Persistent Spiders in a Stanmore House – What Can You Do?

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Step 1: Cut the Food Supply

The step people skip, and the one that works. Spiders live where there are insects, and near green space there are a great many insects.

• External lighting. A porch or security light draws insects all night and spiders follow. Move it, dim it, put it on a sensor, or switch to a warmer bulb
• Move the bins away from the back door
• Compost — keep it away from the house wall
• Standing water — a blocked gully, a water butt overflow, a saucer under a pot
• Damp in a garage, cellar or subfloor supporting silverfish and other insects
• Cut back planting touching the house wall — it is a bridge
• Fly screens on windows you keep open in summer

Step 2: Close the Gaps

• Fill gaps around pipe and cable entries
• Seal gaps in and around window and door frames
• Fit brush strips to doors with a visible gap underneath, including a garage side door
• Check the seals on patio, French and bi-fold doors
• Check where a soil pipe or extract duct passes through a wall
• Check the join where an extension meets the original house
• Check the garage up-and-over door, which usually cannot be sealed properly
• Check a cellar hatch or coal chute if you have one

Step 3: Clear the Webs

• Vacuum or brush webs down wherever you find them
• Include ceiling corners, behind and under furniture, window reveals and light fittings
• Include the garage, shed, garden office, conservatory, cellar and under the stairs
• Do it regularly rather than once — a cleared corner is less likely to be rebuilt in
• Remove egg sacs at the same time

Step 4: Reduce the Harbourage

• Move stored boxes off the floor and away from walls
• Use sealed plastic boxes rather than cardboard
• Tidy the garage — usually the worst room in any property for spiders
• Do not store items against a cold external wall
• Keep firewood away from the house
• Clear leaf litter from against the back door
• Keep an outbuilding tidy rather than treating it repeatedly

The Autumn Spike

September and October: male house spiders leave their webs and wander looking for females. Bigger, faster, and in rooms where you never see them otherwise.

• It is annual and it passes within weeks
• Most of them were already in or around the building
• A glass and a piece of card is the standard removal method
• Baths and sinks catch them because they cannot climb the glaze, not because of the drains
• It is not a sign anything is wrong
• Beside woodland there will be more of them — that is geography, not a problem

Read nextWhy Are There More Spiders in My Stanmore Home? →

What Does Not Work

• Conkers. Folklore, tested, no effect
• Ultrasonic repellers. No credible evidence
• Peppermint or citrus sprays. Brief at best
• Vacuuming spiders only. Fine as a response, does nothing about why they are there
• Supermarket sprays alone, with the insect source untouched
• Expecting a spider-free house beside woodland

When to Pay for Treatment

• Genuine phobia affecting how you use your home
• Webbing that keeps returning after repeated clearance
• A garage, shed, cellar or garden room with heavy persistent webbing
• A commercial property where webbing is visible
• False widows in numbers in one area
• You have done the free steps and nothing changed

False Widows

Established across southern England including this area. Glossy dark body, cream markings, usually found high in corners, in sheds and garages, and around window frames.

A bite is typically comparable to a wasp sting. They are not aggressive and bites almost always follow handling or trapping against skin. Anyone with an unusual reaction should see a doctor. Nothing in the UK is medically dangerous in the way the newspapers imply.

A Realistic Expectation

• A property beside woodland will always have some spiders
• The aim is fewer, and not in the rooms you use
• Treatment reduces numbers substantially and works for a period
• The free steps hold longer than the treatment does
• An annual clear-out of the garage does more than an annual treatment
• Anyone promising a spider-free house here is overselling

Related Questions

Do spiders come up through drains?

No. They fall into baths and cannot climb out.

Should I kill them?

Your call, but they eat flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Near green space that is a genuine service.

Will treatment stop them completely?

No. It reduces numbers. Spiders are less susceptible to residual treatment than most insects.