Taming Spiders In and Around Your Home
Spiders can be found in many locations – closets, garages or building a web outside your kitchen window - in and around your home. And while spiders are quite beneficial to our eco-system – they eat unwanted insect pests – most folks still get creeped out when they encounter one.
Two of the most common eight-legged arachnids Clark Pest Control customers in California and Nevada encounter are the black widow and the long-legged cellar spider.
The black widow can deliver a painful bite that in some instances can pose a serious health risk including anaphylactic shock. But despite its macabre name black widow spiders are actually quite shy and prefer to build their webs in dry, protected locations where its prey – other insects – like to travel.
Black widows prefer basements, crawlspaces, barns, sheds, meter boxes, brick veneer, eaves and attics to spin their webs which are approximately one foot in diameter. Once its prey gets caught up in the web black widows paralyze them with their venom. Ouch!
The long-legged cellar spider (sometimes referred to as the “daddy long-legs” spider) is a harmless web builder and can be found in garages, eaves, attics, sheds and many other places around your home.
Spiders enter houses and other structures through cracks and other openings. They also may be carried in on items like plants, firewood, and boxes. The Clark Man recommends regular vacuuming or sweeping of windows, corners of rooms, storage areas, basements, and other seldom used areas to remove spiders and their webs. You can also bring out the vacuum cleaner and suck them up since their soft bodies do not survive this process.
How can you prevent spiders from coming indoors and giving you a good fright? As is the case with many insects and rodents, sealing cracks in the foundation and other parts of your home and gaps around windows and doors will deny spiders (and other pests) easy access.
Inside your home, place boxes off the floor and away from walls to lessen the attraction to spiders to set up residence. Be sure to seal boxes with tape to prevent spiders from scampering inside and clean up clutter in garages, closets, pantries, sheds, basements, and other storage areas.
Outdoors, you can eliminate spider hiding places and web-building areas by keeping your yard free of trash, leaf litter and overgrown vegetation. Make sure to trim shrubs and plants near the house and other structures to discourage spiders (and other pests that could serve as dinner!) from establishing a foothold.
Your outdoor lighting will attract flying insects, which in turn can attract spiders looking for a meal. When possible, keep lighting fixtures off structures and away from windows and doorways and regularly sweep, dust, hose, or vacuum webs and spiders off your home on a regular basis.
To avoid an unpleasant encounter with a spider be sure to wear gloves when going through boxes, removing items from storage areas or stacking firewood and removing brush.
Clark Pest Control’s Pest-Away® service is the best solution for your home spider control needs. Through routinely sweeping for webs and treating your accessible eaves, as well as regular control measures in harborage areas, we control spider populations for our customers.
If you are having issues with spiders, call 800/WE-NEED-YOU or drop me an e-mail at clarkcares@clarkpest.com.
Until next time, I’m the Clark Man and thanks for helping me keep unwanted pests out of your home.