Spider crap

[Ross Faneuf]

I stored a bunch of lovely mahogany stock milled as fiddle rail stock in my loft, against the day I would need it for Ceol Mor - which day has come. But I clearly didn't pay enough attention, as the location I chose was right below some kind of spider paradise, and my stock is heavily, um, speckled in many places with spider crap. (OK, OK, I'll accept an LOL pause here...) Looks like it may stain in much the way that bird crap does. Before I scrape, sand, or assault with solvents, anyone have any suggestions in how to remove the stains???????????

[dasboat]

I have handled similar probs.with dish soap and water.Rinses out easily.Don't know about warping on real thin pieces though.
Real thin=3/16 or less.
Dasboat

[Concordia41]

EEEK! I'd say the spider poop has proteins in it like bird poop and it's probably absorbed nicely and maybe even wicked down some as the (however minor) moisture would be absorbed by your nice dry wood. Figure that it's really nice mahogany, and factor in Murphy's Law.

I think I'd start by scraping it off flush and light sanding. (We're not talking like it was in a pigeon roost right?) If that doesn't work then maybe look in the laundry isle for something mild that says it's good to remove proteins. Maybe even a dish soap if you're going to go the wash route. You can always get more aggressive, but if you start with a bleach or something too harsh, you've made yourself more work.

Nice to know someone else has really bizarre problems

- I can see the spel chicker I downloaded wrks rite. Geeze!

[This message has been edited by Concordia41 (edited 07-17-2001).]

[Rich VanValkenburg]

If you've got THAT much spider crap, better carry a sidearm on your next trip to the loft. I hate them buggers.

[Ed Harrow]

Spiders are GOOD! They hold no ill will toward even you, Rich , and eat lots of other stuff you'd like about even less.

Suggestion - with something like this always start with the lightest touch first (ie soap and water, not solvents). Try different appoaches in "inconspicuous areas" LOL and see what you get for results. Unless someone comes up with a known solution (yuk yuk) you might try a book like Heliose's (SP?) helpful hints.

[Lima Bean]

If you are after keeping the spiders out in the future, see if you can find the big fruit from an osage orange still on the tree. Pick them off before they fall, and you can position them around your wood pile. They are said to last for some time, and have an odor that is said to repel the spiders. There is a lady I know that I volunteer with at an outdoor environmental center that swears by this, and has them in her basement around the sill plates. As for the current stains, my hat is off to Ed and the others for starting off with mild clean cleansers.

[Ross Faneuf]

I like the idea of a mild detergent - scrape and wash sounds like a good start. This isn't pigeon roost level. It's cosmetic - unfortunately, cosmetic is a lot of the goal here.

I kind of like spiders - even the big dock spiders. At a distance, of course. Keep them out? LOL - Maine is a bug paradise; fortunately, they're mostly not too large. You couldn't knowingly get me within 100 miles of a Palmetto bug.

Osage orange? I don't even know what that is - I don't guess we have them in Maine.

[This message has been edited by Ross Faneuf (edited 07-17-2001).]

[Bob Cleek]

Sevrin, chloradane, stuff like that... works well. Spray all around the shop up in the corners and what-not every three months or so... kills 'em dead... Those brown recluse's just LOVE scrap wood piles... nasty buggers!

[NormMessinger]

Do not put the Bodarc berrys directly on your boards however. When they rot them make the most gosh awful black fluid you've ever seen.

--Norm

[ken mcclure]

Grew up in Kansas City. We used to call them "hedge apples." Green lumpy things. Great tip for bugs, can't get 'em in Pennsylvania tho. Sounds like a good produce business in the making

The least invasive measure would be to scrape the wood first. If it needs to be surfaced anyway, scrape it and then run it through the planer. If the bugsh^*&^t wasn't too wet, it shouldn't have soaked in too far. You can then work on dealing with whatever's left.

[Rich VanValkenburg]

Ed, I know what the spiders eat. Seen 'em. They run out and bite it and then suck it dry. And most of them can run faster than me! And besides, the only creature that I'll tolerate hairy legs on only has two, not eight.

[paladin]

The tree is properly called "Bois D'Arc" a member of the Yew family and absolutely fantastic for making Bows (as in bows and arrows) among other things......DO NOT put the fruit directly on anything that you do not want to stain......

[NormMessinger]

Proper only if you're French. How about Maclura pomerifa to save argument. The Okies called em what sounded like bodarc when we lived in Okalhoma but then the natives talked so funny I might have the spelling wrong.

--Norm

[PugetSound]

You say these guys aren't all that big . . . ? So what constitutes really big? Frankly these spiders sound big enough to throw their own weight (and ...)around. Why not catch-em tame-em and have them help you with building the boat? You'll be the first on your block!

Oh, and carry a bull wip, just in case they get rowdy.

[T.KAMILA]

Ross, my brother lives west of you in Litchfield on Pleasant pond. Has an old camp type house with a surrounding porch. Went to visit one summer and sat out on the porch only to get spider poop on a new shirt. Every one made a big deal about the spiders’ overhead so my brother got out the vacuum cleaner. Those Maine spiders were big and fat! Sounded like ping-pong balls going up the hose. Never could get the poop of the shirt.

[This message has been edited by T.KAMILA (edited 07-18-2001).]

[paladin]

Norm, I am 6 foot 3 inches tall and 240 pounds and built like John Riggins of the Washington Redskins, and I am an Okie. So what wuzzit you were saying about Okies talking funny?

[paladin]

and also, I have the largest Bois D'Arc in the Yew Ess AYY growing in my front yard, also the oldest known one, and I think have posted it here before, is a National Landmark and the Hanging Judges favorite shade tree............

[Nora Lee]

Ross,
If a mild dish detergent doesn't work, go one step further and use Cascade dishwasher detergent, it has some bleaching qualities which help on my teak decks to take out any stains, without being to harsh.
Not a Hint from Heloise, but a hint from,
Nora Lee

[NormMessinger]

Yikes! Over six feet are ya? Well, like JohnR I'm only a little over five feet, 5' 17" to be precise but ya got me on weight. Why, in the old days if'n I'd stand sidewise ya wunt even see ma shada. So, okay, bois d'arc, but unless yer one of them high tone okies I bet you say it bodarc.

--N rm

[TomRobb]

Toilet paper as needed and then flush?

[This message has been edited by TomRobb (edited 07-19-2001).]

[Stormy Friday]

You could try spitting on the spider doo. The enzymes in your saliva will dissolve the protein in the crap. If you don't think you have enough juice for your lot of stock, you could hire some of "the boys of summer" who seem to have an overabundance of that watery oral secretion which they expectorate habitually. Or you could just spray a little "Shout" on it, let it set for awhile, then scrub with a brush and rinse.

[Ross Faneuf]

Thanks to DasBoat and all others who suggested dish soap (Ivory, in my case). It worked fine, the crap has vanished, and the mahogany hardly lost any color at all. One for the handy hints column.

[Hughman2]

Spiders to osage orange...I get a chuckle out of the way these threads morph. osage orange makes great deadeyes, lizards, heart blocks etc. Also persimmon, locust, and of course lignum vitae. I wish I had some. Paladinsfo, can you cut me a hunk of that shrub in your yard? ...just kidding