mummypom

Hi all

We landed in NZ on Saturday afternoon and have been mad buying all housey things since then. Emotions are mixed....happy, excited and a little lost but I suppose they are all very normal! We havn't had time to sit still to get jet lag.

The house we own needs some modernising to say the least....we have been cleaning like crazy as we have a one year old and another due in November so want the house all sorted by then. So far I have hoovered up approx a dozen spiders and one dead cockroach.......I can't stand the thought of anything crawling on my little girl so how can I ensure all creepy crawlies stay outside!!!!!!??????? The people who we rented the house out to previously must have lived with the crawlies.....urgh!!!!

I'm not daft(well thats debatable)...I know it's a warmer climate and we get more bugs but just want to keep them outside of the family home!!! Anyone any ideas???

I've also learnt that I am absolutely useless at keeping fires alight lol!!!!! My partner is good but when he's out I'm stuffed!

Thanks guys

Jan n Neil

http://www.spiderban.co.nz/


It works

Debbie2NZ

Could you buy an electric heater ? We did as at present it's all the heat we have. Don't quite get it this New Zealanders and no doors business. Fortunately our present rental is a bungalow and has a lounge door. Something our previous rental didn't have. So, all the heat went up the stairs.
You can buy a heater from a shop called The Warehouse. It's like the stock room of Argos but with prices on the shelves !
We move (again !) on 2 September. Part of the renovations of the new house will be to re-hang the doors in the door frames. Then there's the double glazing and the central heating to be installed. Followed by putting a bath in the bathroom. There's only a shower in there presently.

Give yourself a chance, you have had all the stress of moving whilst pregnant. You've taken on a new country, a new town and a new house and all with a baby on the way plus one 'in tow' ! Give yourself a huge pat on the back.

pixi-dust

Mummypom, the creepie crawlie thing brings back memories! When we first moved in the place was crawling with spiders and I was totally freaked out. I asked a couple of kiwi folk we know and they suggested flybusters ( probably loads of other companies) they come to your house and spray inside and out. You need to be out of the house for a couple of hours but that's it.

When I called them up they couldnt come for 6 weeks as it was their busy time. I burst into tears on the phone - I know that was a total over reaction, but I was miles away from home, and I suppose that was when it all came out! The lady was lovely, asked how big our house was, when I told her it was tiny she said shed call back in 5 minutes, she did and they squished us in for the following day - we still get them to come every 18 months and spray everything.

It works amazingly.
I know some people wouldnt want the chemicals etc - but for me I was so glad!!!

Welcome to NZ!

nero

If you do not fancy having chemicals we have used conkers in the corners of the rooms - spiders do not like the smell of them. The oil is essentially what is in 'No more spiders' spray and the like. I know it sounds mad and I thought it was daft, but it works.

The only problem is you have to find the conkers!

TopCat3

Are you folks saying there are lots of spiders in NZ? What are they like? Here in Australia they are big and ugly and relatively harmless or small and sinister and harmful. my understanding was there wasn't the dangerous wildlife you get it Aus. Perhaps it's just that you're from the UK - the amount of bugs etc here freaked me out at first all those years ago. I'm asking because I'm thinking of leaving Aus for NZ.

old dragon

We're in Papamoa in Tauranga and the only thing we ever get is the odd white tail spider. They prey on other spiders though so as I understand it, if you keep your house free of cobwebs and other things - then they don't really come in.

We've had a few in the house and a couple of people my husband works with have had some very nasty bites from them - so we set off bug bombs in each of the rooms and left the house empty with windows closed etc for a few hours - and then put some spray barrier around all of the windows and doors. It's supposed to last for quite a few months but we re-do the whole house every 3rd month and we haven't seen any since.

One of the guys at work told me to stop bringing driftwood home from the beach because apparently there's a red type spider that lives in it!! Made me feel great when I told him I'd been 'decorating' the garden in it and placing it arty fartily beneath the windows (You're supposed to wash and treat it apparently - life's too short for that I'm afraid - I can barely keep up with cleaning the house!!!)

luvwelly

No dangerous ones in NZ.

alanmacc

you mean no dangerous ones other than the red back and the white tail ??

nicorsts1

I did'nt think New Zealand had the Red Back?? Only ever seen one all my time in Oz, first 3 days into a years backpacking and looked under my bus shelter seat.. there she was with her babies...NICE

Told the missus NZ was safe of creepy crawlies...Oooops, shhhhhh we leave in 19 days

Expat Kiwi

Those white tails are bad enough

Mummypom with a baby that's still at the crawling stage and another on the way be careful with what you allow to be sprayed in your house.

There must be some child friendly sprays out there. If you decide to go ahead make sure you ventilate the rooms properly afterwards and keep out until everything is dry.

Expat Kiwi

It's called the Katipo. Didn't you see that story about a year ago where some guy was nude sunbathing on the beach and was bitten on a very private area, which made it swell up? I shouldn't laugh really.

Jan n Neil

A friend of mine was bitten by a spider, probably a whitetail, a few weeks ago, and it wasn't very nice for her. We have had whitetails in our house, I have seen a few, so, as Neil says, Spiderban was our company of choice and after the treatment they disappeared.

Except for the one I shared the shower with last week......... The guarantee period of 6 months has run out and I think we need to have it done again soon.........

Jan

luvwelly

Apologies maybe it was another NZIS lie.
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/349/na...tory-questions - having said that some other links dispute the necrotising thing.

I hate all creepy crawlies and haven't had any issues in NZ.

lardyl

Maybe I should educate my kids to hate spiders so they don't react to the bites.....??
As others have said Whitetails live on other spiders and do not spin webs, which makes them easy to spot - along with their brown/grey cigar shaped bodies and the distinctive white tip, the white tail.
I've seen plenty around (often on the walls or curtains), not had a problem bite, but the advice we've had is that they can get into clothes left on the floor overnight, which I have seen and that the bites are infected by bacteria, etc on the skin beforehand, or that somehow the whitetails absorbs and injects some of the venom of the daddy longlegs spider (very venomous but not a danger to humans due to our the shape of it's mouth parts).
Getting rid of other spiders in the home makes the whitetail go away.

You'll get used to the small cockroaches (brown bush ones), they often come into the house on your newspapers and junk mail from your post box. They are a pain but not as nasty as the big black hissing ones. Attacking the roaches with low grade chemicals or half squashing them can make the females prodcue lots of eggs due to them being stressed. They love cool, damp cardboard and paper so don't leave pizza boxes by your back door.
http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/re...e.asp?Ca_ID=47