Can you think of something good for you, but you don't necessarily want it? We don't want to get medical shots, but we know a few seconds of pain for protection against disease or healing from a condition is worth it. Most of us don't like to use our hard-earned money to pay for an appliance repair warranty, but it is worth it when the unit stops functioning. Life is full of things that we don't necessarily want but are good for us, including the pest world.
Spiders are good for the environment; we need them outside our homes to eat fleas, cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes, but on the other hand, we don't want spiders in our houses. Few people relish having a spider crawl across them or walking into a cobweb, and even fewer, want to risk a spider bite.
If spiders are in your house, get rid of them using the best pest control in West Chester, PA, Masters Touch Pest Solutions. Our local family-owned and operated company has removed spiders since 1991 by providing professional pest control with a personal touch. Our pest management professionals are highly-trained, experienced, and qualified to tackle any pest control situation. To help you understand more about spiders in our area, we will answer questions and give you some prevention ideas in this brief article.
Most Common Spiders Found In West Chester
About 50,000 spider species exist worldwide, and the United States is home to approximately 3,000 species. If we were to describe each spider in Pennsylvania, you'd be asleep before finishing this article. Instead, the following is a description of broad categories of common house spiders in the West Chester area:
- House spiders: When you encounter a spider web in a shed, barn, or garage, it is likely that of a house spider. The yellowish-brown house spider species creates twisted webs in random places inside homes and outdoors under window eaves near light sources. Male house spiders have a 1/8 to 3/16 inch body with an elongated abdomen, and females sport a larger 3/16 to 5/16 inch body.
- Wolf spiders: When people think of spiders, it is probably the hairy, dark brown, gray, or black wolf spider. These spiders are 1/2 to 2 inches long and have a distinctive Union Jack mark on their back. If you look closely at a wolf spider, you will notice it has three rows of eight eyes, including two large eyes in the middle row. Wolf spiders do not create webs but live on the ground level near baseboards and walls where they chase their prey.
- Jumping spiders: Like the wolf spider, this species hunts its prey without using a spider web, although they spin webs to serve as a retreat location. As their name suggests, jumping spiders catch prey using their ability to leap onto their victims six inches away. Despite their multiple eyes, most have poor eyesight, but jumping spiders have good vision. Their four pairs of eyes enable them to see movements and patterns up to 18 inches away. Adult jumping spiders have a 1/8 to 3/4 inch black, but sometimes brown or grey body, with faint markings.
- Orb weaver spiders: You are more likely to encounter this spider outside in the garden, a field, or a wooded area, but they occasionally invade homes. Although over 180 orb weaver species with varying body lengths and colors exist in America, they all create large, complex, round wheel-like webs in the summer and early fall. If you see a spider in a large, round web, it is likely a type of orb weaver spider.
- Black widow spiders: Black widows are one of two venomous spiders; they have a 1 1/2 to 1 3/8 inches long black body with a pair of reddish-orange triangles on their abdomen, which meet to form an hourglass shape. You may encounter black widows in the basement, garage, or crawlspace. The other venomous spider is the brown recluse, but our colder Pennsylvania climate is not conducive to this spider species.
- House spiders: Perhaps the most common spider species in homes, these spiders have a yellowish-brown 1/8 to 5/16 inch body with an elongated abdomen. You will encounter these spiders in the basement, garage, closets, under furniture, and corners of door and window frames.
- Daddy longlegs spiders: Most people probably recall playing with these seemingly harmless spiders as children. Daddy longlegs spiders, also known as harvestman or long-bodied cellar spiders, are so-called because of the thin, long legs attached to their oval, seemingly headless bodies. These pale-yellow to light brown 1/4 to 3/8-inch spiders build webs in basements, cellars, crawlspaces, and other areas where high humidity is present.
Removal of common household spiders is not a problem for the pest management professionals at Masters Touch Pest Solutions.
Problems Spiders Cause In West Chester
Except for the black widow, spiders in West Chester are a nuisance more than a danger. Spiders do not instinctively attack people but run away and hide whenever human activity is nearby. Spiders only bite when cornered, squeezed, or surprised by a human. Some spiders, like the daddy longlegs, do not have fangs long enough to penetrate human skin, while those who can bite do not cause more than mild local pain and numbness for a brief time.
The only venomous spider in the West Chester area is the black widow spider. Again, these spiders avoid people, but if a female black widow has just laid eggs and when someone threatens her by poking their hand into her web, she may bite. A wound from a black widow is rarely deadly, but it does cause fever, nausea, swelling, pain, and increased blood pressure. If you suspect a bite from a black widow, seek medical attention as a precaution. As previously stated, brown recluse spiders prefer warmer climates than those in Pennsylvania, and an encounter with a brown recluse is unlikely.
Whether warranted or not, most people have a fear of spiders. Some have arachnophobia, an intense dread of spiders. In those cases, an encounter with spiders may cause shaking, sweating, fainting, and breathing difficulties.
Although most people do not have arachnophobia, most of us have an initial fear reaction to walking into a spider web. If you walk into a spider web, it is not a black widow spider because they create webs near the ground, where it can snare cockroaches, ants, beetles, and other ground-crawling insects. When there is a spider infestation in your West Chester home, you have a higher risk of spider webs and cobwebs throughout the house.
Masters Touch Pest Solutions uses environmentally safe products to create a barrier around your home to protect against common spiders in PA.
Spider Prevention Tips For Everyone In West Chester
Once our pest management professional from Masters Touch Pest Solutions has removed spiders from your West Chester home, implementing these tips will keep them away:
- Seal entry points: Spiders can squeeze through cracks in the foundation, roofline, between incoming wires and pipes, around electrical boxes, and window and door frames. Use caulk to cover small openings on the exterior of the house.
- Repair screens: When the temperature declines, insects look for warmer locations, and West Chester houses provide the perfect environment. Insects are prey for spiders, so as the insects enter the house, spiders follow. Fix holes in the window and door screens to prevent the entry of insects and spiders.
- Install door sweeps: A barrier underneath exterior doors will stop insects and spiders from entering the house by crawling under exterior doors.
- Move firewood away from the house: Spiders like to live in firewood, so move it at least 20 feet from the house and elevate it to allow for airflow and moisture reduction.
- Remove debris from the yard: Insects and spiders live underneath wood, stones, and junk; eliminating these articles minimizes sheltering locations.
- Eliminate standing water from the yard: Spiders eat mosquitoes, and standing water in bird baths, child swimming pools, old tires, etc., attract mosquitoes. Maintaining a dry environment will minimize the mosquito population and the spiders that hunt them.
- Prune shrubs and trees away from the house: Spiders and insects use tree and shrub branches as highways onto your home; if there are entry points, they will go into the house.
- Replace incandescent outdoor lights: Light attracts moths, termites, and others to your porch and deck, and then the spiders arrive to eat the insects. Use a bug lightbulb or LED bulb to minimize alluring insects.
Use these tips to prevent spiders in the home once we have removed them from your West Chester property.
A Year-Round Approach To Spider Control In West Chester
Spiders in PA enter homes following insects, and bugs are a problem for West Chester homeowners all year. At Masters Touch Pest Solutions, a pest management professional will determine spider attractions, entry points, and hot spots when you schedule an inspection. We will use our findings to create a custom plan targeting the spider population and their eggs. If insects are the primary cause of the spider invasion, we will address the bug issue. Contact us today to learn more and request your free quote.
