# What Attracts Spiders to Your Home — Spider Squad

## The Simple Answer

Spiders follow their food supply. Whatever attracts insects to your home attracts spiders. Address the underlying insect pressure and you address a significant portion of your spider problem.

## The Five Major Attractants

### 1. Exterior Lighting

The single biggest driver. White, blue-white, and incandescent exterior lights attract moths, flies, gnats, beetles, and a wide range of flying insects — which are exactly what spiders eat. A light that runs all night on your front porch or garage creates a buffet that draws spiders to those zones.

**What to do:** Switch to yellow or amber LED bulbs (they attract far fewer insects). Use motion-activated lighting. Move lights away from entry points where possible.

### 2. Gaps and Entry Points

Spiders don't chew their way in — they walk through gaps that already exist. Common entry routes: gaps at door thresholds, worn weatherstripping, gaps in window frame caulking, weep holes in brick, pipe and wire penetrations through the foundation, and gaps at soffits and fascia.

**What to do:** Caulk gaps around windows and pipe penetrations. Replace worn door sweeps and weatherstripping. Install weep hole covers. Check soffit and fascia seams.

### 3. Vegetation Contact

Shrubs, vines, branches, and other plants touching or overhanging your exterior wall create direct physical bridges past any perimeter treatment. Spiders travel along vegetation and onto the building, bypassing the foundation barrier entirely.

**What to do:** Keep vegetation trimmed 6 to 12 inches away from the exterior wall.

### 4. Harbouring Sites at the Foundation

Wood piles, stacked lawn furniture, garden equipment, compost bins, stored materials, and dense mulch placed directly against the foundation provide sheltered harbouring sites directly adjacent to entry points. Spiders establish there first, then move inside.

**What to do:** Move anything stored against the house outward by at least 2 feet. Use raised storage for firewood rather than ground stacks. Keep mulch depth moderate (2 to 4 inches maximum) and avoid contact with the foundation.

### 5. Moisture and Humidity

High basement or crawl space humidity supports the insects that spiders feed on — drain flies, fungus gnats, springtails, silverfish. Fix the moisture issue and you reduce the food supply.

**What to do:** Fix dripping pipes and leaking appliances. Ensure proper drainage away from the foundation. Run a dehumidifier in the basement if relative humidity exceeds 50%. Ensure crawl space ventilation is functioning.

## What Attracts Spiders Specifically to Basements

Basements add two factors: they're connected to the exterior through foundation gaps and window wells (entry), and they're undisturbed low-traffic zones (harbouring). Combined with insects from moisture issues, basements concentrate spiders more than any other part of most Ontario homes.

## What Doesn't Matter as Much as People Think

**House cleanliness:** A spotless house still has spiders if the exterior conditions are favourable. Spiders live on or near the building structure, not in "dirty" spaces specifically.

**Specific room use:** Spiders go where conditions are right — undisturbed, warm, with food. A guest room used twice a year accumulates more than a busy kitchen regardless of cleanliness.

## Putting It Together

The most effective spider prevention combines:
1. Environmental modification (lighting, vegetation, harbouring sites)
2. Entry point sealing
3. Professional exterior perimeter treatment (handles the insects and spiders already present and maintaining residual prevention)

Spider Squad's exterior treatment targets the foundation perimeter — the critical zone where all the above factors converge. To book: 905-935-7498 or spidersquad.ca.