How to Get Rid of Spiders – Inside and Outside Your House

Does the thought of spiders creeping about in the corners of your house make you uneasy? Getting rid of unwanted spiders is a common pest issue faced by many people in homes across the country. The way in which we deal with them, however, varies greatly.

A few spiders in the house aren’t necessarily bad. They are an effective form of natural pest control and can keep the other creepy crawlies in your house from getting out of hand.

Still, you don’t want too many spiders roaming around. And some types of spiders such as Black Widows and the Brown Recluse shouldn’t be permitted to stay in your home at all.

Trying to figure out how to get rid of spiders without hiring a spider exterminator? If your spider problem is significant enough, you may need to resort to calling in a professional, but there are a number of ways in which you can try to tackle the problem yourself first.

How to Get Rid of Spiders Outside

Lights attract insects, which means they also attract spiders, who want to place their webs in a strategic position to catch their prey. If you have a lot of outdoor lights around your home, consider switching them off.

If you absolutely need them, consider replacing them with yellow sodium vapor lights. These lights are less likely than other types to attract insects and spiders.

Spiders also like leaf piles and stacks of firewood. If these are pressed up against your siding, spiders may be lurking in them for shelter—and finding their way into your home. Get these piles away from your walls and place them elsewhere in your yard. That way, spiders will make a home outside of your home!

Take a walk around the perimeter of your house and look for structural issues like cracks in your foundation. Check the seal around windows and doors.

If you find any gaps, you will need to fill them. This can be a very time-consuming process, but it is well worth it. Not only will doing so keep spiders out of your house, but it will also prevent insects like termites from getting in, not to mention vermin such as rodents.

Note that using spider spray outdoors is not a particularly effective means to get rid of them. The outdoors is a wide-open area, and the spiders will probably simply avoid the sprayed spots—plus, the fresh air will dissipate the spray, and the spray may harm other critters.

A much better move is to continuously destroy their webs to dissuade them from making a home near yours. You can also try and get rid of the insects that they feed on.

Getting Rid of Spiders in the House

What can you do about the spiders that are already inside your home? To start with, get out your vacuum cleaner and clean the whole house, paying special attention to corners and spaces under furniture.

Spiders like to lay their eggs in dark, narrow spaces. If you find any spider webs, get rid of them. Once you are done, seal the vacuum bag and dispose of it right away. You do not want any of those eggs you just vacuumed hatching and releasing new spiders to roam around your house.

Spray areas of your home which are attractive to spiders with a repellent made out of essential oils. Good choices include peppermint, lavender, rosemary, and citrus.

Just mix around five to seven drops with two cups of water. Add a little dish soap and put it all in a spray bottle. Spray dark corners, closets, and areas around window frames or other gaps where spiders may be sneaking into your house. Note that you can also mix in some vinegar and get great results.

There are sticky traps you can buy which you can place in various rooms around your house. While these traps will not get rid of all the spiders, they offer you an excellent means to monitor the spider population in your house and identify rooms that are attractive to the arachnids. These are the rooms you can focus your other efforts on.

Finally, if these natural methods are not sufficient, you can consider purchasing a chemical spider spray. Unlike the essential oil spray, which will only deter spiders, chemical spider spray will kill them outright.

You can spray spiders directly if you find them, or you can spray areas where spiders like to travel and build their webs. Just be sure to keep this stuff away from areas where you store and prepare food. Chemical spider spray is really a last resort among DIY methods. Any time that you can tackle a pest problem using natural methods, you should.

Also note that some spiders eat other spiders, and you may want to consider leaving these hunting spiders alone. Wolf spiders may look hairy and huge and intimidating, but they are known to predate on dangerous spiders that you really don’t want lurking around, like black widows.

If you have both of these spiders living in your home, you may want to leave the occasional wolf spider alone. It will protect you from the widows—and unlike you, it is evolved to hunt them down. You probably won’t see the wolf spiders all that often, and you will see a lot less of the other spiders you are trying to kill.

Do You Need to Call an Exterminator?

Generally speaking, most spider infestations are not going to get as crazy out-of-control as an infestation of termites or ants. For that reason, it is quite likely that you will be able to get the problem well in hand using DIY methods. This is especially true if you are willing to leave a few beneficial spiders alone.

If however you do have a lot of poisonous spiders around the home such as Black Widows or Brown Recluse spiders, and you are simply not able to get them under control, it would be wise to call a professional exterminator in.

Leaving an infestation of poisonous spiders in your home is a safety hazard for you and your family and pets. Calling an exterminator may be expensive, but not as expensive as a medical bill. And it is worth it for peace of mind!

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