Spider Control

The two that matter, and everything else

Black widows and brown recluses are the two of medical concern in the United States, and both prefer undisturbed places: a garage corner, a woodpile, a box in a crawl space, the underside of outdoor furniture. A bite from either is a medical question, not a pest control one — treat it as such first and call about the spiders second.

Everything else — cellar spiders, house spiders, wolf spiders, jumping spiders — is a nuisance rather than a hazard. They are in the house because there are insects in the house, which is often the more useful thing to know.

A spider problem is usually a prey problem

Spiders settle where food lands. An outdoor light by a door pulls in moths and beetles all night, and the webs follow. A damp basement holds silverfish and the spiders that eat them.

That is why the work is rarely just a treatment. Knocking down webs, treating the perimeter and the harborages, and changing what draws the prey in the first place does more than spraying a corner.

What to say when you call

• Size, color and any marking — a red hourglass underneath, or a violin shape behind the head.
• Where: a garage, a basement, a crawl space, an eave, inside a living space.
• Whether there are webs, and whether they are flat sheets, funnels or tangles.
• Whether anyone has been bitten, and whether the bite has changed since.