You may have noticed a spider roaming around your home on occasion, but it's a different story if they’ve already built nests. Not only is a spider nest a dreadful sight and nuisance, but it can also lead to a troubling concern for homeowners soon, as more spiders are also set to emerge.
Where exactly do spider nests exist? Some of them are known to create small nests or spider silk sacs in dark, secluded areas of homes. Some examples are the corners of the wall or the ceiling. If this is something you’ve come across, action must be taken immediately to deter these pests from invading your personal space. Keep reading below to learn more about spider nests and what you can do to permanently remove them from your home.
Spiders like to build nests in hidden, undisturbed areas where moisture and food are available. Spiders don't require much water, but moisture often attracts other bugs, so a sac spider will usually choose to nest nearby.
Indoors, they prefer to make nests in the attic, garage, or basement. They’re also known to tuck their nests in corners of high ceilings or wherever there may be clutter. Outdoors, you may find them in corners and eaves of your home, door, windows, and other points of entry.
To make it more manageable for you to locate a spider's nest, you might want to look for a spider web with small sacs of webbing that are cream-colored and round or oblong-shaped. The egg sac of a regular female spider holds about 100 eggs or developing larvae, but some large spiders can produce a sac that holds up to 2,000 spider eggs.
Aside from spider's eggs and nests themselves, spotting little spiderlings or baby spiders crawling around is an obvious sign that there may be a nest nearby. Seeing spider corpse, small spider, and spider molts may also mean your home is infested.
The most common house spider species like the cobweb spider (which makes cobwebs often imitated in horror movies and used as Halloween decor), cellar spider, hobo spider, and wolf spider are typically found indoors, while the garden spider, yellow garden spider, huntsman spider (known to consume pygmy possums), jumping spider, hunting spider, crab spider, widow spider species like the black widow, jumping spiders, and mygalomorph spiders are mostly found outdoors in gardens, tree, and lawns.
The species that live outdoors are normally seen during late summer and fall. Regarded as vicious predators, these spiders typically feed on flying insects, birds, roaches, tarantulas, crickets, grasshoppers, lizards, frogs, and rodents. These arachnid species are aggressive when provoked and can deliver a painful sting with toxic venom to anyone they perceive as an enemy.
One of the easiest ways to stop a spider infestation is by cleaning your home regularly. Vacuuming can be done in two ways, either as a preventive method or a quick solution. You can use the vacuum cleaner to free your house from dirt, food crumbs, dust, and grime. These are what spiders prey on, so spiders are most likely to stay around if there are plenty of these in your home. As a quick solution, you can use the vacuum to get rid of cobwebs. Use the long head of your vacuum and suck in the webs, spider egg sac, and spiders. These arachnids have soft exoskeletons, so they won't handle the injury of being vacuumed. Don't forget to check the gaps, crevices, and hole in your house.
Spiders aren’t after human food, and they don't like humans either. What they seem to like are other arthropods and insects. Like humans who need proper and regular sustenance, spiders die if they don't get food. An effective way to control a spider infestation is to eliminate their food supply. Prevent insects from getting inside your home by making sure all windows and doors are in working condition. If you have other bug and insect worries, seek the help of professional pest management technicians to exterminate pests. Moreover, practice good sanitation and food storage procedures.
While often used for rodent and cockroach control, glue traps are also effective spider catchers. Place the traps throughout your home, and don’t forget areas like closets, garages, attics, basements, baseboards, corners, and other heavy spider traffic areas. The more traps you deploy, the better you can decrease the spider population in your home. However, you should be careful when placing traps and ensure that they’re located out of the reach of children and pets.
Don't neglect the areas outside your home. Make it less attractive for spiders by eliminating clutter such as rocks, wood, and compost piles. Caulk all cracks in your home to reduce entry points. Seal windows with proper screens and seal doors with sweeps and weather strips. Clean window shutters frequently and remove any cobwebs in your home. It's also important that you keep your storage areas and sheds tidy.
Bugs are attracted to light, and spiders love bugs, so if you want to keep spiders out of your home, you should be wary of how you light your home. You can lessen the amount of outdoor lighting you use to reduce the number of bugs and wasp species attracted to your home. You can also change existing lighting with sodium vapor lights or yellow lights, which are less inviting to bugs. If you need bright outdoor lighting, try to set the actual light source like the bulb and fixture away from probable spider entryways like doors and windows.
If you decide to eliminate spiders independently, do it safely. Always observe all instructions and obey all warnings on the product's label. Residual insecticides can be used in areas where spiders like to nest, such as corners, attics, basements, and garages. Doing the barrier treatment around your home's foundation also works. Total release foggers aren’t very efficient for spiders, but slow-release (microencapsulated) formulations and wettable powders are helpful.
Learn More: How to Kill Spiders
If the methods mentioned above seem like a challenging endeavor, it's because it actually is. Let our professional pest specialists at Positive Pest Management do the work for you. With more than 20 years of experience, a proven work record, and countless satisfied customers, we deliver the highest quality pest control results to ensure that your home is pest-free. Call us now, and our competent staff will assist you with any of your exterminating needs.
