Discover What Secretly Attracts Spiders To Your Home

Have you suddenly noticed spiders in the house and wondered where they came from?

There are many factors that play a significant role in attracting spiders to your home.

This guide will reveal what attracts spiders into the house and how to eliminate these factors to prevent a spider infestation.

So, if you’re struggling with spiders in your home, and wish to find the root causes and solutions, then this guide is for you.

Keep reading.

Insects In The House Are Spiders’ Food Sources

Spiders are carnivores and adept hunters. They track and hunt other insects for sustenance.

If your home harbors other insects or suffers a pest infestation, spiders will take advantage of this.

Such bugs serve as an open invitation for a feast in your home, and spiders won’t overlook it.

They’ll infiltrate the house through gaps and cracks in windows, doors, and walls, as well as through vents to find their prey.

Winter causes many insects to become inactive or seek refuge in homes for hibernation. This leads to a sudden drop in the spiders’ food sources outdoors.

As a result, spiders infiltrate the house in search of insects to hunt and consume.

That brings us to the second element that attracts spiders to a house – the weather.

Weather Changes

Spiders, like many other insects, don’t enjoy extreme weather conditions. So, when the outdoor weather becomes too hot, cold, or wet, spiders seek a more temperate place to live.

That’s why many homeowners notice spider infestations peaking during the summer and winter months when temperatures rise or fall.

These spiders invade homes looking for the right shelter in these conditions.

Bright Lights Near Windows

Spiders are light-shy, but the glowing light bulbs near windows and doorways attract bugs and flies.

These creatures are easy prey for spiders.

Spiders will wait near light sources to feast on these insects. As many of these creatures sneak into the house, spiders will follow.

If you frequently leave lights on around your windows and doors, you’re attracting insects, and consequently, spiders to your home.

Seeking Shelter In Basements, Attics, Garages

Spiders in the house don’t hide just anywhere in the home.

They look for areas with little to no light, minimal human traffic, clutter, warmth, and the likelihood of finding prey.

Many spider species, such as cellar spiders and common house spiders, prefer damp areas.

Thus, they tend to hide near moisture sources such as under sinks or in bathrooms.

Consequently, spiders in the house gravitate towards areas like basements, attics, garages, crawl spaces, and storage areas such as storerooms.

These places are often cluttered, filled with storage boxes, cardboard boxes, old furniture, stacks of old newspapers, or books, and so forth.

Couple these conditions with the presence of insects and flies, and spiders have the perfect hiding place.

Opportunities To Mate 

Female spiders hiding in the house release pheromones to signal their availability for mating. Male spiders pick the pheromone smell and move inside the house looking for females.

These pheromones signals are very potent. And male spiders of the same species can detect these signals even if they’re outdoors.

To Lay Eggs

Fertilized female spiders sneak into homes while seeking a safe place to lay their eggs.

The cluttered areas in the house are their best and safest options if they can’t find a suitable place to lay their eggs outdoors.

Spiders lay their eggs in cylindrical silken web-spun constructs known as egg sacs.

Each egg sac can contain hundreds of eggs, and a female spider can produce more than one egg sac.

Female spiders will hide these egg sacs in their hiding places. They might also tuck them into wall crevices and items such as piles of newspapers or old shoe boxes.

It’s essential to eliminate egg sacs to completely eradicate a spider infestation in the house.

Female spiders defend their eggs quite aggressively.

Many people suffer spider bites while trying to remove egg sacs without realizing that the mother spider is nearby.

Vegetation Around The Home

Thick vegetation in the yard and around the home’s windows and doors can contribute to a spider infestation.

Many spiders, such as the jumping spider and the yellow sac spider, reside in plants. They can use the plants near windows as a route into the house.

Plant pests such as aphids, thrips, and insects like springtails on plants can lure spiders because they’re easy prey for them.

When dense vegetation is combined with bright lights, open windows, or insects in the house, the likelihood of spiders sneaking into the house increases exponentially.

Poor Cleaning Habits 

If you’re not diligent with cleaning and allow garbage to accumulate in the house and yard, your home will undoubtedly attract spiders.

Waste such as food scraps, leaf litter, damp and old books or paper products, and rotting mulch beds attract bugs such as cockroaches, crickets, and earwigs.

Standing water in the yard or damp waste clogging the drains can become breeding grounds for flies like mosquitoes and fungus gnats.

All these bugs and flies are easy prey for spiders. Your poor cleaning habits will attract these insects, which in turn, will draw in spiders.

Spider Prevention Techniques For Your Home

Denying spiders food, shelter, and entry points are keys to prevent spiders from entering the home.

Here’s what you can do right now to keep spiders away –

Seal Cracks And Gaps

The cracks or cervices on the walls, windows, and doors are entry points for insects and spiders.

Caulking them with a quality sealant is a great way to prevent spiders from entering the house.

Also, using screens to cover the vents in the attic and chimneys prevent spiders and many insects to exploit these spaces to get in.

Use Light Bulbs That Don’t Attract Insects

Your average light bulbs attract bugs and flies, which in turn attract the spiders. You’ve option to choose light bulbs that don’t attract insects. 

Yellow Bug Lights: These lights are specifically designed to not attract insects. They emit light at a wavelength that insects don’t see well, so they’re less likely to be drawn towards these bulbs.

LEDs: Some LEDs, especially those that emit warm-colored light (like yellow or orange), are less attractive to insects than traditional light bulbs. LEDs that emit cool white or blue light, however, can attract more insects.

Sodium Vapor Lights: Both low-pressure and high-pressure sodium vapor lights can be effective at reducing the number of insects attracted to your outdoor areas. They emit light in the yellow/orange spectrum, which insects have a harder time perceiving.

Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs): CFLs that emit warm-colored light can also be a good choice. Just like with LEDs, avoid CFLs that emit cool white or blue light if you’re trying to keep insects away.

You can also install bug zappers near the home’s doors, windows, and porch to lure and electrocute any bugs or flies that may enter homes.

Declutter 

Decluttering helps a lot in repelling spiders. The clutter in the basement, attic, and garage provide spiders the ample amount of tight gaps and spaces that help them to hide.

So, remove the unnecessary items in these areas. Clean and organize these places well so that there’s no dirt and enough breathing spaces between the storages. 

Use airtight robust storage boxes that wouldn’t allow any bug or spider to sneak inside them.

Refrain from using cardboard boxes and keeping old books or newspaper piles in those areas of the house. Venomous spiders such as the brown recluse spiders and the black widow spiders love to hide in them.

Spray Peppermint Essential Oil

Many bugs and arachnids such as spiders hate the peppermint scent. They keep away from the places that smell minty.

You can use peppermint oil spray as a repellant to keep the spiders away.

Use the spray in the areas where spiders are more likely to hide in the house.

Also, use the spray on your windows, doors, and patio deck that spiders can use as an entry point.

Clean The Outdoors

A yard full of organic wastes such as decaying wood piles, leaf litter, unused pots and tires, and expired mulch beds are home to spiders.

Spiders can also hide in the neglected garbage cans or trash bins.

As spiders enter homes from the outdoors, it’s vital to keep your outdoor area clean so that spiders don’t hide in them.

Remove all the wastes in your yard and ensure that you don’t overwater your yard. 

Overwatering increases the dampness or moisture levels in the yard soil which attract bugs. And these bugs attract the spiders.

Clean The Indoors

Follow regular cleaning habits for your home and kitchen. Remove any spider webs on the walls and windows to prevent spiders from hunting. 

Dispose of the food wastes daily and don’t let wastes accumulate in your home. Wastes inside the house attract insects and these insects attract the spiders.

Keep Spider Traps In The House

Spiders are sneaky creatures and some may enter despite your best efforts. 

These spiders will hide in the house. As spiders are shy, it’ll take you long to confirm that there are spiders in the house.

Use spider traps to prevent this from happening. There are many types of spider traps available such as pheromone spider traps and sticky traps. 

You can use either of them. Keep the traps in places like basement or garage where spiders are more likely to hide.

You can keep these traps in any places where you’ve noticed spider activity.

Pheromone traps are more helpful because the scent of pheromone lure the spiders out of hiding. When the spider steps on the sticky side of the trap, they get stuck.

Don’t try to pick the stuck spider from the trap with your bare hands for disposing it. The spider will bite you.

Use a vacuum cleaner to scoop off the spider and dispose of the vacuum dust bag outside your property.

Hire Professional Pest Control To Get Rid Of Spiders

It’s always a wise idea to hire a professional pest controller to get rid of spider infestation. 

Spiders can be dangerous if you try to remove them on your own, especially when you’re dealing with the likes of brown recluses, black widows, and wolf spiders.

These spiders are aggressive, hard to detect, and any danger to the spider egg sac can trigger them to bite.

So, you’ll need an experienced pair of hands to remove these spiders and their eggs.

However, most common house spiders such as daddy longlegs, orb weavers, cellar spiders and American house spiders are not that hard to remove.

You can use your vacuum cleaner on them to get rid of them. But don’t forget to dispose of the vacuum dust bag, with spiders in it, outside your property to prevent spiders from returning.

But be careful that you don’t touch the spider in any case.

Conclusion

What attracts spiders in the house are the same reasons that humans build homes – food, shelter, protection, and good living conditions.

Spiders enter homes looking for these things when they face challenges outdoors.

However, there are other hidden factors, such as clutter, wastes, and the presence of other spiders in the house, that play an indirect role to draw spiders.

To keep spiders away, it’s essential that you take steps that eliminate the factors that draw spiders to your house.

This guide has laid out the prevention methods that you can follow to do the same.