When you walk through a spider web in the woods or even in the yard, it’s not a fun feeling. Spider webs seem to be the stickiest substance on the planet, especially when you’re trying to get one off of your skin. However, walking through a spider web in your home is far worse. You might not even see the spider, but you know it’s in the house nearby.

Spider

What if you start seeing house spiders and their webs all over the place: between light fixtures, in the corners of the ceiling, woven between the legs of your furniture, and almost anywhere else if you really look closely. It’s an uncomfortable feeling that homeowners often write off as an unavoidable fact of life, but is that really the case?

House Spiders Of Hudson Valley

While all spiders have fangs and venom, house spiders cannot transfer this venom to humans. Aside from an itchy bite every now and then, house spiders are harmless. While these pests will vary in color from light brown to black or even yellow, they do have one feature in common: their size. Usually small and thin, house spiders are less than a quarter-inch long, including the legs, which is a good way to differentiate them from more hazardous spiders.

The only two spiders that are venomous to humans are the black widow spider and the brown recluse spider. You can tell a black widow apart from a typical black house spider by the red hourglass mark on its body and you can tell a brown recluse spider apart from other light brown house spiders by a dark, violin-shaped mark on its body.

The only exception to the small size of most house spiders is the wolf spider. These hairy brown spiders will not harm humans, but they can be rather scary to have around the house because of their size, which can reach 3 inches long including their legs.

If you are noticing house spiders for the first time in your home, they have probably been there for much longer than you think. Typically, they’ll hide within your walls or in the low-traffic areas of the house until they become too large or too numerous to hide their presence from humans. Once they reach full size or the spider infestation becomes too large, they’ll begin populating the other areas of the house more noticeably.

Five Prevention Tips You Can Do Yourself

In order to keep spiders out of your home, you need to keep in mind what is attracting them into your house in the first place. House spiders make webs in order to capture insects, their favorite food. If spiders come in and find food sources, they are much more likely to stick around.

Here are five ways to limit pest activity in your home, making it far less attractive to house spiders:

Clean regularly to limit loose crumbs. Don’t forget about low-traffic areas like behind kitchen appliances and under furniture.
Address moisture issues. Pests love damp, dark environments, so limiting the condensation in basements and crawl spaces can drastically reduce pest attraction.
Store your food and trash properly. Make sure that storage containers and trash receptacles close securely and don’t provide easy access to insects.
Seal up entry points. Make sure to check your screens for tears, replace old weather stripping, and use silicone-based caulking to seal up any cracks or crevices.
Maintain the lawn properly. By reducing moisture issues and clutter in the yard, you can reduce pest attraction to your lawn so that they are less interested in your home.

Unfortunately, insects and spiders can be very difficult to keep out, even if you do everything right. Sometimes, a professional solution is the only thing you can count on. For help getting spiders, or the pests that they feed on, out of your home, contact the experts at Pestmaster ® Services today. We can help!