“Why are there so many spiders in Central Florida?” For the same reasons, there are so many people here: it’s the climate. Seriously, spiders will always find ways to thrive in Central Florida due to the varied tropical environments, but that doesn’t mean you have to let them thrive in your house.
Whether they’re building webs on your patio or setting up camp in your closet, the trusted local spider exterminators at Forest Pest Control have tips for getting rid of spiders both inside and outside your home.
Indoor Spider Control
Indoor spider infestations often signal a larger pest problem since spiders follow their food sources inside.
How Do You Keep Spiders Out of Your House?
Want to know the best way to prevent spiders? There’s one very important guiding principle. Keeping spiders away requires removing the incentives for them to move in, such as food sources, water, and entry points.
Here’s the Forest Pest Control-approved list of spider prevention tips for your home:
- Eliminate pests in your home: Spiders are often a secondary pest infestation. They won’t show up unless there’s a food source there first: generally other pests like ants, flies, mosquitoes, beetles, cockroaches, and more. By eliminating those pests from your house, you will also eliminate spiders.
- Practice regular housekeeping: Keep clutter to a minimum: spiders love to hide in it! Pay special attention to storage areas, closets, garages, and basements where undisturbed clutter accumulates.
- Seal cracks and openings: Inspect and seal any potential entry points around doors, windows, and your home’s foundation. This creates a barrier between outdoor spider populations and your interior spaces.
- Maintain screens and door sweeps: Make sure screens on windows and doors are in good repair to prevent spiders from slipping inside.
- Consider essential oils: While not a primary means of spider prevention, oils like peppermint or eucalyptus can deter spiders when applied around interior entryways, windowsills, and baseboards.
Outdoor Spider Control
Your outdoor spider control should focus on managing populations around your home’s perimeter and high-traffic outdoor living areas.
How Do You Keep Spiders Away from Your Outdoor Spaces?
- Keep vegetation managed: Overgrown plants, shrubs touching your home’s siding, and dense landscaping serve as both habitat and a bridge for spiders to access your house. Trim vegetation back from exterior walls and maintain your yard regularly.
- Use a timer for outdoor lights (8 pm to 10 pm): Mosquitoes and other insects (spider food) are attracted to light. Consider yellow or sodium vapor lights outdoors, which attract fewer insects and, in turn, fewer spiders.
- Remove outdoor debris: Wood piles, leaf litter, and stored items against your home create prime spider real estate. Keep these away from your foundation.
- Address exterior pest populations: Just like indoors, outdoor spiders congregate where food is plentiful. Reducing mosquito breeding areas and other pest attractants around your property minimizes spider activity.
Spider Repellent: Is It Effective?
Does “spider deterrent” or repellent keep spiders away? If you have realistic expectations about what it can do, it can be a useful tool for you. Spider repellent is not intended to kill spiders or eliminate infestations. Most of these products are blends of essential oils, which means they work by using a spider’s sense of smell against itself, masking the scent of prey or causing disorientation in the spider.
Spider deterrent products are temporary, partial solutions. If the underlying cause of the spider infestation persists (for example, the pests they’re eating), you can spray all the spider repellent you want. The spiders won’t go anywhere, and neither will the essential oils smell.
But if you already have essential oils at home, you can use those rather than buying separate spider repellent products at the store.
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What Smells Keep Spiders Away?
There are a few smells that spiders don’t like that you can try to implement in your home pest prevention program, including:
- Citrus
- Peppermint
- Eucalyptus
- Tea Tree
- Cinnamon
What Is the Best Deterrent for Spiders?
There’s little evidence that establishes which spider deterrent or essential oil is “best” at keeping spiders away. They all operate on the same basic principle: creating an overwhelming smell so a spider can’t use its own sense of smell to its advantage.
We recommend testing out whatever products are available to you and evaluating your results. See what works best for your indoor and outdoor spaces.
When DIY Spider Control Isn’t Working: Signs You Need Professional Help
Doing things like sealing up possible entry points, eliminating other types of pests, and setting scented barriers takes time to work. But how do you know when your DIY efforts aren’t cutting it?
Here are the signs that indicate it’s time to call in the professionals:
- Spider sightings are increasing, not decreasing: If you’re seeing more spiders despite your prevention efforts, the infestation may be larger than surface-level treatments can address.
- You keep finding new webs in the same areas: Constantly clearing webs only for them to reappear suggests spiders are well-established and reproducing in or around your home.
- You’re spotting egg sacs: Spider egg sacs can contain hundreds of spiderlings. Finding these indicates a breeding population that DIY methods rarely eliminate completely.
- Spiders are appearing in multiple rooms or areas: Widespread activity throughout your home points to multiple entry points or an established indoor population.
- You’ve identified venomous species: In Central Florida, encountering brown recluses or black widows means professional intervention is essential for safety.
- The underlying pest problem persists: If you can’t get rid of the insects attracting spiders, the spider problem won’t resolve either.
- Months of effort with no improvement: If you’ve consistently applied DIY methods for several weeks or months without results, it’s time for a different approach.
How Do Professionals Get Rid of Spiders?
If you have a spider infestation and you want results now, the best way is to call a spider exterminator like Forest Pest Control. Here’s what a professional spider treatment actually involves:
- Comprehensive Inspection: Our technicians conduct a thorough assessment of both your interior and exterior spaces to identify spider species present, locate nests and egg sacs, pinpoint entry points, and discover the underlying pest issues attracting spiders.
- Customized Treatment Plan: Based on our findings, we develop a targeted approach that addresses your specific situation (not a one-size-fits-all solution).
- Interior Treatment: We treat baseboards, corners, closets, attics, basements, garages, and other indoor harborage areas with professional-grade products that eliminate existing spiders and create residual barriers.
- Exterior Perimeter Treatment: We apply treatments around your home’s foundation, eaves, windowsills, doorframes, and other exterior entry points to stop spiders before they get inside.
- Entry Point Sealing: Using advanced sealing techniques and materials, we close off the gaps and cracks that serve as open invitations to spiders.
- Source Pest Control: We address the other pest populations (the spider’s food source) to eliminate the root cause of your infestation.
- Follow-Up and Monitoring: We track results and adjust our approach as needed to ensure lasting protection.
Why Professional Spider Control Is More Effective Long-Term
Spiders are opportunists, and as we mentioned earlier, they’re widespread in our region. They’re a constant threat, so it’s something homeowners need to stay ahead of.
Professional spider control offers several long-term advantages over DIY methods:
- Expertise in Local Species
- Professional-Grade Products
- Getting to Root Causes
- An Integrated Approach
- Ongoing Protection Plans
- Guaranteed Results
With our robust local expertise, we offer customized solutions that aim not just to disrupt the spider’s current hangout but to prevent their return, both inside your home and throughout your outdoor living spaces.
Spider Extermination in Central Florida
Forest Pest Control’s spider extermination services begin with an assessment of your specific location in Central Florida, taking into account the local spider species and habitats. We create a custom plan that addresses your current spider population and the local environmental factors that may be contributing to the problem.
Our technicians don’t just treat your home, they protect it so that your living space remains the comfortable sanctuary you deserve.
Get started today by giving us a call or filling out a service request here!
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