by Bruce Estes

Many of us with hangars at Lincoln Airport have been bothered by the LARGE presence of black widow spider, and some of these spiders are HUGE. It’s a bit unnerving to have a humongous black widow hanging around the handle that we use to open our hangar doors. I found a large one under the chair that I sit on in my hangar. This was in the summer when I typically wear shorts. The spider was about 3 inches from my bare thigh. Yes, this got my attention.

I have had great results from using “Hot Shot” no mess foggers, purchased in a three pack from Home Depot. I set one off at the rear of my hangar, behind the tail of my airplane, on the ground. I set the other two in front of the wings, again, on the ground. Then, close the hangar doors and go away for a day. Come back and sweep up a LOT of dead bugs. The “no mess” foggers have not affected the finish on any of my airplanes, leaving ZERO residue. And, the foggers are very effective in getting under shelving, workbenches, etc. to kill everything. I find that fogging the hangar about every 6 months seems to keep the black widows under control.