mothra
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 23
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Post by mothra on May 29, 2008 1:05:24 GMT -5
Heya, peeps, While I was standing on a chair in my kitchen today, checking my gas meter readings for Con Edison, I looked over to my left and noticed ... cobwebs. Several of them. This was mildly disconcerting (there are squalor issues in my apartment that bother me more), but it was completely a new thing, so it kind of threw me for a loop. Well, cobwebs are old things, yes, but my NOTICING the cobwebs was new. How does one get rid of them in such a way that they don't float down gracefully and touch one's face or hair? Ew. I sliced through one of them with a sheet of paper, but the loose end just sort of hovered there afterwards, because it was so light. Truly ew.  Do experienced cobweb killers use some sort of a Swiffer thing on a stick? And then just wash out whatever sort of a head they have stuck on the stick? Looking forward to your thoughts ...  Mothra |
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Post by DJ on May 29, 2008 2:31:23 GMT -5
i tend to just vacuum the suckers up. don't have the heart to kill the spiders but demolish the cobwebs with a vengance. thank you dyson.
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Post by eagle on May 29, 2008 4:50:36 GMT -5
A clean broom is good. A dirty broom leaves evidence behind on the ceiling or walls, so that's not good for catching those cobwebs. But a clean broom is good at catching them.
Because my broom tends to stay clean only if I don't use it to sweep the floor, I don't happen to have a clean one for very long unless I just had to replace the old one with a new one. Therefore, I use a long-handled dust-mop-type thing for the ceiling and corners of the room and above the curtain rods areas that are hard to reach and collect dust or cobwebs. It sort of looks like a fuzzy wand at the end of a stick. It catches the cobweb pretty well, but dust is another story. That tends to float down onto a lower surface, hence I hold the stick at an angle so it doesn't float down on me.
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Post by minball on May 29, 2008 6:55:49 GMT -5
I tend to have a lot of cobwebs in my house! To deal with them, I put a clean rag over the bristly end of my broom and scoop them up with that. By sort of twirling the broom as I sweep up from the wall up and out towards the ceiling, I have less trouble with the webs and dust raining down on me. I used to use a microfiber rag that supposedly attracted dust particles using static electricity, but a regular rag seems to hold on to the dust just as well.
(To be perfectly honest, I actually ask my husband to do this chore, because I can't hold something as heavy as a broom up in the air for very long. Maybe I should look into buying a light, long-handled dust mop like eagle mentions, so I can do it myself!)
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Post by Script on May 30, 2008 8:57:51 GMT -5
we live in an old house in an old neighbourhood. we have no screens or storm windows. there is always a lot of reno work, reconstruction, repairs, rebuilding in this area. This means:
*dust
*insects & animals disturbed
We also have strict laws now for pesticides: this means MORE BUGS.
Just this morning I vacuumed up various bits of bug debris and nests and webs. They appear overnight!
If I vacuum up a LOT of webs and live bugs and so on, I will put in a fresh vacuum bag.
I am not personally able to use the rag method (these bugs really trouble me at some very deep level) . Also I do not like to hold a broom. I do not think I have swept a kitchen floor more than 3 times in my adult life. I use my vacuum (canister model with lots attachments) for everything
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on May 30, 2008 9:50:29 GMT -5
Rubber-band a wash cloth over your broom and whack em down! I always wondered where cobwebs come from? Was a spider walking on the ceiling and started to spin a web, then moved on? I hate spiders. I know one crawled on my face last summer while I was sleeping, because it woke me up!
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Post by fluffychild on May 31, 2008 10:39:16 GMT -5
I always consider that cobwebs add character to a room. Better a cobweb, than a mouse. When I have to remove cobwebs, I use the broom with a towel on top. I wish that cobwebs were my biggest problem.
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hollymaid
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 99
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Post by hollymaid on May 31, 2008 12:04:01 GMT -5
Cobwebs are a useful tool if you are looking for drafts in your house. Spiders build them where there are drafts.
I hate spiders to! I use the vaccum and vaccum them up when I see them.
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on May 31, 2008 16:58:15 GMT -5
When I was a teenager,I'd pay my younger brother to kill spiders in my room. One cent a piece. What a bargain! I used to vacuum them up and leave them to die (I hope) in my vacuum bag. Now I spray them with Raid, and when they fall to the ground I step on them (with shoes, of course).
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Post by messysue on Jun 1, 2008 20:21:12 GMT -5
I use a broom.
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messymoo
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 12
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Post by messymoo on Jun 2, 2008 6:28:04 GMT -5
I use vacuum to get at them. My kids have a name for those long hanging cobwebs that seem to appear overnight: ceiling worms! Don't ask why but we've called them that for years since my oldest spotted them blowing in a draught from his ceiling!
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mothra
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 23
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Post by mothra on Jun 2, 2008 20:12:05 GMT -5
Yay, I found the cobwebs thread again! Thanks, all. You as a group seem split between the soft-object-on-a-long-stick method and the vacuum method. Since my squalor is such that I, uh, am not exactly sure where the vacuum is right now, or at least the small handheld one that might be useful against the cobwebs, I am now going to try out the Swiffer (with the dry rag on the end) that I just bought and successfully assembled. (no, cobwebs are not the greatest of my squalor issues ... somewhere I once read that it's good to start with the highest point in any room you are cleaning and work downwards, since, as a couple of you pointed out, dirt does fall down, not up! And there's plenty of stuff for it to fall on in this apartment ... )  Thanks, all; I do feel better after reading all your experienced and calm responses! Mothra PS I am pretty sure cobwebs come from somewhere other than spiders' silk sacs. They are accretions of dust. But what makes the dust particles stick together? That's what I don't know. If I go and Google an answer to that right now, it'll be fun, but it will also just be procrastinating, boo, so I think I shall do a real scientific experiment to prove the hypothesis that A Swiffer Will Inflict Damage Upon Cobwebs. Now. Really. I'm walking away from the computer ... once I finish this sentence.  Thanks again! |
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mothra
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 23
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Post by mothra on Jun 2, 2008 20:46:14 GMT -5
... and thanks again!
Experiment results:
Using a Swiffer (or, generically, a microfiber mop, as the ads at the top of the page call it, because the ad-generating software picked up on my using the word Swiffer, ha) seems to be effective. Much dirt was picked up, no spiders.
Swiffers come with a very light aluminum pole, much lighter than a broom, I think. The rotating head makes it easy to attack cobwebs at an angle, as someone recommended, so I did not get draped in cobwebs, which would have been eewwwwy. This chore was not hard on my shoulders or back; it was less tiring than, say, washing and combing out my hair (another arms-over-the-head sort of task).
Cobwebs are messy enough that I did have to use a paper towel to clean the pole of the Swiffer and remove the microfiber cloth and throw it away. No major problem there, though.
I hate to admit it, but I caught myself thinking that the job was ... kinda fun.
This experiment was conducted at night, by the light of a fluorescent ceiling light; I shall have to check during the day, tomorrow, by light from the kitchen window, which gives a very different view.
:-)
Thanks again; I hope this thread is useful to others, too!
Mothra
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Post by reesa on Jun 5, 2008 23:03:15 GMT -5
from urban legends.com "Spiders leave fine silky threads behind them just about everywhere they go. If such a thread is left in a place where they won't be broken - say in a corner on the ceiling - they can stay there for a long time. During that time, dust particles stick to it. Then, more dust particles stick to those particles due to static electricity. Then, more dust particles... and so on. After a few months, you have a cobweb.
"
wikipedia, strangely enough, redirects you to "spiderweb"...which is a totally different thing.
They're spider silk lines that collect dust.
haha I couldn't resists looking them up!
I just use the broom and try not to hit the wall with it- but usually I leave them. I kind of like them.
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on Jun 6, 2008 1:59:57 GMT -5
Last summer I discovered that spiders, which I fear and thus hate- are actually beneficial creatures. They rid us of thousands of insects, disgusting as they may look. They are also very elegant creatures. As they spin their webs, they float or "fly" on warm rising summer air vapors. Makes me wonder at God's creation. Just as the Heavenly Father created kittens and rainbows, He created spiders,too. A marvel of engineering. Yet they seem relegated to dark corners. And many people (read:Fluffernut) hate and fear them.
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