Did you know that there are about 3,500 species of spiders in the U.S.? And, of those, only about fifteen enter our homes to cause a problem or “spider breakout.” Spiders can live in our homes over the winter –in the garage, basement, kitchen, and bedroom — anywhere they can stay warm and find food. What kind of food? Most spiders are hunters. They catch their prey either by roaming or by web building. That’s why you’ll some times find the roamers in your closet or under the bed and the web builders go way up in the top of those vaulted ceilings where you can’t reach them. You’ll often see them around the ceiling of a heated garage. If the web does not catch enough food then they build one in another corner…and another … and another until one works.

Spiders are very prolific. And the more food they get, the more spiders you’ll have!

Most spiders are pretty harmless to humans. But, the widow spiders, the recluse spiders, the hobo spiders and some of the sac spiders can give you a nasty bite. They have a well-deserved bad reputation. So it’s not surprising that most of us have a real fear of them. The best thing to prevent a spider breakout is keep them out of our homes.

For the average homeowner the best way to prevent a spider breakout is to remove webs and egg sacs by sweeping them up. Use an extension wand to reach the ones at ceiling height. If any new webs appear you’ll know some got away from you the first time!

If you’ve got boxes for storage in your closets or garage, tape them up. This keeps the roamers out of the boxes. Also, it’s better if you can keep the boxes off the floor. You can put sticky traps or glue boards in the back corner of the closets and all corners of the garage and basement. This will let you know if you have any roamers because they will get stuck on the glue boards as they search for food. Also, put some glue boards under the bottom shelf of bookcases or shelving. Putting them in those places often works well for roamers because they like to stay out of sight if possible. These are some simple things you can do to prevent a spider breakout from happening inside your home.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Spiders, Pest of the Month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.