they might be the webs of spider mites and you will want to eliminate those. those are more apt to thrive in dry conditions (such a drought) and can be controlled with regular misting of water to the foliage as it interferes with the breeding cycle. if you are seeing a network of fine webbing and no(easily) visible spiders, it could be spider mites. if they are the webs of regular garden spiders, let them be as recommended by above posters. Here is a link that might be useful: spider mite control

Let me put in another bad word about all-in-one type pesticides (combined fungicide, insecticide, miticide, whatever) such as Orthenex. The acephate insecticide in Orthenex not only kills mite predators but it and several other insecticides are known to stimulate mite reproduction. To counteract this, several rose insecticides are routinely formulated with a miticide. Now, if the you then use such a product to control mites, you not only have to spray a more toxic mixture because of the insecticide, but you probably have to spray a more concentrated version of the miticide because its efficiency is decreased by the insecticide. I'm not saying that spraying any single pesticide is a good thing, I'm saying that spraying a combined pesticide is probably a worse thing.

spiders are your friends.. they are predators of many problem insects.. i would hestitate to get rid of them ... they may be there because another problem pest is in high population .... where are you .. was the house vacant? .... take a deep breath .. i know you hate spiders... but dont create bigger problems ... first step i recommend.. see if spiders are a problem for your new neighbors.. if not.. then you dont need to nuke the place ... they are there for a reason .. what if they are keeping the blood sucking skeeters in check .. which would you rather have??.. i will take the spiders ... this years spike in population, for whatever reason .. may not be there next year ... and try to ID the spiders... i guess i am presuming you have plain old spideys.. and not dangerous ones.. good luck.. ken

gr8day, I'm glad that your spider situation is under control. You may not get them in your home in October where you live. But we always have them coming in to find a warmer place when it starts to get cold. I've been seeing a lot of spiders lately in my house. I don't have ants, so I can't comment on that, but I think that the DE kills ants. You sprinkle the DE in areas that have activity inside and outside. The DE will need to be re-applied after it rains. I had tried the Ortho Home Defense Max spray and also a permethrin spray, but the (dried) residual does nothing for spiders; the spiders walk right over the residual. These insecticides only work for spiders if they are sprayed on the spiders or if a spider walks into the wet spray. These insecticides won't destroy a spider's egg sac, so the egg sac has to be removed. I know what you mean about hired workers not showing up for appointments. So frustrating. When I hired Terminex, they showed up a lot when I wasn't home, so they only sprayed the outside of my house and not the inside. I had to keep calling them back to finish the job. They also were supposed to take down any spider webs, but the technician never bothered with removing the webs.