Now that it’s almost fall, many are gearing up for the cooler weather—including pests. While you may be buying faux webs to decorate your house for the spooky season, real spiders are more than happy to help you out. There are many methods for preventing house spiders from entering your home and causing a scare.

Signs of Spiders

Throughout the summer, you may have noticed more spiders in the garden, helping you keep the area free of other insects. They may have even designed an elaborate web along the outside of your window, garage, and porch, hoping to catch bugs attracted to the light. However, this is the time of year male spiders leave their webs in search of females. While male spiders usually die in the autumn after mating, females not only survive, but they spend the winter preparing their egg sacs and producing young—possibly in the hidden areas of your home. Given their close proximity to your house, they may find themselves inside, especially if there’s a crack or crevice with open access.

Some common house spiders go undetected, unless you come across their sticky web. They may stay hidden in a high corner or be small and transparent in color. Others are large and dark enough to see run across your bathroom wall or basement floor. They don’t like to be disturbed, which is why they tend to stay in forgotten areas like a shed, garage, or basement. But if given the chance to lay eggs inside, you could be dealing with more than just one spider and its web.

Preventing House Spiders

Between mating season and laying eggs, spiders are quite active from August to October. Looking for a dark, cozy place to lay these eggs may lead to wandering into your home through gaps around windows, doors, and attics. This is why the best way to prevent spiders from entering is to block any of these openings.

• Fix any tears in door and window screens
• Caulk cracks around doors and windows
• Fill foundation cracks with plaster

There are also preventative sprays that can be applied around the foundation of your home to help prevent insects from getting inside. If you still find spiders have made it into your home, contact Cardinal Pest to help assess what other preventative and treatment options would work in your specific circumstances. This way you can keep the webs you want for seasonal aesthetics and keep the pests away.