Help found Redback in our house
 

We have been here for 4 months now and we found a small redback in our spare room yesterday. I am a little freaked out. I bombed the house a couple of weeks ago and we have surface sprayed outside. Hubby however failed to surface spray around the window in spare room. But there is a fly screen. Can anyone explain how the bombs work. I know they kill anything in the house. But does it continue working for new bugs coming in?
Can anyone recommend a way of keeping these little buggers out of the house?
I have 2 little ones I would worry about.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

i would get the whole house sprayed internally as well, at least then then your leaving it to the proffessionals, especially as you have little ones! we had this done in ours and its quite pain free, but the guy did say that it would take approx 24 hours to work, but i have to be honest we didnt have a lot of insects in the house before it really, just a few huntsman and a few roaches but didnt see many of these after the spray

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

Yup get the Flick man in and have him do it at least the first time. Then make sure that you clear the area around the house - if you have wood stacked up against the house wall you are inviting the critters to come inside. They will get in any tiny hole if there is one so you wont be able to keep them out but if you get the place fumigated at least once then you know there wont be any growing families lurking.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

Not to mention termites.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

Ive found two so far - one dead and the other one I sprayed with Bagone.

My cat was staring at his food bowl and then refused to eat, staring up at me. Wondering why, I glanced down and saw a redback right by his food bowl. Its funny that he wouldn't eat from his bowl while it was there.

Im going to get my house sprayed as there are too many areas we can miss by doing it ourselves and the pest man said he will spray the roof as well.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

No point in getting the house sprayed now. Wait for spring so the poison is at it's strongest during the breeding season. They get in all manner of ways, even with surface/exterior/bombs etc. Always keep cans of Mortein dotted around the house and you can't go wrong.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

Soon after we moved into this rental I "bombed" our garage (Mortein bomb).

Having read what's in those bombs, I decided against bombing the house. Remember that the bomb releases a fine mist which covers every surface. That stuff is really harmful and perhaps not a good idea with small children.

If you must: use a professional (in the spring as MP says) as their stuff is less poisonous.

On the topic of redbacks: Before we came out I did a course at the London Zoo for spider phobics. They had a redback there and I asked the guy in charge - world renowned spider expert (sorry, have forgotten his name) - whether they really kill.

His reply was that if you are someone with a compromised immune system or someone who is prone to allergic reactions, then a bite can make you seriously ill in much the same way as a bee sting (if you're allergic to bees).

Otherwise a bite is no great drama: you may get a headache, feel a bit feverish and nauseous for a couple of days.

But the funnel web spider that you get over east, that's a different matter. Definitely deadly! But thankfully we don't get that one here in Perth :).

Gina

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

You found one? Come round my house we have stacks!! We kill at least 5 a day as they're breeding in our roof space. Pest guy has told us that once the house is built next door - they'll stop coming to our house???? (disturbing the earth/woods or something)! Or maybe its just that they'll prefer the newer house once its done! I'd move next door too if I could (they're going to have a fireplace, heating and a pool)! Oooooo

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

A girl I work with was bitten by one last year, she was off sick with it and quite poorly.

Not something I would chance, even though they don't kill you to me being sick for a few days is bad enough.

Ill get the house sprayed in the spring.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

More worried about the chemical bombs :eek: than the redback, hit it with your slipper, or the newspaper.

Or introduce geckos to your house, the roof might collapse with the weight of the gecko shite but you never see a spider or cockroach again. :D

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

Ours comes with geko's too - poo everywhere (in the clean dishes, cornflakes etc etc) - not sure whats worst, redback or gecko's - I suppose geckos are cuter?

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

A chippie whome worked for me had a bite on his toe it was in his sock
still came to work, moaned a bit in the morning but was fine by lunch
cant be that bad im thinking

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

I've dealt with worst from white tail spider bites - lots of em in fact - usually tradies working under wooden houses! This is one from about 5 weeks ago.

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

You can't see the wound size as I removed the wound markers but it was 6 x 4cm, approx 1.5cm depth. This was about a week after he initially got bitten. Aseptically, we clean and pack it daily, big course of antibiotics, remove the necrotic tissue. As soon as the wound starts to granulate (produce fresh new tissue) we then pack it on alternate days and so on until its healed. They heal from the base up so it takes time, he's now on weekly reviews. I'd be more pee'd off if one of these got me to be honest. This particular tradie is a sparky - self employed, so he has to work. This in itself causes problems, as the wound is painful and we really don't want it to get even more infected - which, it will if he's working in dusty environments! Honestly i could write an essay on these!

Re: Help found Redback in our house
 

do these wounds get packed with some sort of seaweed?