SPIDER CONTROL TREATMENTS
Canberra, Queanbeyan and beyond
For many spiders are quite scary! Certainly Redback, White-tail and even Black House spiders can deliver nasty bites – a big concern if young children and pets are around. At Residential Reports, we can provide a spider control program to keep your family and pets safe.
What spider control treatments do we provide?
Our spider control treatment is part of our general pest control treatment We spray the outside of the building and hiding areas around the yard (fences, sheds and play equipment). This treatment targets web-building spiders such as the Redback and Black house spiders.
How the treatment works…
The treatment leaves residual insecticide on the surface of treated areas which the spiders crawl across, sealing their fate. After a treatment, leave any webs in place for a day or two to make sure the spider comes out of their hiding place on to the treated web. Once the spiders have been controlled, remove the webs by brush. DON’T blast the webs away with water – this will wash the treatment away, losing the benefits of long term protection.
Web-building spiders v running spiders
Our spider treatments are designed to target both web-building spiders and running spiders. Our treatments around doors, windows, eaves, fence lines and other hiding places target the web-building spiders, such as redbacks and black house spiders. The insecticide remains on the surface for many months preventing new spiders taking up residence and building their unsightly webs.
Running spiders, such as huntsman and white-tail spiders often get into the house through doors and windows. Our perimeter spray and targeted window and door treatments, are designed to protect these potential entry points. However, hunting spiders sometimes walk on the very tips of their legs, preventing them picking up a lethal dose, so it’s a good idea to make sure your insect screens are in good order, just in case.
Did you know? Black house spiders are the favourite food of white-tail spiders, so if you eliminate the black house spiders, the white-tail spiders look elsewhere for food. The combination of spider treatment, good insect screens and prevention tips (see below) should make the appearance of a running spider inside a rare occurrence.
Give our friendly staff a call to book your general pest control and get protection from spiders.
Tips on keeping spiders out of your home
- Keep garden beds away from the edge of the house will significantly reduce the spider population – they like hiding in the mulch and vegetation.
- If garden beds next to the house are kept in place it is important to keep vegetation trimmed back from the edge of the house and paths, to prevent garden spiders building webs across paths.
- Remove piles of wood and waste material around the house – favourite hiding places for Redback spiders
- Keep clothes and shoes off the floor to reduce spider hiding places – White-tail spider and Huntsman tend to come inside to escape the Summer heat. Clothes on the floor are cool dark places to hide and are similar to their nature hiding places under logs and bark.
A bit more on spiders...
Spiders are not insects but arachnids – insects have six legs and three body segments, spiders have 8 legs and two body segments. Although many view spiders as scary, spiders are generally beneficial creatures as they help keep the insect numbers down. However, there are a number of spiders in Australia which can give nasty bites which are a particular concern for young children and pets.
There are 6 common spiders in Australia that cause most of the problems / bites;
- Redback spider: Redbacks live in dry sheltered sites, under rocks and logs, in tubular fencing, in roof voids… in the outside dunny! The female redback will often eat the much smaller male spider after mating.
- Huntsman spider: Huntsman spiders tend to live under rocks and bark (thus their very flat body shape – which make them very adept at squeezing into cars!).
- Funnel-web spider: Tend to live in sandy soils in moist areas, under rocks and logs. The males go wandering to find a female mate in autumn and often come into houses (and hide in shoes) or fall into swimming pools (where they can survive for several hours under water from air bubbles trapped on their hairs).
- White-tailed spider: Prefers cool moist locations, such as the mulch in garden beds. Will come inside in Summer to escape the heat, often hiding in sheets and clothing on the floor. Their favourite food is black house spiders.
- St.Andrews Cross spider: St.Andrews cross spiders live in trees and bushes often building significant webs which can span up to a metre or more – very annoying when they cross paths around the house.
- Black House spider: Normally found under rocks and in trees but is well adapted to building webs around the home; around windows, doors and eaves.
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