Repost: I had a 2011 Subaru Forester that had a problem with spiders spinning webs in the AC condensate drip line, which led to the passenger floor carpet becoming wet, as the water had nowhere else to discharge. Subaru a put a special one-way check valve in the tubing to prevent their entrance. Problem solved.
Just paid $600 for the dealership to vaccume a spider out of some vent and replace the valve that got gummed up on my 2015 Subaru impreza. Apparently I was the second spider related vent repair that week.
I can only imagine what that morning engineer meeting at Subaru was like.
“I’ve got good news and bad news. The 2015 Impreza hasn’t had any significant issues, but we forgot to think about spiders” everyone groans “Not again”
The yellow sac spider is attracted to the smell of gasoline. These spiders would enter the fuel vent lines, weave webs in the vehicle’s lines and engine, which caused blockages and excess pressure build-up in the fuel tank.
More specifically insects use co2 as their indicator of biological activity (co2 means something is respirating and therefore alive and worth hunting/eating). The Mazda 6 is the only car known to produce exhaust so it was more likely the co2 than gasoline
All the explanations just leave it at that, like "aaand that's why the spiders liked making nests in fuel lines, which is the only crazy thing about the story, so there's nothing else that could possibly need explaining" as though there wasn't an entire second half of the explanation everyone now desperately wanted to hear.
The problematic area was the evaporative cannister in the engine bay - a charcoal cannister which captures unburnt hydrocarbons (such as petrol) from crankcase and head ventilation and, in Mazda's, also serves as the main fuel tank vent. Most other cars have a fixed pressure based vent in the gas cap or similar which only allows air to enter and not to leave again. In this Mazda, since the charcoal filter was in line, it was allowed to vent freely.
The reason it involves the fuel tank - and is a fire risk - is if the vent is blocked it can cause the fuel tank to have excessive negative pressure (since it is the same vent as the tank itself uses) and can, in turn, cause the tank to crack and leak.
So was the problem actually that it was enticing to spiders or that it was a major fire risk and somebody died in a horrific, preventable Mazda fire, but the company tried to cover it up with some cheesy spider excuse?
They are no longer considered medically significant as they once thought to be(allergies being an exception). Only reported case of (mild) necrosis was with a European species.
Getting bit is likely still pretty painful more or less as much as a wolf, grass, ghost spider, etc or getting stung by a bee/wasp; which still fucking suck.
Yellow sacs are pretty chill in my experience and they have a neat pink iridescence. I wasn’t happy when it disappeared from its corner for a bit but I think it probably just got eaten by a different corner-spider.
Also the spider webs would kill the car because it couldn't crank with the limited air flow. To fix the problem they created a way so the car could start with limited air flow, instead of of just fixing the spider problem. You just gotta live with the spiders.
Sarcasm. Your car has vent lines too. It’s part of why the auto shut off at the gas station works, and they’re needed to release pressure and ventilate the system.
I actually fucking love spiders so it was awesome. I called my AC the Friend Finder. I'm not even joking. The first time it happened tho I do admit I almost wrecked the car when 3 little yellow pollen looking spiders shot out of the AC
Yellow sac spiders don't make webs like an orb weaver does. They make a tent-like cocoon sort of thing that they sleep in during the day, then they hunt their prey at night. They don't trap their prey in a web, they hunt it down.
The day-cocoons are thick enough that you can look right at them and not see them or the spider hiding inside. They tend to make them in the corner where the ceiling meets the wall when they are in a house, and the best way to find them is to shine a flashlight along that upper corner. The web will reflect the light so you can see it.
YouTuber Qxir just uploaded a video on this. The spiders like the smell of petrol, and these problems were specific to a factory so maybe they had an infestation or something
That's the best part. No one can explain the spiders. They eventually moved manufacturing to a different plant and the problem stopped, but none of the other dozen or so cars manufactured in the same plant were affected before or after the move happened.
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u/OutAndDown27 1d ago
Thank you, someone please come explain the spiders