- Cellar Spider - Very skinny, long legs, light brown. Builds webs throughout the home. Builds chaotic webs.
- Black Widow - Bublous, shiny black with, red hourglass on its abdomen. Builds chaotic webs.
- Wolf Spider - Very large, 1 inch in length, tan stripe. Does not hang out in webs.
The black widow spider prefers to construct webs in dark cool areas. You can find them under those little green rain catchers around the home and between logs, bricks, stairs, and stonework. Their webs are extremely sticky. When the female detects prey on one of her webs, she will quickly come out of hiding to attack. Be careful not to get bit - most of the time, these spiders will stick to the outdoors, as they are unable to thrive in a home environment. Occasionally they will infest garages and basements. If you are unable to purchase pesticides, you can make your own spider spray using a small bottle and lots of soap and water. The only problem with this is that it has no residual, meaning after a few days you will just have spiders over again. Make sure to treat under all of the rain catchers and landscaping - clean out the garage with a leaf blower and spray around the entire foundation of your home.
Wolf spiders are occasional home invaders. They are pretty quick too! People freak out when they see these things because they are huge and hairy. If you see lots of wolf spiders it probably means there are other bugs around your home they are feeding on, like crickets. Try and spray any spiders you see on contact. Make sure your windows and doors are tightly sealed, these things can get into some pretty tight spaces.
Spraying for spiders can be difficult, especially since they don't groom themselves like other insects. I've only scraped the surface here but I'm confident if you follow the steps outlined above, you'll be spider free in no time.
