Fort Worth Homeowners' Guide To Effective Spider Control

Do you find that spiders are getting into your home? Are you tired of flicking the bathroom light on and finding a spider sitting on the floor or clinging to a wall? Have you had enough of spider webs in the upper corners of your rooms and the occasional spider zipping across your carpeted floors? If so, we have some good news for you. There are ways to reduce spiders in your home. Here is a quick guide to effective spider control in Fort Worth.

Pest Maintenance

Before spiders get into your home, they explore the exterior of your home. The primary factor that attracts them is food sources. Spiders eat insects, invertebrates, and some vertebrates, such as reptiles. If you address the conditions that lure critters to the perimeter around your home, you'll also reduce spiders.

Moisture — There are many ways moisture can promote pest activity. Water is a building block of life. Repair damaged points in your gutter system, and make sure rainwater is flowing down and away from the perimeter of your home.

Wood — There are many critters that live inside wood and brush piles. If you collect dead branches from your yard, store them well away from the exterior of your home. If you have firewood, camp wood, or wood you use for backyard cookouts, don't stack it next to your home.

Leaves — Spiders, and the food they eat, can be found living and exploring underneath leaf piles. Use a blower to get the leaves out and away from the exterior of your home.

Light — Insects are attracted to light. This will, in turn, attract spiders to your home. You can break the cycle by removing this attractant. Consider replacing exterior white lights with insect-resistant yellow lights.

Vegetation — While vegetation is an attractant all by itself, your landscaping can be more attractive to spiders and their food sources than it really needs to be. Remove unwanted grasses. Pull up weeds. Trim bushes and shrubs, particularly near the ground. If you make your landscape feel open, it will be less inviting to critters. 

Exclusions

If you alter the conditions around your home and reduce pest activity, you may still get occasional visits. It isn't enough to remove attractants. You need to also consider entry points and seal them. The tools for this job are a caulking gun, some expanding foam, and a foundation repair kit.

Foundation Penetrations — If you have space around pipes, wire conduits, or any other foundation penetrations, spiders may be able to use them to get inside. It is best to apply a good seal around foundation penetrations.

Cracks — If your foundation slab cracks, spiders could find a way inside your home. Seal those cracks to keep them out.

Gaps — There are many ways gaps can form in the exterior of a home. Do a detailed inspection of your entire exterior and use a caulking gun to seal any gaps you find.

Screens — A damaged screen won't necessarily allow a spider to get into your home but it can be the first step. Make sure all your screens are in good repair and check to make sure there are no gaps between your screen frames and your windows and doors.

Rot — When the wood of your home gets moist, spores can cause the wood to rot. This inspires wood-damaging pests to chew on the wood. When holes develop, they can provide entry points for spiders. Replace damaged wood and wood frames, or fill the holes in to keep pests outs.

Population Control

When you see a spider web in your home, or in your landscaping, what do you do? If you're like most Fort Worth residents, you leave it until you have time to deal with it. Life is busy. Unfortunately, when you leave a spider web, you can make your spider problems worse. Why? Because one spider web can have hundreds of eggs hidden in a little sac. The removal of spider webs is essential if you want to reduce spider sightings inside your home.

The Best Control For Spiders

It is a lot of hard work to get control of spiders. If you don't have the time, or the conditions around your home are difficult to correct, professional assistance can make the difference. A licensed pest control technician can provide pest maintenance, exclusion services, and targeted treatments to repel, reduce, and exclude pests around your home. This will, directly and indirectly, help to get control of spiders and make spider sightings inside your home a rare event.

If you have questions, or you'd like to request service for your Fort Worth home, connect with us. We're here to help you find the right solutions for your pest concerns. You don't have to share your home with spiders.