# Spider Prevention — Spider Squad

## Why Spiders Come to Your Home

Spiders don't target your home — they follow their food supply and environmental conditions. Understanding what attracts them makes prevention more effective.

**Insects are the primary driver.** Spiders eat insects. Whatever brings insects to and into your home brings spiders. Exterior lighting is the biggest single factor: lights attract moths, flies, gnats, and other insects, which attracts spiders to those zones.

**Entry points provide access.** Gaps around window frames, door thresholds, pipe penetrations, weep holes in brick, gaps at soffits, and cracks in the foundation are the highways spiders use to move indoors.

**Harbouring conditions keep them.** Once inside, spiders stay where conditions are right: undisturbed, low-traffic areas with access to prey. Clutter, storage boxes, behind furniture, and seldom-used rooms all provide ideal harbouring conditions.

## Practical Prevention Steps

**Lighting:**
- Switch exterior lights to yellow or amber bulbs — they attract significantly fewer insects than white or blue-white LED and incandescent lights
- Use motion-activated exterior lights rather than lights that run all night
- Keep interior lighting away from windows where possible — bugs attract to the light source and the heat differential

**Entry points:**
- Replace worn door sweeps and weatherstripping (especially for ground-level doors)
- Caulk gaps around window frames, pipe penetrations, electrical entries, and where different exterior materials meet
- Repair damaged screen mesh on windows and vents
- Check weep holes in brick — these can be fitted with weep hole covers that block insects while maintaining drainage

**Exterior vegetation:**
- Keep shrubs and branches trimmed 6 to 12 inches away from the exterior wall — vegetation touching the house creates a bridge past any perimeter treatment
- Remove wood piles, leaf piles, and stored equipment from direct contact with the foundation — these are prime spider harbouring sites

**Interior:**
- Reduce clutter in storage areas — undisturbed cardboard boxes and stacked materials are ideal spider habitat
- Vacuum regularly along baseboards, behind furniture, and in corners — this removes webs, egg sacs, and prey insects
- Seal gaps between rooms that connect to attics, crawl spaces, or basements

**Moisture:**
- Fix leaking pipes and dripping faucets — moisture attracts the insects spiders feed on
- Ensure basement and crawl space ventilation is working — high humidity supports insect populations

## What Doesn't Work

**Chestnuts:** No scientific evidence that chestnuts (horse chestnuts, buckeyes) repel spiders.

**Vinegar sprays:** No meaningful residual effect. May kill spiders on direct contact but does not prevent new spiders from entering.

**Peppermint oil:** Limited and short-lived deterrent effect at best. No evidence of meaningful population reduction.

**Sticky traps:** Effective for monitoring and capturing individual spiders, but do not address entry or population. Useful for seeing what species are present, not for controlling them.

**Retail aerosol sprays:** Break down quickly outdoors (within days after rain or sun). No meaningful residual perimeter protection.

## What Works

Environmental modification (lighting, entry points, vegetation) paired with professional exterior perimeter treatment provides lasting results. The Spider Squad exterior barrier — PMRA-registered bifenthrin applied to the foundation, window frames, eaves, and soffits — kills spiders and insects on contact and maintains residual activity for 30 to 90 days.

For ongoing prevention, the annual maintenance plan schedules seasonal reapplications automatically.

To book: call 905-935-7498 or request a quote at spidersquad.ca.