How do I get rid of housespiders?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Before we start, I know, they’re good at eating flies and aren’t really that harmful. And the centipede crawling across my ceiling last night was probably on its way to kill the spiders. But as much as I’d like to host Nature in my living room, I have a 20-month-old son, and the spiders seem to be congregating around his toys.

I’ve killed or vacuumed about a dozen of them in the last month, sometimes two or three a day. They’re small, black or brown, and they’re all situated near the front door or along that wall, except for two I found in the kitchen. By comparison, last year, I lived in an apartment about a block away and saw maybe one spider in the year I lived there.

I killed three of them yesterday. Actually, that’s not quite true - there was a small one by the front door that killed a larger one, and then I saw another one a few feet away later that night. They were all vacuumed up this evening, along with two others. One of them was in a bowl my son squirreled away with his toys, and when I took it to the kitchen, there was a small grey thing in it about the size of a grain of sand that looked like a small glob of spheres - can I assume that the spider left an eggsac before its untimely demise at the hands of the Shark EuroPro? And can I assume that the dishwasher took care of the eggsac?

And what can I do about the spiders, short of spraying ineffective pesticides all over the place that my son will probably go out of his way to lick anyway?

2

This is probably not going to be of much help, but anyways…

I can’t help with the spiders, but if you’re worried about lizards, I’ve been led to believe that empty egg shells left in discreet places keeps them out of the house.

OTOH, lizards are pretty good are catching spiders.

3

Thanks, but lizards are pretty much non-existant in suburban St. Louis, as far as I know. I’ve lived with skinks and geckos before, and I’d much rather have them than spiders.

4

Acquire a cat, perhaps? In addition to catching and eating the spiders, I hear tell they can even make decent pets.

5

My cats are utterly useless at killing spiders. :dubious:

6

Until it falls asleep on his baby’s face and suffocates him. Evil Cats!

7

So Indygrrl’s cats don’t catch spiders, and Bear_Nenno reminds us that cats, indeed, do not make such great pets at all. Back to the drawing board.

How about carniverous plants? Not the giant man-eating kind like in Little Shop of Horrors, but a normal spider- fly- and gnat-eater? In addition to (maybe) eating the spiders, a couple Venus Fly Traps might help to thin the plentiful food supply that makes your home so comfortable for the spiders. :eek:

A couple years ago, I had a spider infestation in my Jeep, so I can empathize.

8

Kick-Ass plan! And when they get large enough, they can even take care of any dangerous cats that might find their way into the house.