ADozen, the trick is to avoid situations like that in the first place... and I have no idea how to do bug bombs and stuff like that as I guess I am Pansy and don't do chemicals.

However, I use plastic bags a lot (I can recycle them where I live, so don't start on me...). If I have to store something in a spidery place, it goes in a large clear plastic garbage bag. If I am afraid it has spiders on it, I put it in a big plastic bag to carry it, take it outside, and go through it there.

KarinL

My approach is, if the spider is pale green or sandy colored, it's okay (it's just a "house spider," totally harmless to humans, and a helpful eater of bugs). However, if it is brown or dark gray or black, then there's a chance it's a recluse or black widow, and I am not going to spend the time with a magnifying glass figuring out whether it is or not. Those spiders are either dead or, if I can conveniently scoop them up in a container, they get put outside.

I've never seen a jumping spider in the house, but those would not be tolerated either, because something about a spider leaping around just ooks me out. :-)

I can't imagine voluntarily living in an area where scorpions, tarantulas and what have you could be found in one's house. Yikes!

If spiders do not like odoriferous things, then does the old fashioned (and cheap) MOTH BALL do the job too?

During the winter, I had all of my container plants on our enclosed/heated sunporch. There were about four anoles (little lizards) who spent the winter there as well. I'm sure those anoles got really fat eating whatever insect showed up.

Also, every other month, I have my bug man come and spray the house and its exterior with pyrethrin, which is safe after it dries for animals. I have parrots, so I am careful with what they are exposed to. This has done the trick for me for the last 20 years, including NO roaches, NO silverfish, NO spiders, maybe some house flies, but the lizards make a quick meal out of them if the dachshund does not kill them first.

I also throw moth balls on the floor of the attic because it is said to repel things that sometimes inhabit such spaces...like squirrels or rats. Now THAT is something I am paranoid about!!

Good luck getting rid of spiders. And all other pests.

I'm terrified of spiders and DH has generally objected to using chemicals (he says I over-do everything...and he's probably right). However, his house tends to be spidery, so when I moved in last summer, I sprayed where I could while he was gone. And wouldn't you know it, I ended up with itchy red bumps on my shoulder...when I looked behind our headboard, there was a huge spider web JUST ON MY SIDE of the bed!! So unfair!! I'm getting goosebumps just remembering.

And now that I'm thoroughly creeped out by this thread, I'm going to go spray for spiders again...I hate it when it warms up and they get active again. It would probably be more effective to bug bomb the crawlspace, but DH won't do it and there's no way I can handle going under there! Thanks for the tips, though, everyone! Even if it is an old thread.

I have heard setting horse apples (not horse feces, it's a non-eatable apple that grows on a tree) around your house (in corners and window seals) will drive them out of the house, and keep them out. My mother uses them in her home, I haven't seen a spider in her home in over 12 years. They say the spiders hate the smell of horse apples?

I use D E Diatomaceous Earth sprinkle around the outside base of the house and the inside along the wall and corners it's non-toxic and inviromentaly friendly it will control all insect probles oh yea use the food grade NOT pool grade.

Ok, not dig up an old thread, but I was just about to go off into lala land when my face started to itch, when I went to scratch it. something crawled up my finger. Freaked out, turned on the light, and there was a nice fat juicy spider.

Despite all the pro-spider enthusiats on here, that spider, just got fat, by eating me. SO I am now up at 2:15am because I cant sleep in my bedroom right now.

I found the thread by searching for alterior methods to kill spiders, none suit me. I want them dead, not in 1 room, not as a barrier spray, but all rooms, completely dead, to stay dead, for the entire season.

Before the doubters try to say something, there is a way to do this.

Go to almost any store, I personally use walmart, go to the pesticide aisle, and find the do-it-yourself flea bombs.

They are inside safe, they are pet friendly(after the treatment) and 99% are bio-degradeable.

I own a cat, a bird, a ferret, a dog, several aquariums, and a snake.

If you follow the directions, all your pets are safe.

I don't rewash all my clothes, I don't take all the dishes out of my cupboard and wash them, i cover the aquariums, take all other animals with me, using a respirator I set off the bombs, leave for 6 hours, come back, air the place out, and go to a picnic.

When you come back, you throw out the cans, light some candles, are you are spider free.

Another plus side to this, is simply that most modern sprays also leave a residue to kill any eggs, larvae, etc. Effectively killing spider that happen to come in.

Thought this might help a few people.

Me and my husband live In a wooded area. This year spiders have taken over our porch and deck. They are all the same. They are tan and brown, shiny and are very round. You can not walk up my porch when it Gets dark. We just counted 13 just outside our front door. They are not small either. Some of them are the size of a dime. I need to find some way to reduce them. Any suggestions? Does anyone know what kind they might be? Thank you, Melissa

There are trillions of spiders. We can't get rid of them entirely. I heard somewhere that we eat spiders at night time. Now talk about eating late....Yuk

Melissa, I think if you read the whole thread you might conclude, as I did, that putting the porch lights away from the door (and keeping them on at night, if you don't already) would attract the spiders to the lights, where the insects are, and away from the door. Currently they may be attracted to your porch light, or your lighted windows. Understanding why the spiders had turned the porch light right over our door into spider city was a turning point for me!

We decided against moving the light (too complicated for the moment) but we did change the fixture to one that has fewer nooks and crannies for spider nests, and now I more readily sweep it every couple of days.

If you have trees, especially conifers, directly at your porch, you are also making the problem worse. The porch, and the conifer, keep it all nice and dry in there.

KarinL

I also have arachnaphobia, in a big way. My heart beats extra fast, I tremble and shake, and sometimes, (If the spider is scary enough) I even have trouble breathing. I have found a quick and simple pesticide free way to keep spiders out of my house. I got three cats! No bugs stand a chance. :) Good luck everyone.

My home sat vacant for a while before we moved in 6 months ago. I'm not freaked out spiders, in fact I usually leave them alone. In Florida, bugs are a way of life. But today while doing some trimming I looked under the soffit and saw black widows everywhere. That is not the scary part. Once you stop focusing on the spiders, you see the egg sacs..not ten or twenty, or even 30. No....hundreds of them, maybe even thousands. My first instinct is to set the house on fire and kill them all, but I will save that for last. So I make an emergency trip to the store, looking for a can of instant death. We can put men on the moon, robots on the sea floor and cars that can drive themselves. But no can of instant death. In fact none of the pesticides says that it will kill black widows. Only repel them.
I guess were back to fire.
BTW..if any hot chicks want to come over in their boots...

I don't like spiders and don't want them in the house,basement,attic or any other places that I use. Im usually not afraid of them if they are decent looking and a decent size. The reason I ended up on this post is becausse I was looking on how so get rid of REAL SPIDERS like the one I found in the basement the other day...it was black,about 3 in whide,5 in long,a little fat,hairy...gross and scary looking. Almost like a taranchula. I didn't get to much sleep since but I hope to find a "cure" for them so I can catch up on some sleep.
Good luck everyone!! :)

I've just come across my first (& hopefully last) black widow. I seriously do not like spiders, even though I know of the good they do, but this one for sure has to GO! I'll be trying the citronella candles in a few places around the house, & will be calling Terminex in. We are in a new build (it's now a year old) & knew that we were going to get some pest issues, but I feel like spiders have the house surrounded!

Thanks for some great advice, but also for letting me know I'm not the only one with a spider problem (on so many levels)!

I never minded black widows because they generally make a messy web, way out of the way and stay put.

We just moved into a house down south and have already seen/killed three brown recluses, which like to take strolls in the middle of the night. They also like to hide in your clothing, which means a lot of extra shaking and checking for them just so you don't get bit while pulling on a pair of pants or a pair of shoes.

Spiders on the whole may be beneficial creatures, but I am not sharing my home with brown recluses. Right now we're trying to find any entryways for them to get in and making sure the house is sealed and clean. Then we're getting a pest control man in here. I don't want my kids, my dog, or my husband getting bitten.

I don't mind the spiders at all. I leave the little ones nestled up in the corner of the walls where they are barely seen, however the bigger ones(bigger than half dollars) are scooped up and placed outside. We have recluses here too, but they so far have seemed to stay outside. We have a ritual of checking our shoes, and moving stuff on the floors in the garage before just picking it up.

They may be "vile" creatures, but your home...was theirs first WAY before any walls went up.

Black widows are actually more deadly than brown recluses. Recluses can cause very large and unwanted sores and can cause death if the sores are not treated, but a widow can kill in just a few minutes, especially in young children, elderly people and those with certain medical conditions.

Make sure they are in fact recluses, some non venomous house spiders look very similar to the recluse, but are in fact safe, other than they can still bite ;)

Since I have left the little buggers on my walls, I haven't seen a beetle of any type, flies are easily taken care of, and moths never stand a chance. They have even minimized the bugs outside so I can safely leave the porch light on for the hubby without him being mauled by june bugs when he gets home from work.

If you are that anxious, pack up the family for a few days, and bomb the house, and diligently spray the outside. 7 dust sprinkled around the house will also help in keeping the bugs out, although im not certain in the degree of safety of its use around children and pets.

I am doing some exterior work on my house, including tearing out a piece of the old deck and rebuilding it. When the guys came out and ripped all the old wood off the back we saw HUNDREDS of spiders under there. Must have stomped at least 70 black widows. There were brown recluse and wolf spiders under there, too. I'm sure we killed almost 200 spiders. I am completely freaking out because that was one small piece of the deck, there is lots more decking in the back and a big covered porch in the front of the house, too. Why in the world would there be so many spiders in one place, and what is the best way to kill them? Please, no judgement from the arachnid loving people out there. I have been bitten by a brown recluse before and I do not want that to happen to my children, grandchildren or pets.

Boy, am I glad I came across this thread (and others pertaining to old houses!) I have been questioning our sanity in buying an old home 5 years ago- but new homes look so boring...anyway- we have loads of spiders. I am a CA native who now lives in SC, and it is a whole new ballgame with new kinds of insects to get used to and identify. I would like to know what part of the South bellini lives in- we see brown spiders all the time which we can't seem to ID, but I have gone onto search engines and typed in "brown spider- South Carolina" and every brown spider looks like a brown recluse when you are already freaked out. I am more familiar with black widows- tons of them in CA- and I need to tell y'all, there are also brown widows, plus black widow species that look quite different from the usual- you may want to go to Google and go to "images" and then type in your location and description.

OK, so I guess my husband and I are not too crazy- well, we are, but I see others willing to go through the same thing for the charm of an old home. Truth be told, most of the time I leave them be...they are mostly in an enclosed back porch that was at one time outside. My husband sucks them up with the vacuum, but that gives me the willies...I mean, I have to empty that thing!

Now, can anyone else in an old home tell what time of year it is by the type of insect that appear in your bathroom?

This is exceptionally late in the thread but hopefully it gets through. I use a product called "DemonWP" in my house to take care of bugs *All bugs*. It's the stuff professionals use but upcharge you a few hundred dollars for.

Buy it on amazon for about 8 dollars a 4 pack and use as directed. I have been using it for 2 years at my house and don't have nearly as much of a spider problem. Love the stuff! So happy I found it because my house was overrun with these crazy looking things all through the summer.

I must say this conversation has been most comical for me, and I don't like spiders. However, from reading some of your posts, I might be changing a bit on that -- hmmm -- beneficial, huh?

This strikes me as a pertinent place to cross reference a home decorating discussion from last summer. Usually I read this forum envying you folks with old houses, but I can't live with spiders, so I guess I'll appreciate what I have!

I have a lot of tiny spiders that I want out of here. I find skeletons of bugs on the floor under the window sills and on the window sills. I've always thought that spiders don't lick their feet and it's hard to get a pesticide to absorb and kill them. I never see a big spider but surely there are some here. I do vacuum and I paid someone to caulk my windows. I sprayed with some stuff I got at Walmart but it seems it's going to take something different.

I am terrified of spiders. I cannot even look at them in books, on screens, etc. I just moved into my apartment in April and since I've been living there I have killed five huge spiders. I had to overcome my fear because they only come out if I am home by myself. I can squash them, but when it comes to picking them up and getting rid of them now way possible they will stay ther until someone comes and moves it for me. My boyfriend thinks its crazy to be so scared of spiders, but I can't help it. I am actually doing much, much better. I use to be screaming as soon as I realize it was a spider. I don't care how small. So I thought I would share this story and ask a question.

Yesterday I was cooking and as I was cooking I was washing the dishes that I was no longer using. So I felt something touch the back of my heel. I turned around and there was this huge spider behind me. I screamed so loud I know my neighbors probably thought someone murdered me. Then when I got in the living room I realized that I have to kill this spider, first of all if I didn't my house would burn down because I was cooking, Second my water bill would have been outragous because I left the water running. So I went back in the kitchen and it was still right there. I keep my dust pan attached to my broom so I smacked the mess out of it with the dust pan, turned the water off and ran upstairs. I left him under the dust pan until on of my friends came and put it in the trash. My boyfriend is out of town. Anyway that was a big accomplishment for me. I usually just spray them a million times from across the room.
I do want to know if that Spiderban really works and if you can only get it online?

If anyone's still reading this: I've used hedge balls successfully - they were called Osage balls when & where I bought them, though.

At the time, any time I hadn't gone into the basement for 12-24 hours, I'd have to walk through spider web on the stairs.

I hung the balls inside mesh onion bags from the basement ceiling and on hooks on the stairway. They lasted a couple of years - got all dried out, shriveled and black but continued working a long time after that.

I'd like to introduce you to Charles Bukowski. Seems like a fitting place to post this.
death wants more death, and its webs are full:
I remember my father's garage, how child-like
I would brush the corpses of flies
from the windows they thought were escape-
their sticky, ugly, vibrant bodies
shouting like dumb crazy dogs against the glass
only to spin and flit
in that second larger than hell or heaven
onto the edge of the ledge,
and then the spider from his dank hole
nervous and exposed
the puff of body swelling
hanging there
not really quite knowing,
and then knowing-
something sending it down its string,
the wet web,
toward the weak shield of buzzing,
the pulsing;
a last desperate moving hair-leg
there against the glass
there alive in the sun,
spun in white;
and almost like love:
the closing over,
the first hushed spider-sucking:
filling its sack
upon this thing that lived;
crouching there upon its back
drawing its certain blood
as the world goes by outside
and my temples scream
and I hurl the broom against them:
the spider dull with spider-anger
still thinking of its prey
and waving an amazed broken leg;
the fly very still,
a dirty speck stranded to straw;
I shake the killer loose
and he walks lame and peeved
towards some dark corner
but I intercept his dawdling
his crawling like some broken hero,
and the straws smash his legs
now waving
above his head
and looking
looking for the enemy
and somewhat valiant,
dying without apparent pain
simply crawling backward
piece by piece
leaving nothing there
until at last the red gut sack
splashes
its secrets,
and I run child-like
with God's anger a step behind,
back to simple sunlight,
wondering
as the world goes by
with curled smile
if anyone else
saw or sensed my crime

I used to hate spiders. But then my husband told me that they eat other bugs, so I should let them be. It was hard, but I did. So surprise, surprise...the other bugs are gone and there are few spiders (they have nothing to eat!).

I wonder if our obsession with killing spiders has anything to do with the bedbug outbreak.

By the way, a biologist once told me that the jumping spiders bite and the others trap in webs. So if I see a spider I don't recognize I put something near it. If it jumps I kill it. If it scoots away I leave it.

Forgive my cruelty, ha ha, but I'm contributing to thread necromancy (a term I enjoyed reading from a poster above), so I won't be the only person afraid to turn off the light while/after reading this thread. Oh, the evilness, lol!!

How do you know if you have an infestation of Brown Recluses I have 8 sticky traps out and in one week I've caught 12 ...we are living in a big two story building that hasn't been used in a few years upstairs in cluttered with boxes and there is no air or lights...I have found many of this kind of spider up there as I was trying to clean ...I killed what I saw (about 20 in one day) I got concerned when I started seeing so many...so I ran to get the camera by moving one box I got 3 pics of 3 different spider I believe they were all Brown Recluses (violin on back) ...Can anyone advice me on what I should do ??? Thanks Alisa

It is my understanding that spiders, like many other critters, are highly territorial - in our case there are daddy long-legs and black widows. We tolerate some daddy long-legs in the house because they keep the black widows out.

We also added praying mantis (or was it walking sticks) to the outside because they eat the black widow larvae - further reducing the population of those nasty critters.

BTW1: The spiders are dining on smaller critters; e.g. mites, etc. You may want to look at moisture (including rot in wood somewhere) that is breeding food for the larger spiders that you see. Reduce the food sources & reduce the spider population.

BTW2: If I recall correctly a daddy long-leg has 60 babies at a time.

my cats take care of everything!

One year we raised a quail that I found as a 1-day chick, abandoned in my garden. She was excellent at getting the spiders, and the spider level was low for the subsequent year or two. If you can tolerate the poop, a quail might be the way to go.

Using poisons to kill a few household spiders is both irrational and nonsensical. The poisons can potentially do much more harm than the spiders. Most spiders are harmless, and beneficial by preying on insects. I never kill a spider. I relocate them outside. I have been doing this for at least four decades and have never been bitten. Fears are caused by ignorance. Know more about what you are afraid of.

Christopher.

I didn't take time to read all this, but wanted to add that we've been using pure peppermint oil, ten drops per cotton ball, around the joists of the basement for nine years now to keep out mice. It works for that, but we've noticed there were less spiders too so I Googled and found the info below.

I see feelings towards spiders range from live and let live, to I am killing them off, Many comments made me smile, I am known as the town's Spider Lady.
For over 40 years now I let them live. I do kill the Black Widow and those which can harm, I have a 4 year old grand daughter to consider, with a system much smaller than mine.
I am allergic to red wasps, so those have to go... or I am a goner.
I do not know if my grand daughter is allergic, she has never been stung.
Do not take chances with your health, or other people's health who come to visit you (like my, spider den)
I know my spiders, these are harmless.
But they SURE will make you hurt yourself, folks tell me.
I post a link to www.spiders.us so you may know what you're dealing with in your State.
The link will send you to Texas first, so you can see what I have, minus the harmful ones I kill, of course.

There are 39 different ones for me in Texas, 32 with photos are stated established here. Guess the other 7 moved here once they got the memo. Hmmm, did you happen to send those other 7 species? I thought so.
snakes and reptiles, spiders, bees, wasps, and insects... be safe first.
And try not to let those populate even in higher numbers around children or even yourselves at home or in your yard.
I just imagine a child or visitor not knowing what is there and being injured. In all my years of letting spiders be spiders I have never been bitten.
The benefits are I use nothing in my house for pests, and have no pests but crazy ants. Those are new and so much more in my area on the floor than the spiders which seem to stay on the ceiling.
To each his own, make sure your home stays "your" home, whether you invite spiders to stay or not, a matter of choice.
But do not play with the Black Widow because even if spiders avoid us? Accidents can happen.
My daughter had an experience of one in an unused carseat for my grand daughter at her home? Made her hate ALL spiders all the more. She ducks and cringes in my home. I keep them away from over the couch, at least, so she feels more at ease.
The grand daughter however is very interested in them, she takes after me.
If I decide to do a spring cleaning of them, which I have, I catch them in a see through tall baby food glass jar, cover it immediately, and set them into trees outside where they do stay... for awhile. The only harm for them in that is they may become bird feed or have to go to work, rebuilding their web.
Until they miss the great indoors and make a return visit.

In all we do knowledge is power, in spiders topic? Know your spider. In snakes, Know your snake.
In poisonous plants. Know your plants.
Know what you are dealing with. Then you can deal with it.
- - - -
If you are those who wish to be rid of pests,
1) killing them does that.
(And for us Texans I don't mean get your gun for the spiders, okay? Home repairs are expensive nowadays.)
2) So does capture and release outdoors.
3) So do pesticides.
Or we can always move and give them the house.
P.S. And be warned, or should I say be on the lookout...
... they always return.

" How do you know if you have an infestation of Brown Recluses I have 8 sticky traps out and in one week I've caught 12..."
I would call that an infestation and bring in a reputable pest control company ASAP.

I use Bayer Complete insect killer.
That and a few squirts of deodorized mineral spirits down the hidey holes where the great huge honkin wolf spiders nested.

My 250 year old cellar was well and truly infested. You couldn't walk ten feet without being mugged by three or four giant wolf spiders. I kid you not. One time six of them cornered me and demanded I empty my pockets.

The Bayer I apply where I see them hanging out rather a lot. I have a gravely spot of exposed earth where my water expansion tank and softener are and they loved that. The hourglass spiders liked the corners and hidden spots.
People urged me to not kill them claiming that they had some how evolved to live indoors and that some how conferred upon them a sacred right to occupy my home. The evolution and adaptation claims are patently false. Other folks swore to me that those spiders, both the evil hourglass ones and the wolf spiders, were living off some unseen destructive insect population that would otherwise be a plague all on their own. And others just accused me of being the greatest evil the world has ever seen. Like worse than Pol Pot or some such.

So I put on my Krama scarf and my "I'm pals with Pol" tee shirt and I eradicated the eight legged creatures and waited for lighting to strike me or the promised biblical plague from all those insects that the spiders were supposedly eating.

Turns out the spiders were eating each other. There was no plague.
It was a closed loop of spider proteins and minerals and fluids being passed from one spider to the next in a rather horrifying viscous cycle of cannibalism.

Now I don't have 3" wolf spiders scurrying in and out among my feet and those nasty hourglass spiders don't build nests under my lathe.
I'm happy that they are gone.

Here are some great natural remedies for getting rid of spiders that I found on onegoodthingbyjillee.com

Place a few drops of peppermint essential oil into a spray bottle. Add a squirt of liquid detergent and fill the bottle with water. Spray the mixture on cobwebs, around doors and windows, around the lawn and garden and on any surfaces where spiders lurk. In addition to having a pleasant aroma, this mixture is nontoxic and safe to use around children and pets.

COCONUT OIL & VINEGAR

The combination of coconut oil and white vinegar also makes an effective spray for repelling spiders. As oils may stain or cause spots, test the mixture on a small, hidden area of carpets, curtains or upholstered furniture.

CITRUS ESSENTIAL OILS

Spiders taste through their feet, and in addition to peppermintâ¦..they do not like the taste of citrus which includes lemon, lime and orange. Although it will not kill them, it will make them avoid places where they can âtasteâ them. Always purchase real essential oils and not synthetic versions.

I get my essential oils from floracoepia.com

My son loves spiders and I never kill them .... just take them away.

i don`t like spiders`but poison is worse. i`ll keep my liver and my other body parts.

First of all, I hate spiders! I know that they will control many offending bugs, but still I hate them,

Secondly, I REFUSE to use insecticides in ANY form...they are dangerous to humans, pets & the environment. They are all man made chemicals & they all, with enough exposure, will cause cancer....90% of the insecticides on the market, have the ability to kill humans & pets.

They are natural ways to kill/dispose of, spiders.

#1) remove their food source.
If they have nothing to eat, they will go away & seek food elsewhere.

#2) vinegar will kill most any bug/beetle/spider in America.
Vinegar has acid in it which insects/bugs/spiders can not tolerate.
Vinegar is also a natural product.
people drink vinegar for different ailments so you do not have to worry about it killing you.

Did I say how I hate spiders?

Osage balls or hedgeapples are considered folklore, even those who sell them don't or can't claim they really repel spiders. I can claim they do. I don't sell them, I buy them, usually at a local grocery.

Once I'd have to walk through spider webs down the basement steps if it was 24 hours since I'd been down them. Hung a ball in an onion bag on the wall and no more webs. Same with the basement laundry. (And the basement everywhere else.)

They dry up, shrink, get dark brown, look sort of like big, dark walnuts. As I said, I hang them in mesh onion bags, one to each. Either they continue to work after they're dried up or they convinced the spiders to change their habits.

Unintended consequences: more millipedes upstairs, maybe because I've removed their basement arachnid food supply? At least no webs.

I use several mouse glue traps in high bug population areas and near entrance points; exterior doors, fire place, and windows with air leaks. Change traps when they're half full or when the surface gets gritty and isn't sticky anymore.

Are these poisons dangerous for peoples' health?

I'll loan you my beagle-mix little dog. She cruises the basement constantly, looking for spiders to eat.

I"m originally from the VA Appalachians and I grew up seeing lots of very large spiders make their way into our house and it usually sent me fleeing. However, I have since lived in Honduras, Philippines, and then I settled in CA before settling in far West Texas. I saw a lot of larger spiders in Honduras but Northern CA has it beat for the amount of black widows I have ever encountered. I lived in Ukiah, CA on the southern boundary of the Redwoods and it seemed every window ledge outside of a business had black widows just underneath just hanging out. It used to just freak me out. I had a few that would build their webs outside and around the porch light. I know they were there for the insects drawn to the light but good lord. They were fast and in my mind way too dangerous to be there by my door. Nope. I got rid of them and the ones that would find their way into my apartment. Nope, Nope. Nope.

I have gone over this in my head since I was a kid. I know it's illogical. I'm much larger than they are. Cats and Dogs and People have teeth and fangs but we don't seem to walk around constantly screaming and running from them...well...most of us anyway. But I still can't get myself to welcome them into my life. I have made inroads though where the tarantula is concerned. I do take photos of them and allow them their space and even avoid them in the road but I still need my route of escape in case of a sudden lurch in my direction. In Honduras they used to come out during the hard rains and simply cover the roads...they used to jump towards us as we walked towards them on the road. I don't know....If you like spiders then I can send you the ones I find but don't think that reasoning with me is going to change my mind any time soon.

OK, first of all, there simply no spiders up in Nebraska that will hurt you, other than perhaps black widows. It is conceivable that a brown recluse could get up there, but I wouldn't bet on it. Also spiders will very occasionally bite, it can hurt, but its certainly less painful than a bee sting. The other thing is that spiders are strictly predators. If you have spiders they are eating something. You have to decide which you would rather have, the spiders, or the insects they are eating. Bear in mind you will have roughly 10 times as many insects as you had spiders. In other words, a completely rational person would not be upset by spiders, but then, who of us are completely rational.

Now, you only get spiders if they have something to eat. Get rid of all your insects and you will have no spiders. So, probably you are getting spiders in areas that insects like to go. That means drafts and bright lights. Not much you can do about the lights, but spiders are really good draft detectors. So, my advice is vacuum up the spiders, then look for the draft that is near the spider web. Block that off and you will reduce the number of spiders and save on your heating and air conditioning at the same time.

By the way, my good friend is a spider biologist who is actually allergic to spider venom. She has handled hundreds of golden silk spiders (look them up, they are huge), not to mention really scary things like the Madagascar Bark spider, and only been bitten once. That bite happened when she accidentally hurt a big female she was handling.

I do the exterior bug spray around the entire perimeter of my house after every spring melt. I also do ant granules around the exterior of the house. I dont get bugs in the house.

It's not too late to find some hedge apples/osage oranges and put them around. I also use spider spray outside and in the garage and basement. I did cut all the ivy back on my house - it's just at the foundation level about 12" high. That helped get rid of a LOT of spiders that gave my house that "haunted house" look in the fall. Thank you, but no, I don't need that for Halloween!

You can also use a natural diy spray. This will not hurt the spiders and its not harmful to you etc. Also it keeps bugs from coming in like roaches and also keeps ants at bay. You mix up in a spray bottle with water. Now the main ingredients are simple but you have to prepare in one of two ways. You can chop large into large pieces and put into a small boiler and and bring to a boil on the stove and if tho is the one chosen, make sure ti allow it to cool down before putting into the spray bottle. If there isn't enough to fill your bottle simply add water to the bottle. Now the other way is to take the ingredients and put them into a processor with a little water and puree it down. Take the bottle and fill with water and pour water into bowl and add the mix to it mixing well and pour it into bottle. The ingredients are 2 tbsps red cayenne pepper, a handful of dry bay leaves, half of a onion, and 1tbsp of garlic, after you get these processed or boiled down and into your bottle add 2 tsps if dawn dishwashing liquid. Make sure to shake the bottle real well before each use. You will have reapply it after it rains. This mix is not good for repelling those few things. If you plant a garden of veggies, tomatoes,etc. You can actually spray this mix onto you plants and even if they have veggies in the plant it is safe. This will not alter the taste in your veggies at all. It will not harm the plants either. You are not spraying the roots just the top from the ground up. Remember to rinse your veggies very well. This is actually safer than using 7 dust etc. As I mentioned earlier you will have to reapply after the rain and after watering your garden. Certain critters dont like the aroma of thus mix so it keeps them away to. I hope this helps. Enjoy!!!!