALLY IRRATIONAL!!!

The instincts of most life forms have evolved to sense friend or foe as a basic matter of survival... When I see a spider, I do my best to help it out... When you see a spider you kill it? Given that basic instinct to sense friend or foe as a matter of survival, you're more likely to have a problem than I...

 

Read my post about my Grandmother and her mother actually teaching her to be afraid of snakes.
The truth is VENOM. Snakes have it, so do some spiders. That means there IS a danger when we come in contact or proximity with these life forms. Not every life form on the planet is a Disney Blue Bird. Sometimes that thing perched on your shoulder..is dangerous.

Humanity has also developed fears...because some things ARE dangerous. It was part of our evolutionary survival. Mankind survived and thrived MUCH more on the precept that the things in the dark were foes...than the precept that the things in the dark were friends.

Yes I won't deny that statistically most spiders either won't harm you, or are harmless.
But you shouldn't deny that isn't the 100% case. Some can.

Personally? If one is crawling above my head where I sleep, and/or in the shower, I'm not taking the time to figure out if I should be friend or foe, or welcome Mr. Spider into my home. Sorry nature lovers...the harmony ends there.

And I don't feel my respect...and yes, level of fear is irrational. Again..just google Brown Recluse Spider Bite...images...
Those aren't photo shopped.
The Brown Recluse spider exists in The Pacific Northwest. The odds may be low...but damaging interaction does occur.

 

Clean your interior. You probably have a water leak very common in the trunk. Take the back hatch out and take the spare tire out and get a flashlight and look in the battery well on your right and see if the 12 volt battery is sitting in standing water. if you have water in there and Im sure you do if your park outside let us know we will tell you how to fix it.

Clean your interior. Shampoo the carpets clean the seats. Wash the windshield inside.Replace the cabin filter. probably have mice too very common in a g2 prius. Amazing what you'll find if you just work on your car.

If you don't know how to do this have your interior professionally detailed. $$$$

Bugs like dirty cars.

 

Ever watch Lilo and Stitch?

The aliens were convinced mosquitoes were endangered .

Then they found out the truth.