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Anyone know how to humanly evict a spider from a wing mirror?
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Humanly or humanely?
Mine's been there for 50,000 miles now - nothing seems to bother it!
You could try a blast of air from an airline?
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I'm having difficulty trying to think of a reason for which it might be harmful to the function of the mirror!
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L\'escargot.
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I posted about this once before, a spider who had made a web between the mirror and the door and made an appearance at 80mph on the M4, perhaps enjoying the ride, like kind of kite surfing, and was still there after a 280 mile round trip.
Cant see that they do any harm.
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I jet washed the wind mirror on the car the other day giving it a good 20 second blast. Spider still there!
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I think HJ's got very firm views on DOOR mirror spiders. I nurture mine, and grieve on the rare occasions I wash the car and remove the web.
On a side note, I've a monster in the garage in the corner where I store my beer. I think it's a burglar deterrent. It certainly keeps SWMBO away.
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I've got one living in the rear spolier of the C4. He's not doing me any harm and is doing a great job keeping unicorns away.
Can't see why I'd want to evict him!
-------------------------
07 Kia Ceed LS
05 Citroën C4 VT
04 Mazda MX5
85 Mini Mayfair
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What a co-incident! I exactly discovered this problem in my car today!
Last few days I was wondering where on earth cobwebs are appearing on wing mirror after repeated cleaning. Today while driving I discovered that a small spider appeared from inside wing mirror crevice and disappeared there!
I don't want to let it die inside the mirror mechanism. Somehow I want to get it out and kill.
Damn :(
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Have the same problem. What has always struck me is how strong the webs are.
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What has always struck me is how strong the webs are.
I read somewhere that for a given density, spider silk has a tensile strength 5x higher than steel. If it could be produced synthetically in large quantities, it would have widespread engineering applications.
I have a garden spider in the door mirror of the Mondeo. He's done about 5,000 miles with me over the past few months.
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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Get a spider in both door mirrors every year (car is parked close to flowerbeds on the driveway) and it's never bothered me.
Like others I'm amazed at the tenacity of the little beggars and the seemingly bombproof nature of their webs at speed.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Looking at the weather forecasts, the heated mirrors are going to be pressed into action during the coming weeks. Hope he picks his sleeping spot carefully! ;-)
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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The web may survive high speed (the web on my wingmirror certainly does) but I'd like to see it catch a fly at 70+mph. The fly would go straight through it. Nice idea by the spider though. Kind of like a constant 70+mph fly swat, if only it could hold the prey.
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Reckon they crawl out at night and eat the entrails of flies and bugs that have been splattered against the front of the car, evolution might mean they no longer build webs if we are still driving cars with door mirros in 500,000 years. ;-)
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If you MUST evict your spider here's how:
Gently touch the web with a finger trying your best to mimic a fly caught in it. If you're successful the spider will come out to investigate, then you pass your finger behind and under the spider scooping it up in the process, next take the spider that's now dangling from your hand to the nearest bush and let it go.
Don't let your cat see what you're doing or all you'll end up doing is providing a snack for pussy - don't ask how I know....
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My cat eats all sorts of insects, daddylonglegs appear to be particularly tasty.
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Oh this whole thread has had me laughting!!!!!!!!!!!
I have one on my Cavalier's driver mirror. last week it came with me from Oxford to Gr Yarmouth and back. Half way back, it came out from behind the glass on a single thread and was 'floating' around near my head out of the window (spider not me)
Cool bit of air surfing at 75 mph on the A14 then it just wound itself back in!!
Some people name their cars Should we name our spiders too?
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I've got one living in the rear spolier of the C4. >>
That's funny. I've had one on the rear spolier of my C4 coupe too almost from day one.
Years ago I had a spider and his offspring in the drivers door mirror of my then BX GTi. They stayed for ages and ages.
Must be something about Citroens!
As long as they stay outside, I really can't see a problem.
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I switched on the heater in the car the other day, and after a while a huge spider came simply belting out! Perhaps you could warm it up gradually (so as to let it get away without being frazzled) with a hair drier?
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In a similar vein I parked overnight a couple of weeks ago almost touching some flowerbeds.
I drove for about 80 miles on the motorway and into Central London. Going through the security booth to get into the area surrounding Canary Wharf, as the lady ran the scanner all over my car, she told me that there were 6 snails clinging to the side of the car!
We took them off and put them in some nearby grass as was then doing another long motorway run and didn't want them to fall off and get run over. They did well to survive the first motorway run though!
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I drove for about 80 miles on the motorway and into Central London. ........at there were 6 snails clinging to the side of the car! ......... put them in some nearby grass>>
Bet it took them a while to get home!
;-)
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Years ago, we used to prise limpets off rocks, and put them on the hub-caps (remember, the days before wheel-trims), just to see how long they'd last. Tenacious little blighters could hold on for up to a week IIRC. There would often be a clang as they ricocheted off a wing (where they used to put WING mirrors) when they let go.
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Charming... :(
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We like our door mirror spider so much we take it on holiday to France every year. Incidentally - how long do spiders live? Ours seems to have been there years - but I presume this is successive generations? Lovely web the other morning with a bit of dew on it.
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Phil
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Hi Phil,
They're factory fit in both Berlingos and Xantias; spider gets a trip home!!
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I didn't realise until I saw limpets on the menu in every restaurant in Madeira that they were edible.
I tried them once, and now know that they're not!
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I read often, only post occasionally
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They were trying to avoid the congestion charge.
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Before DD comes along and says something. Is this a wing mirror or a door mirror ?
{Cheeky git - DD}
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A small squirt of Vapona Microtech will get rid of spiders both inside and out for some time. It's available from Waitrose (and doubtless elsewhere, although perhaps not at this late stage of the summer) at about £5 for a trigger dispenser. Recommended.
Steve
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Spiders serve a useful purpose. Is it really worth spending £5 to get rid or one or two (which can be done very simply by hand if necessary) that have found a dry housing in your door mirrors?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Maybe CaptainCarwash is arachnaphobic. If so, the appearance of a hairy leg on the M4 could send him into a sweaty fit.
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Lots of 'he' in this thread. If the spiders are big, and building big webs, then it's odds on that they're females. I've got one in each mirror and I rather like it when they come out to surf the slipstream on the M40.
No, I haven't given them names. };---)
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-surf the slipstream -
Brings a whole new meaning to surfing the web.......
Door Mirror seems to be quite a common hiding place , the Civic had a very tenacious resident spider in the passenger door mirror and I occasionally found them in the boot area along with the odd wood louse and other creepy crawlies after a trip to the local tip with garden waste....
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I had to 'displace' a spider this year. We were living on the Northern Beaches of Sydney and found a fair sized huntsman living under the wind deflector on the nearside window of the Pajero.
The mrs got in without noticing it, but as soon as we got moving the thing started to wriggle and scared the life out of her! It was probably about 20cm leg-to-leg and about 10cm from her face! Needless to say she wasn't planning on moving him/her, in the end I managed to flick it off the car with a newspaper and it was last seen under a bush :)
L
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..about 20cm leg-to-leg..
Or about the size of a hand?! I hope you closed your windows too!
..in the end I managed to flick it off the car with a newspaper..
Big respek!
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20cm? that's 8 inches in old money? There's no way I would have gone anywhere near THAT armed with only a newspaper. 20' bargepole maybe...
must remember not to go anywhere near Australia...
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20cm? that's 8 inches in old money? There's no way I would have gone anywhere near THAT armed with only a newspaper. 20' bargepole maybe... must remember not to go anywhere near Australia...
Huntsman spiders look a bit scary (the body is fairly small but the legs are long) but they're not dangerous, they're not venomous and don't bite unless really provoked.
As an aside Australia is by far the best place I've ever lived and it has so many things going for it that I'm still wondering why we came back.
To keep this relevant to the BR, the price of unleaded in Sydney (when we left in April) was around AU$1.15 which is roughly 50p.
If you like good weather, enjoy an outdoor lifestyle, appreciate good food and wine and you'd like to drive a V8, I'd recommend Australia any day :)
L
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It's the phrase "...don't bite unless really provoked" that worries me. How do you know what provokes a spider? Looking at it in a certain way might annoy it but prodding with a newspaper would be a pretty sure thing, I would have thought. It's probably still under that bush waiting for retribution.
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Anyone know how to humanly evict a spider from a wing mirror?
>
Why on earth do you want to evict him/her? Is he behind with the rent?
Try to live with it,I`m sure it`s not doing any harm.
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Spiders in massive numbers this years, big uns and little uns. I have to say I'm impressed with the resliance of their webs. I leave them alone, they are harmless to everything apart from flies. I wish I could point you in the direction of an useful website......
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>>I wish I could point you in the direction>>
You spin a yarn in the same style as Blair and Brown...:-)
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Thanks for all the replies. Very amusing. I have nothing against spiders its just that I did not like my car looking like a prop from the Adams Family each morning. As suggested in an earlier post, I have managed to evict both spiders now from both wing mirrors by teasing them out with a single blade of grass impersonating an intended victim. And I can report both spiders seem very happy now in their new home, a nearby shrub, although I am still waiting for the invite to the web warming.
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i have one in my wing mirror..its called "charlotte"
:-)
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i used to have a resident spider on my motorbike....thing is it didnt have mirrors(handlebar type) Haven't a clue how it hung on?
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They're not big unless you can see hairs on the legs and feel them rattle as they go up the vac...
JH
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came back from a few days away to find somebody had kicked the wifes car mirrors off,forgot to check if charley r/side and alfred l/side were ok or in shock,,,,,,,, managed to reafix mirrors although they dont now work from inside :-( grown up kids and their drunken likkle games eh?
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Late friend of mine had one of the door mirrors of his last car, a smart blue Orion, smashed while it was parked. A Jamaican by origin although a Londoner since the forties, he was horrified twice: once by the fact that anyone would do such a senseless destructive thing to someone else's property, and a second time by the price of the replacement.
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>>forgot to check if charley r/side and alfred l/side were ok or in shock<<
probably made "Incy" wince eh! ;-)
well tis one of those days! - Chelsea are bein robbed again!
Billy
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Found a tiny spider with a little web this morning in the corner of where the windscreen meets the dashboard (inside the car on the passenger side). I've left him for now but will try and remove him when I get home tonight. While he doesn't bother me I suspect he's large enough to cause some concern to some of my passengers!
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A 'thunderbug' has crawled under the top layer of my flatscreen VDU and died. I've now got a permanent comma on my screen.
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On my Seat toledo TdiSE, I've been trying to get rid of spiders in the wing mirrors since i bought it new in 1999. I am still trying to get rid of the spiders. It does have heated mirrors, but so far it doesn't seem to kill the spiders.
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I wondered why you would want to remove resident mirror spiders until I noticed this morning that they have left a large number of 'droppings' on my 'nissan racing green car'!! I may join the 'seek and destroy' gang after all.
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Slightly off topic I carried a snail aprox 15 miles of speeds up to 70 mph on the edge of my windscreen!
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So that's what they call a snail's pace, then.
I didn't know that you knew L'Escargot that well! -:)
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Had one in every van since 1977. Top of rh 'A' pillar. Obviously likes to be near me! SWMBO went bonkers once....well twice actually.....but we don't need to bring the Bridesmaids into this do we boys!! She thought of eviction so she had a rollocking. Simon, or whatever his name is appears most weeks and if he is a pest receives a sharp word then he is back in the trim. Quite like him really.
Anglia van. Dark green. (Brilliant)
Mini van. Grey. (Equally brilliant)
Morris Ital. White. (Es aich one tee)
Bedford petrol CF2. Red. (13 to the gallon at motorway speeds)
Ex BT Escort. Grey (Doh!!) (Fine)
Ex BT Transit. Equally grey. (Very very fine)
Renault Master. White. (Nice, roomy, smooth, niggly faults like SWMBO...WACK..OUCH..,but faceless dealers that think we are stupid)
Hope I can afford to retire before a new van is required. (Unlikely)!!
V V BR...............MD
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So that's what they call a snail's pace then. I didn't know that you knew L'Escargot that well! -:)
Yippee, I've been noticed. Fame at last!
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L\'escargot.
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Anyone know how to humanly evict a spider from a wing mirror?
Blow it out using a hair dryer on it's cold setting. A hair dryer is also useful for getting dust/debris out of inaccessible places generally.
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L\'escargot.
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