A Step-By-Step Guide To Effective Spider Control For Houston Property Owners

Spiders are strange creatures in that they invade homes to hunt for pests, but are also pests themselves. This makes living with spiders a bit weird. It’s nice knowing they are killing pests, but it is unsettling knowing that they are around. If only there were a way to prevent spiders and the pests they invade to hunt? Turns out, there is! To find freedom from pests inside your home, use this step-by-step guide.

Step One: Know Your Enemy

To prevent spiders from invading your home, you first have to understand which spiders live in our area. Here are a few you should be able to identify.

Wolf Spiders

• Color: Dark brown with pale occasionally yellow markings
• Size: ¼ - 1 ⅜” long, large bodies, medium-sized legs
• Spins a web?: No
• Threat Level: 3/10

House Spiders:

• Color: Yellowish brown with several dark stripes
• Size: 3/16 - 5/16” long, large abdomen, thin legs
• Spins a web?: Yes
• Threat Level: 0/10

Long-Bodied Cellar Spiders:

• Color: Pale yellow, light brown, or grey
• Size: ¼  - ⅜” long, small long bodies, extremely thin legs
• Spins a web?: Yes
• Threat Level: 0/10

Brown Recluse:

• Color: Light brown to dark brown with a dark backward violin-shaped mark on just behind their head.
• Size: ¼ - ½” long, thin legs
• Spins a web?: No
• Threat Level: 9/10

Black Widows:

• Color: Black with a red hourglass mark on the underside of their abdomen
• Size: 1 1/2 - 1 ⅜” long, large abdomen, thin legs
• Spins a web?: Yes
• Threat Level: 8/10

Step Two: General Pest Prevention

Spiders invade homes to hunt for other pests. The fewer pests your home has, the less likely spiders will be to come inside. To give spiders and the pests they invade to hunt less of a reason to get into your Houston home, use these general prevention tips:

• Trim your grass weekly and keep your bushes and trees properly trimmed. Make sure your gutters are properly channeling water away from your home’s exterior. Repair leaky pipes and fixtures in and around your home.
• Eliminate sources of standing water around your property.
• Clean your home regularly, and try to limit the number of rooms where you eat food to just one or two.
• Pick up after your pets and wash out their food and water bowls after they finish with them.
• Use a dehumidifier inside your home, especially inside extra humid rooms. Eliminate clutter and debris from your yard

Step 3: Make Sure Your Home Is Sealed

Having a properly sealed home has many benefits. Two things an adequately sealed home helps with are lowering heating and cooling costs and keeping out pests. To make sure your home has no gaps, cracks, or openings pests can use to get inside, use these simple exclusion tips:

• Use a caulking gun to fill in gaps, cracks, and spacing in your home’s foundation and around window and door frames. Install door sweeps under your exterior doors if you haven’t already.
• Make sure your window and door screens are properly sealed and rip-free.
• Check your home’s weatherstripping to be sure it is installed properly and free of damage.
• Keep unscreened windows and doors closed as much as possible.
• Install metal screens over exterior vents leading out of your home.

Step 4: Hire A Professional

Technically, if you follow this last step, the other three are not needed, or at least, you won’t have to do them. At Modern Pest Control, we take your pest problems into our hands. Using only the most advanced methods, we ensure homes in the Houston areas have everything they need to combat pests. Reach out to our team today at Modern Pest Control to find your solution to troublesome spiders and to schedule an inspection for your Houston home and property.