Ridding Your Boat Of Spiders

Q: The spiders at my marina are horrible. What can I do to keep them off my boat?

A: Ah yes, spiders. Not only are they creepy, but they leave little black dots everywhere on your boat – in your non-skid, on your white vinyl seats – everywhere! How is it possible for such a tiny creature to take over your boat almost no matter what you do to stop them! Thank goodness you can win the war over spiders, but you will need to be diligent. There is no solution that you can just set up and walk away from never to have to worry about it again. However, here are three solutions that will help you today and for a while to come.

1. Use a fogger. You can buy these at Home Depot or a similar store. They’re the kind of insect foggers you set off and then run out of the room and stay away for about four hours. When you come back, all you see are dead insects everywhere – but at least they’re dead and no longer reproducing! This is the best solution to use in an enclosed space, such as inside your canvas enclosure or inside your boat. Afterward, you will need to clean all surfaces to remove any residue and you’ll want to vacuum up all the dead insects. Foggers not only kill the live insects, but their eggs, as well, so your enclosure will be spider free for about two months.
2. Use Starbrite Spider Away (or similar product). You can find the SpiderAway at any boat supply store. This is a product you can use anywhere on or around your boat. Spiders get onto your boat by climbing up your lines, so spray your lines and around the dock area, such as your dock box, fenders and the edge of your dock. Use it to also spray around the edges of your canvas enclosure and the inside corners where they like to hide and build nests. Although it’s advertised as a natural products, I still wouldn’t advise breathing it in, so either cover your mouth and nose or wear a mask. If you spray this every few times you visit your boat, it will do a good job of keeping spiders at bay as it kills them soon after contact and it repels them for a few weeks.
3. Use an ultrasonic spider repeller. This is a device you can also find at a Home Depot or similar store. You simply plug it into an outlet on your boat, inside or outside, and it emits an ultrasonic sound that apparently only spiders are affected by. It disrupts their living conditions and causes them to find a less annoying home somewhere else (aka - your neighbor’s boat). This type of device works fairly well and will keep spiders off your boat for a few months, but you’ll need to buy a few different brands and switch them up each time. Otherwise the spiders will get used to the frequency over time and eventually not be so disrupted by it.