A Helpful Guide To Keeping Spiders Out Of Your Spring Home
Fall is arriving, and the leaves are changing from green to beautiful red, orange, and yellow colors; the temperature is beginning to drop, and less humid air is blowing through our part of Texas. We are finally receiving much-needed relief from the hot summer days.
Pumpkin patches, hayrides, and corn mazes, haunted houses are popping up in various locations in Spring. The fall season is when ghosts, goblins, and monsters take center stage with their favorite scary pest: spiders. Haunted houses are full of spider webs and overgrown, mechanical spiders lunging at guests to frighten them as they walk through the dark, spooky rooms.
It is normal to expect spiders in haunted houses, but not in our homes. We don't like to walk into a spider web as we walk down the steps into the basement; nor do we want to encounter an arachnid's sticky silk trap when we are in the attic looking for that old Halloween decoration.
If you encounter spider webs in your house or spiders are running across your floor, you need to secure the best pest control in Spring, Modern Pest Control. Our company has alleviated Spring homeowners from the stress of spiders for over 70 years using up-to-date pest control methods. Our highly-trained pest control experts have the tools, training, and experience to stop spiders from scaring you in your home.
Types Of Spiders You May Find In Your Home
Thousands of spider species exist worldwide, and according to the best estimates, about 900 live here in Texas. Despite the many types of spiders in Texas, they all have eight legs, multiple eyes, fangs, and an external skeleton known as an exoskeleton.
Before we discuss the various spider species you may find in your Spring home, you must understand the difference between spiders and insects. Unlike insects, spiders have two body segments instead of three. Also, spiders do not have wings or antennae. Like some insects, all spiders use venom to paralyze and kill their prey. Spiders also differ from insects because some species create webs to trap their prey, which is often insects! Spiders avoid humans when possible, but will attack if threatened, cornered, or squeezed — females are likely to attack if eggs are in a nearby egg sac. Due to these differences, spiders are classified as arachnids and not insects.
Common spiders in Texas you may encounter in your Spring home are the following:
Wolf spiders: In general, these spiders are characterized by a hairy, dark brown, grey, or black 1/4 to 1 3/8-inch body with a pink or salmon underside. Wolf spiders have stripes or a Union Jack mark on their back. Each of the eight legs of a wolf spider has three claws enabling it to climb and run fast. These spiders have three rows of eight eyes, including two large eyes in the middle row. Unlike other spider species, wolf spiders do not build webs but hunt their prey by chasing them down and plunging their fangs into them. Although most arachnids have poor eyesight, wolf spiders have good vision enabling them to be good hunters at night. You will find wolf spiders around baseboards near the floor.
Jumping spiders: Most spiders are nocturnal and hunt at night, but the jumping spider is an exception. This black, short-legged, hairy spider has white markings on its 1/8 to 3/4-inch body. With their excellent daytime eyesight, jumping spiders can detect movement 18 inches away as it hunts insects around windows and doors. In addition to their excellent vision, another powerful feature of jumping spiders is their ability to jump 25 times the size of their body. Although people confuse black widows and jumping spiders, the main difference is that the venom of the jumping spider will not harm humans.
Ground spiders: Known also as grass spiders, funnel web spiders, funnel weavers, and sheet-web spiders, this spider produces a unique horizontal sheet-like web with its two spinnets that may be up to three feet wide. At the base of the web, the spider weaves up to a foot-long funnel leading to dense vegetation or a rock crevice. Beyond the unique web, these spiders are identifiable by a pair of dark, brown bands on the sides of their 3/4-inch body.
Spiny orb weaver spiders: Although there are over 180 different orb weaver species in the United States and approximately 2,800 orb weaver species worldwide, they have one common characteristic: large, round webs. The spiny orb weaver is prevalent in Spring and is so-called because of the six red-pointed spines protruding from its oval abdomen. Unlike the usual brown or black colors, this spider species has a white or yellow abdomen with black spots. Male spiny orb weavers are not as colorful as females due to their grey bodies and smaller spines.
Garden orb weavers: Like all orb weavers, this spider produces large, circular webs; however, unlike the colorful spiny orb weaver, it has a fat, reddish grey or brown triangular-like abdomen with a leaf-shaped pattern. You will find these spiders around lit outdoor light fixtures at night and in the garden, tree branches, and bushes.
Brown recluse spiders: One of two venomous spiders in Texas, the brown recluse has a 1/4 to 1/2-inch round brown or yellowish-grey body with a darker brown fiddle-shaped marking on its back (dorsum). This spider is known as a "recluse" because it creates its messy, irregular web in undisturbed, warm, dry locations like closets, crawlspaces, under furniture, window moldings, and attics.
Black widow spiders: These are the second most venomous spiders in the United States and are in Texas. This spider is identifiable by its shiny black abdomen, where two reddish-orange triangle patterns merge to form an hourglass on the underside. Black widows are so-called because, in some cases, the female will kill the male upon mating. These spiders create their irregular-shaped homes in dark, dry, protected areas in barns and sheds near ground level.
Crab spiders: Because two of its eight legs protrude from its body, giving it a crab-like appearance, this spider is called a crab spider. Some crab spiders hunt by sitting on flowers camouflaged and waiting for prey to come to them. Crab spiders have impressive patterns on their 1/4 to 1/2-inch body and range in color from white to yellow and brown to red.
Although there are variations within many of these species, like the orb weaver spiders, these are the common spiders in texas you will see around your Spring home.
Why You Don't Want Spiders Hanging Around Your House
Most of us don't want spiders in our homes out of fear. When we see spiders in our house, we are afraid we will swallow a spider while we sleep, we are frightened that a spider may attack, and we fear the effects of a spider's bite. Let's address these common fears before we discuss why you don't want common household spiders hanging around.
First, spiders do not get into your mouth while you sleep. Spiders avoid humans as much as possible, so they have no desire to crawl into your mouth. As we sleep, most spiders are hunting prey or tending their webs and are not interested in investigating our mouths. Furthermore, spiders are sensitive to vibrations and pulsings produced by snoring, and the heart beating scares spiders away from sleeping humans.
Second, spiders are not aggressive and do not attack people. A spider is prone to only bite when it feels threatened, cornered, or squeezed. Female spiders with a sac full of eggs are indeed more protective, but even then, they do not rush out to attack. Unless you are handling a spider, poking your hand into its web, or inadvertently squeezing a spider caught in your clothing, they will leave you alone.
Third, bites from most spiders are painless because their fangs are not long enough to pierce human skin; however, some spiders cause pain at the bite site akin to a bee sting.
Why don't you want spiders hanging around your Spring home? Spiders in the house mean an abundance of insects like moths, butterflies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, ants, fleas, and caterpillars in or near your Spring home. For example, a spider infestation may indicate cockroaches are in your Spring home spreading disease-causing pathogens. Cockroaches crawl over garbage, rotting food, sewage, and animal feces, picking up pathogens on the spines of their legs. Later the disease-causing organisms fall off their bodies and contaminate surfaces.
A bunch of spiders may indicate a large population of fleas and mosquitoes in the house. These insects spread diseases when they bite infected rodents and then bite humans in the home. Illnesses caused by insects are too numerous to mention here, but a few common ones are; tularemia, salmonellosis, typhoid fever, cholera, gastroenteritis, dysentery, and an E. coli infection. Spiders in your home are a warning sign of something potentially much worse.
Two common house spiders in Texas are the black widow and brown recluse spiders, and you do not want them in your house. A bite from either of these spiders will trigger a reaction. In addition to fever, restlessness, and difficulty sleeping, a wound from a brown recluse will result in a painful blister that may form an ulcer. A black widow's bite causes fever, nausea, increased blood pressure, and pain at the bite site. Bites from either spider are rarely deadly, but they require medical treatment to prevent further complications, which is why you don't want these in your house.
Naturally Effective Spider Prevention Tips For Around The House
Use these tips to prevent spiders in the home:
Remove debris like rotting logs, old tires, and leaf piles from your property.
Declutter the garage, basement, and attic by removing old magazines, unused cardboard storage boxes, and other items.
Use sealable plastic totes instead of cardboard boxes.
Provide proper ventilation to the bathrooms, basement, attic, and crawlspace.
Replace exterior lights with bug lights or LED lighting.
Limit the use of outdoor porch and deck lights at night.
Keep window shades drawn at night to minimize light escaping.
Repair or install screens over the windows, doors, attic vents, and chimneys.
Install door sweeps.
Seal all foundation cracks, gaps around incoming pipes and wires, and openings along the roof line.
Keep garbage cans inside and outside the home closed and elevate outdoor garbage cans.
Remove pet feces from the yard.
Remove pet food from bowls before bed at night.
Store food products in sealable air-tight containers.
Wipe down eating and cooking surfaces after each meal.
Vacuum the floors and use a wand attachment to suction out cracks.
Implementing these tips will remove enticements for insects to your Spring property. If insects are not invading your property, you will not have spiders following them. These tips keep insects who come onto your Spring property out of your house, which means you will not have spiders following them through entry points. These measures will help reduce the insect population in your home and cause the spiders to leave in search of better food sources.
The Best Way To Keep Spiders Out Of Your Home
Although the previously mentioned prevention tips help prevent future infestations and reduce current insect and spider problems, the best way to get rid of spiders in the house is to call our professionals from Modern Pest Control. During your free inspection, our trained pest control professionals will conduct a thorough examination inside and outside your Spring home. We will identify the spiders infesting your home, hot spots, entry points, and nesting locations. Upon reviewing our findings from the inspection, we will develop a personalized treatment plan using the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) method and treat your house using environmentally sensitive products to create a barrier around your home.
Our six decades of experience give us the knowledge, tools, and confidence that we can solve your spider infestation. We believe in our approach so much that if you have problems with spiders between our scheduled treatments, we will come to your home to address the matter at no additional cost.
Your Spring house should be a place of refuge and relaxation; there is no need to live in fear of spiders in your house. Contact us today and schedule your free inspection.