Spider HELP please!!!

[AllisonK]

Not sure where to put this.

I need some serious spider help. I don't want to use some nasty chemicals but I need to do something.

I have never seen so many spiders in one spot/area in my life. We just moved to SW WA state and have spiders everywhere. Not just one kind, there are the HUGE brown ones, yellow ones, black ones (not widows), striped ones. And they are all over the place. If they stay outside I can handle it but they are in the house. Lately we have had them in our bed, scary as we co-sleep w/ 4 month DD, one made a web over my DD's (5) bed in the middle of the night, she's on the top bunk so it was really close to her. They are in our bathroom, every morning I have to de-web (is that a word?) the window ledge. And the worst one that has me just fed up is last night one crawled into the diaper bag and made a web in there!!!!!! : I HATE spiders, they gross me out. I can handle the small ones but as time goes on they get bigger and bigger and it FREAKS me out. The diaper bag one was huge. And there are egg sacks all over the outside of the house, in the garage, and in the shed (that we have named the spider house).

So what can I do to get rid of them, besides some chemical, that is safe for the kids.

Thanks,
Allison

And I know that they are spiders and are just doing what they are supposed to do but can't they do it outside.

[mothragirl]

i would look for a chemical free pest control. find out what eats them and get some of those? i make a deal with my spiders, one per room. i explain it to them in every house. everyone else gets put outside, brown recluses get flushed.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

Well, they have to be getting in from somewhere. Check and see where. Maybe from the basement, and then close up all the places they can get in. I'm not sure what else you can do besides that, as spiderlings are very very tiny and could get in small holes. I hate to sugest getting rid of all the egg sacks, but maybe you could move them to the forest...or.... As winter comes about, there should be less chance of more getting in, and they will probably die off unless you have lots of bugs in your house to feed them! Honestly, killing spiders with chemicals is really hard, they are incredibly resistent to bug spray. But they say spiders are lucky. So maybe if you think of them that way you'll feel less creeped out!

[awbabygiggles]

I don't have as many spiders as you but they make me nervous too. I have high ceilings and I know they're up there but can't get rid of them. I have lost sleep over them. The suggestions above were great, to find out where they come in and cover that up. The only other thing I can think of is to keep their hiding spots clean and dusted so there's no webs and this one ppl might not like but... get those sticky mouse traps, they're like huge stickers and non toxic, that might catch a few and what you do with the spider you caught... I have no idea since it will probably be stuck there but I agree with you totally, they belong outside.

[AprilDaisy]

I read this remedy once. You get a spray bottle and put soapy water in it. You then spray wherever you see them "setting up house". I've not tried it, but it may tone down your tenants considerably?

[Kathryn]

Spiders prefer dead bugs so any kind of bug/pest spray will not work to get rid of them. However, the little glue traps that are used to catch mice, are great for getting rid of spiders. They come highly reccomended by spider experts.

[StrawberryFields]

We have the SAME problem. I could have written your post word for word!! So far what is working for us is vigilence. We took a flashlight to the basement ceiling and found everywhere that there was a concentration of webs and egg sacks, sealed any cracks and vacuumed everything up with a shop vac. Cleaned all the webs off the walls inside and sprayed with water mixed with a few drops or orange essential oil and tto. I heard that a mix of water and Dr. Bronnor's (peppermint) also works well. Close off the attic, get rid of clutter especially cardboard boxes. We turned our dehumidifier on in the basement. Basically, get rid of entry points, and keep everything clean and dry--if the environment is hostile toward the bugs that spiders eat, the spiders will have to leave, kwim?

[srain]

We used to live near Seattle, and the spiders were indeed enormous and ubiquitous. But they weren't DANGEROUS, as toxic chemicals would be, so we learned to live with them.

One of my co-workers found it effective to put halved osage oranges in the corners of the office; they seemed to dislike them. maybe you can find someone from Indiana who'd be willing to mail you some?

[PikkuMyy]

From what I've read from pest control people is that essentially, nothing's going to work on spiders, aside from actually spraying them individually. Chemically-speaking, anyway.

I would make the environment as inhospitable as you can. Seal up any cracks that you can, put some borax on the places where they walk/make webs that is flat.

[oldcrunchymom]

I bet they are coming from your cellar. We have an infestation like that in ours, which is why I only go down cellar like twice a year. Fortunately they stay out of the main part of our house for the most part.

I agree that vacuuming down all the eggs and webs is the first step. Use a shop vac and dump everything in a plastic bag with mothballs (they kill spiders, or so I've been told). I know you don't want to use chemicals, but there is this powder stuff you can put in a blower that is supposed to kill spider eggs and gets into all the little cracks and crevices you can't reach yourself. Maybe you could put borax in the blower thing and accomplish the same thing?

Honestly, as much as I hate using chemicals, if the spiders started coming up here I would be bombing my cellar as fast as I could get to the store and back. : I am totally arachnophobic.

[hubris]

YIKES!!! The web over the bed and in the diaper bag would really get me.

Another thing to think about with spiders: can you reduce their food supply? I'm going through this right now. When we moved here, and for the first two years, we had nearly ZERO spiders in the house, I would find maybe 1 or 2 a year, and those had clearly come in from the outside.

Then we got a compost bin outside, and a compost jar for the kitchen counter. Then we started battling fruit flies. Then I noticed the spider population climbing. It helped that this coincided with the summertime, when bugs seem to want to come inside to escape the summer heat. Now I suddenly have spiders/webs in all the corners. I'm pretty sure it's because I supplied them with tasty fruit flies to eat. So I'm working on removing the spiders and fighting the fruit flies.

Any chance you've put out a "free lunch" sign to the spiders?

[AllisonK]

Free lunch sign may very well be out. We have just moved in and the house and garage are disasters. The baby's room (well when she finally uses it) is one big pile of stuff. The double garage is so cluttered with boxes we can't even get a car in there. Plus all the " I will just put this pile here until I can figure out where I really want it" piles are everywhere.

We don't have a basement, but there is a crawl space under the house. But honestly you could not pay me to go under there. And I don't think there is an attic (at least not a useable one). If it was not so nasty I would probably just bomb the entire house. That is how grossed out I am. Yesterday am DH had to clear off a web that went from kitchen counter to kitchen counter.

Thanks for all the replies.

[boysrus]

I think it is just something to live with in western washington. Our house has so many, inside and out!
I just try to remember they were here first and they are doing a good job. As I watched a huge black one walk the entire path of my ceiling last night, it wasnt so easy! LOL
SOrry I have no advice, just empathy!

[Amaryllis]

I live in a forest shared with with many, many spiders, too. When we bought our house, it was filled with spiders. Impossibly huge ones. We also had an undisclosed rat problem in the attic. My husband quickly became known as the "Caulk King". With his trusty caulking gun (and foam gun) he closed off all the holes from top to bottom in the house and that has made a HUGE difference. When we find them now we just catch them and put them outside. Egg sacks are always removed. In the summer when the mosquitos are out, we always leave some daddy long-legs in the house because they do a fine job with them.
You should check all around your doors and windows and seal up any cracks and repair screens.
Good luck!