It is always wise to give serious thought whenever spiders are found indoors. Frequent notice of spiders inside a Langhorne home or office may be an indication of other pest control problems.
The agrarian sac spider, broad-faced sac spider, long-legged sac spider, grass spider, common house spider, and wolf spider all may make their way indoors at one time or another. Typically, these spiders are looking for a reliable place to find food, so property owners who take care to practice good pest control habits are less likely to find that they are living and working with spiders.
This can be critical, because the spider's biology prepares the arachnid to resist most of the ordinary pest control methods. Accordingly, controlling spiders frequently comes down to controlling their food supply.
With their exceptionally long front legs, agrarian sac spiders are relatively easy for experts to identify. They also have pale gray or tan bodies and a darker cephalothorax. Females generally measure between five and 10 millimeters, with males being slightly smaller.
The broad-faced sac spider is equipped with an exceptionally large set of pincers that can make this arachnid look like it has 10 legs. A distinctive brown head and gray abdomen are paired with orange or red legs. Females may grow to a maximum size of 10 millimeters, but the maximum length for males is six millimeters.
Ivory or brown are common colors for the long-legged sac spider. These arachnids have a dark thorax and paler abdomen. The black feet are a distinguishing characteristic of the approximately 10-millimeter female and the smaller male.
The brown or yellow grass spider has a hard upper shell and a pair of stripes along the body's length. Turning the spider over reveals that the abdomen is darker than the back. Females are quite large, sometimes achieving lengths of between 10 and 20 millimeters, and the males are only slightly smaller.
The common house spider is readily identifiable thanks to its tan, brown, and gray v-shaped stripes. These are seen on the body and the legs, and it may be possible to see darker rings encircling the ankles. On the abdomen is a black triangle, which may be most observable on the largest females, which may be eight millimeters long.
With an average length of 35 millimeters, wolf spiders are easy to distinguish from other species. They also are covered in dense hair which may be a dingy brown or gray, helping them to hide in dark, dusty places. The back is adorned with the outline of a Union Jack.
Many spiders are found clinging to the undersides of boards, lumber, fallen trees, or rocks. They may conceal themselves among leaf litter or beneath a windowsill. Similarly, spiders are drawn to dark, cluttered, dusty areas when they venture into human habitations. This means that they may be found in disused boxes or hiding behind a row of books on a shelf.
Some spider species, like the common house spider, are almost never found outdoors. Their webs are most frequently found on lighting fixtures or in the upper corners of rooms, windows, or doors.
Spiders eat a wide variety of insects and arachnids. Frequently, the spider's dietary habits are dictated by its preferred habitat.
For instance, some web-spinning spiders are most likely to be found in places like trees or the upper corners of rooms. This makes them more likely to capture and consume flying insects such as flies, mosquitoes, moths, and butterflies. Other web spinners place their webs across ground surfaces, making them more likely to catch hopping and walking insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, and crickets.
Large numbers of spiders living in a single locale can cause a huge mess with their industrious web spinning. Keeping rooms clean with an outsized spider population in residence is challenging.
Moreover, the spiders may be feeding on a pest population, like termites, that does cause a great deal of structural damage.
Reclusive spiders prefer to escape the notice of people in their area. Spiders can bite, but such attacks typically only occur when the spider has taken up residence in a shoe or the sleeve of a jacket. When someone tries to put on the garment, they receive a potentially painful bite. If it were not for such situations, spider bites would likely seldom take place.
Indications of a spider problem include:
To help avoid spider control issues, the following steps should be taken:
Proper spider treatment involves the detection and elimination of all webs. Generally, spider infestations should be treated by a pest control professional.
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Courtesy: Newtown Termite & Pest Control, Inc.
