Spider Hangouts

Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Pinto & Associates.

Sometimes you need to find the source of a spider infestation, especially if the spider in question is potentially harmful — black widows, brown recluses and other poisonous spiders pose real health risks that should be curbed as quickly as possible.

An important point to remember is that spiders like to hang out where their prey hangs out. Think about indoor areas that are most apt to have accumulations of insects — that’s where you’ll find spiders.

Lighting. Look for areas where lights are left on at night. Spiders gravitate to these sites to catch flying insects. Outdoor lights draw them to entrance ways. Inside, look near night lights in bathrooms or bedrooms, or where lights shine through windows. Check corners of windowsills and the space between inner windows and outer storm windows, or between screen doors and inner doors.

Dark and Secluded. The same spider that is out and active near lights at night may spend the day — the time when you’re likely to be inspecting — hidden behind molding, or inside light fixtures, or in boxes or stacks of paper or other materials.

Look Up! Look for loose webbing or globular egg sacs in dark corners, behind large items hanging on the wall, at junctures of walls and ceilings, around window frames, behind drapery and in closets.

The most common indoor spider, the American house spider, hangs upside-down in a tangled, irregular web (either up high or down low), surrounded by dead insects and spider egg sacs. Groups of spiders can live together in overlapping webs under furniture, in corners or closets, in window frames and inside the empty space between screen and basement doors.

Look Down! The first thing you see may be liquid fecal droppings. The dried fecal spots range from white to gray. If you see spots on the floor under a piece of furniture, equipment, table or chair, it’s a good bet that the spider is hanging from a web or hiding in a crevice directly above, but out of sight.

Both black widow and brown recluse spiders prefer to make their nests low, within a few feet of the ground. Black widows usually are found outdoors under stones or wood piles, in sheds, garages and other outbuildings. When black widows are found indoors, they’re usually limited to unoccupied areas such as garages or crawlspaces where they nest in undisturbed areas, in and behind objects.

The brown recluse can be found in the same outdoor sites as the black widow. Indoors, it’s often found in stacks of papers or debris, in boxes, closets, clothing or shoes, or under furniture, especially in little-used rooms and in attics.

The authors are well-known industry consultants and co-owners of Pinto & Associates.