The Trick To Keeping Spiders Out Of Your Spring Home

We have all had to deal with spiders, whether it is by finding a web with our faces or noticing one crawling around outside. If you are unfortunate enough, you may have dealt with these pests inside your home in the past. Maybe you are here today seeking an answer to an existing infestation. Regardless of what has brought you to us, we would like to do our best to provide you with some helpful information. Here is everything you need to know about different kinds of spiders in Spring, such as why they are a problem, the way they get inside, and how to get and keep them out. For direct information about professional services to handle an active infestation inside your home, call our team at Modern Pest Control. Let us show you why professional pest control in Spring is the absolute best way to handle different types of spiders indoors. For more information about these pests, continue reading.

Habits And Behaviors Of Common Spiders

Spiders are arthropods that breathe air. They have eight legs, fangs, and venom. Here in Spring, we have many different types of spiders. All can be broken down into two main groups; ground spiders and web spiders. 

Ground spiders utilize their mobility to hunt insects, arthropods, and other arachnids. They mostly stick to the ground and love hiding between storage boxes, under logs/rocks, and inside clutter. Ground spiders often have a flatter appearance, large bodies, thick agile legs, and more visible fangs. These pests are common home invaders as they often find gaps, cracks, and other openings while hunting. 

Web spiders do not wander as much as ground spiders and like to utilize carefully crafted webs to catch their prey. These webs are found in a variety of locations including between trees, in the corners of rooms, and over bushes, trees, and grass. Web spiders typically have small bodies, large abdomens, and thin legs. When these pests invade homes they tend to stick to areas of low human foot traffic where other bugs are active. 

One thing you should know about spiders is that they are not affected by the weather in the same way other local pests are. Their bodies do not freeze in the cold and they can withstand temperatures above 100 degrees without dying. The things that draw these pests into local homes are curiosity and hunger. If you suspect spiders are crawling around your property, bring in our team for a thorough pest inspection. We know how to identify these pests and how to tell harmless spiders from more dangerous species in our area.

All spiders are not created equal. Females are typically much larger than males. This is referred to as sexual size dimorphism. Certain species, including orb weavers, have extreme sexual size dimorphism and have females that are double the size of their male counterparts. With widow spiders, only females are dangerous. In fact, all black widows are female. 

The bodies of spiders are separated into two main parts, the cephalothorax, and the abdomen. The cephalothorax is covered with a protective structure called the sternum. The abdomen holds inside of itself the heart, gut, reproductive organs, and silk glands of the spider. All of these things are important, as you can imagine. Although all spiders can produce silk, not all species use this silk to produce webs, as we previously talked about. Some spiders use their webs to create slingshots, submarines, and even hang-gliders. If you ever saw baby spiders floating around on the wind, this is due to their webs.

How Spiders In The House Could Mean A Bigger Problem

There are many problems that spiders cause that are considered to be more of a nuisance than a threat. This includes building webs in between doorposts and catching people off guard. If you have a fear of spiders and a heart problem, however, a scare from one of these pests could cause more serious issues. Make sure you understand your risk and do your best to avoid these pests as they can cause emotional harm.

Although all spiders are a problem, they are not all dangerous. It is important that you can tell the difference between a harmful arachnid and one that only looks scary. The two common species of dangerous spiders in Spring are black widow spiders and brown recluse spiders. 

The black widow is 1 ½ to 1 ⅜” long, black, and has a red hourglass mark on the underside of its bulbous abdomen. This web-building spider makes irregular nests low to the ground and occasionally invades homes in our area. A bite from a black widow is incredibly painful and comes with a myriad of symptoms including nausea, vomiting, breathing difficulties, rash, sweating, itchiness, swelling, and muscle stiffness. Neurological symptoms like irritability, constant crying, fatigue when walking, tachycardia, muscle spasms, nystagmus, sialorrhoea, and seizures can also accompany bites.

The brown recluse is ¼ to ½” long, light to dark brown, and has a dark marking that looks like a violin just behind its head. This ground spider is often mistaken for other harmless species in our area due to its brown color and small size. A bite from a brown recluse is necrotic and causes almost immediate pain. Over time necrosis of the bite site can spread and cause a nasty ulcer. Other common symptoms of brown recluse venom are fever, chills, and body aches.

The only upside to dangerous spiders is that their attacks are often harmless. This isn’t to say that their venom isn’t powerful, just that they do not always inject it with their bites. Spiders use dry bites to scare off potential threats and will only inject venom if they feel their life is at risk. Keeping this in mind, it is always best to be cautious around these pests. If you are bitten and start to experience symptoms, seek medical attention. This is the best way to reduce pain and the risk of more serious medical complications.

If you plan on traveling to a foreign country, we highly recommend researching the local spider population. Although only two species of dangerous spiders live here in Spring, there are hundreds around the globe. The best way to avoid a potentially life-threatening bite is to know how to identify harmful species and avoid these pests as much as possible. It might be hard to imagine, but there are spiders more dangerous than the brown recluse and black widow.

Something you should know is how spiders breed. These pests do not lay eggs one at a time but rather in groups. They then bundle these eggs up inside of a silk-woven sac. Most female spiders produce egg sacs with between 2 and 1000 eggs. These eggs can take anywhere from two to three weeks to hatch. If spiders are inside your home and are able to find a constant source of food, they will lay eggs in a secluded location. If you do not spot these sacs before they hatch, you could be dealing with hundreds of baby spiders crawling or even floating around inside your home. This is something that even chills us to our core and is what we work hard to actively prevent at Modern Pest Control. If want help getting spiders and their eggs out of your home, we are here to help.

Environmentally-Friendly Spider And Pest Prevention Tips

Now that you know how spiders get into homes and why they are a big problem, let’s take some time to discuss methods to prevent these pests. Although there are many great professional options for spider control, we think it is important that you also know some environmentally-friendly DIY prevention strategies. Here are six methods to start with today.

1. Thoroughly inspect your home’s exterior. Look for gaps and cracks in your foundation and things like damage to siding and loose-fitting trim. Seal gaps and cracks using some silicone caulk or liquid cement. If you are not equipped to handle other potential entry points in your exterior walls, hire a contractor.
2. Inspect your home’s windows and doors for gaps and cracks. It might help to feel for warm or cold air currents where a seal might be broken. If air can get in, so can spiders. When you find a leak, use weatherstripping or door sweeps to seal it. If the problem is with the door or window itself, consider replacing it entirely.
3. Check screens on windows and doors. The average lifespan of a screen with general wear and tear is 10 years. This does not mean, however, that other damage will not occur at this time. If you find screens that are torn or damaged in other ways, replace them. We also recommend installing screens on doors and windows you like to keep open.
4. Build a habit of not leaving unscreened doors and windows open. Sometimes pests like spiders get in right under our noses. It is important that you understand this and only use unscreened entrance points when you can monitor them for entering and exiting pests.
5. Keep exterior lights off after it gets dark out. Although spiders themselves are not attracted to light, other pests are. If bright bulbs draw other insects and arthropods into your home, spiders will follow them inside. To keep the lights on, consider investing in warm-colored LED lights. These are proven to be less appealing to insects.
6. Thoroughly check boxes, furniture, and other items before bringing them into your home. Spiders often make their webs or hide inside of boxes of holiday decorations and other stored items. If you carry an item inside that is hiding spider, or worse, a spider egg sac, you could unintentionally start an infestation inside your home.

Most people do not have the time to implement these DIY tips. Even if you do have the time, a single missed gap, crack, or opening is all a spider needs to get indoors. If you have zero tolerance for these arachnids and the pests they hunt, you need something better. One great option you have is professional pest control. What we recommend is discussing options with our team at Modern Pest Control. We are well-educated and trained to handle all sorts of local pest problems. Our general pest control services cover a range of invasive species including spiders. 

Professional Pest Control Is The Best Method Of Spider Control

Not everyone is looking for a comprehensive pest control plan that keeps out every single invasive species in our area. Some just want a solution for spiders and other common pests. At Modern Pest Control, we understand this, so we offer an amazing basic plan that starts at 35$ a month. We keep this cost as low as possible so that everyone can have access to basic pest freedom. If you want something more comprehensive that covers more unique pests like termites, we have options for that as well. It all starts with a thorough inspection of your home and property. This involves one of our technicians evaluating your indoor and outdoor areas for living pests and signs of pest activity. If they find anything that indicates an active problem, they will make you aware of it. They will then offer a simple targeted treatment to address infestations in and around your home. Because all pests are different, treatments may vary. What you need to know is that we will customize services for you and your home and make sure you are well taken care of. 

Call our team at Modern Pest Control now to talk through your options with one of our qualified pest control representatives. They will answer questions you have about our treatments and ongoing plans and help you schedule an appointment for your Spring home and property. The only thing you have to do is let us in. We will fight your pest battles for you and find a guaranteed solution to spiders.