Written by John Cho | Home Care | Last Updated: 03/18/2024
Do you have spiders in the house casting webs in almost every corner of the house? Having a few spiders (the harmless kind) in the house isn’t necessarily a bad thing because they will be your ally and help you get rid of other common household pests, but it may start to become a problem if too many spiders get comfortable in your house. Here are our top suggestions for keeping spiders out of the house using natural home remedies.
How to get rid of spiders
1. Keep Your House Super-Clean
Like any other insects, spiders will try and make their way inside your house if they know there is food. Spiders could be making your home their home because there are a lot of pests to feed on. The first prevention step to getting rid of household pests is to keep your house spotlessly clean. Make sure there are no crumbs or food leftovers out in the open, throw out the trash regularly, and vacuum the floor often.
2. Repel the Spiders with Peppermint Oil
There isn’t a lot of scientific research that proves the effectiveness of peppermint oil against spiders but it’s worth trying based on the anecdotal evidence for peppermint oil repelling spiders. One suggestion is to create diluted peppermint oil solution and to spray it where you suspect the spiders are entering from including windows and doors.
For a more longer-term solution, you could even become a green thumb and start growing peppermint plants in the house. The plants will need to be placed strategically (near spider entry points) in order for them to be effective at keeping spiders out of the house. Pet owners, however, should avoid using peppermint as plants in the mint family may cause health issues like vomiting and diarrhea when ingested.
3. Set up Sticky Glue Traps
There are non-toxic glue traps you can purchase which may capture some of the spiders hiding in the house. The traps should be flat and have no raised edges. Place these traps where spiders are likely to hide including spaces behind furniture, corner spaces in the room, and the space along the baseboard.
4. Clear Out the Clutter
Clutters like cardboard boxes may provide the perfect space for spiders to hide and cast their web. Clutter also attracts the household pests that spiders like to eat so there’s no better time than now to throw it away.
5. Seal the Gaps and Holes Around the House
Make it difficult for the spiders to enter your house in the first place by sealing up gaps and holes around the house. For windows and doors, an inexpensive solution to sealing up some of the side gaps is to install weather-strips. For holes along the wall, you could use materials like caulk.
Spiders are highly diverse. The species you are dealing with may depend on where you live. Brown recluse spiders, for example, are more common throughout the Midwest. Whichever species you are dealing with, always take additional safety precautions as some spiders may be more venomous than others.
How to get rid of spider webs outside windows
Spiders set their webs up in an area they are sure will attract prey. That’s why outside windows are their favorite location and a nightmare for you. Here are a few solutions to that problem;
1. Before any spider camps on your window, apply peppermint oil to repel them. It will save you the struggle of cleaning the spider webs that are inevitably bound to form. Clean the windows regularly and spray cracks and crevices with vinegar. It helps kill the spiders and larvae hidden in there.
2. Vacuuming is an easy way to clear cobwebs. Use a handheld vacuum since it’s easy to maneuver. A standard vacuum with an extension nozzle will come in handy if you don’t have a handheld vacuum.
3. A cobweb duster helps clean spider webs on the outside windows. It traps all the webs and the debris in them and reaches the areas a vacuum cleaner cannot reach. If the webs have spiders nesting, kill them first to prevent spider bites. Perform the cleaning exercise with the windows closed.
4. Use a hosepipe to spray your windows with water. Ensure you completely drench the screens and windows to remove any spider webs trapped in cracks. When the window dries, apply preventive measures; spray the area with natural fragrances that spiders don’t love, such as peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree, and lemon oils.
Common spider control FAQ
Does killing spiders attract more spiders?
No, dead spiders won’t attract other spiders. At least not directly, but it might indirectly as their carcass can turn into food for other insects and attract other spiders to eat said insects. The idea of a dead insect attracting others is due to a particular type of bug releasing pheromones when they are killed, alerting nearby allies to the presence of a threat and encouraging them to rally to the position to deal with the threat. This is a common bee trait and similar species to them, though not even every species of it can release said pheromone.
Spiders are arachnids that live mostly a solo life, not being part of a bigger social circle like ants or bees. So the idea of a dead spider attracting more spiders doesn’t really make much sense, as there aren’t any that would happily jump in to help out. They are opportunistic, though, and if one of their buddies dies in a spot, they’ll move in and use the food source the late spider was feeding on.
Do spiders eat ants?
Yes, several species of spiders enjoy ants as a meal. Some add ants as one of their food sources, like the Black Widow, Lynx Spider, or the Jumping spiders, while others have an exclusive diet of ants like the Zodarion Rubidium. The Zodarion Rubidium has a body structure similar to ants on the outside, allowing them to blend into ant groups and sneakily jump into their prey.
Though spiders eat ants, they have a very varied diet that includes several other insects like flies, wasps, and even other spiders. Some of the larger spider species require a different diet, so they prefer bigger prey like rodents, lizards, or even birds.
Spiders vary on the way they hunt, though. Most of them are secluded hunters that live by themselves and prefer sitting in their corner with a web set as a trap. When something gets stuck on the web, it sends a vibration through it that alerts the spider, letting it know it’s lunchtime. Other species prefer directly hunting their prey, stalking them until the perfect moment presents itself, allowing them to jump on top of the prey and getting a sneaky bite to prepare their meal.
This is a good reason why it’s good to keep spiders around at home. They are beneficial insects that can prey on nuisance household pests like ants. Of course, you can’t rely on the spiders alone to get rid of the ants completely but at least you know they are there as your allies.
