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Fall Spiders in Collin County: Who's Harmless, Who to Watch For, and How to Keep Them Out
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Walk out to get the paper on a fall morning and there's a good chance you'll catch a face full of web. This time of year, folks around McKinney, Allen, Frisco, and the towns nearby start noticing big round webs strung across porches and eaves, and big hairy spiders scooting across the garage floor.
Most of the spiders you'll run into are more of a nuisance than a danger. A couple of them deserve some respect, though, and it helps to know which is which. Here's the plain-language version I'd give a neighbor.
Why You Notice More Spiders in Fall
Spiders go where the food is, and their food is other bugs. In late summer and fall, there are plenty of insects around, and a lot of them gather near porch lights and garage lights at night. The spiders set up shop right where the buffet is. (If you read our cricket post last week, this is the same story, one step up the food chain.)
Spiders also look for shelter when the weather swings hot, cold, or wet. A garage full of boxes, a woodpile, or the space under a deck is about perfect. And since most spiders are active at night, you often see the webs and the spiders in the morning before you ever notice where they're coming from.
Four Spiders You'll See Around Collin County
Our spider page covers the four we run into most. Two are mostly nuisance. Two are worth being careful with.
Mostly nuisance
Orb weaver. These are the ones behind those big, round, wheel-shaped webs on porches, eaves, bushes, and outdoor lights. They're light brown to black, often with bright markings, and their legs look hairy or spiny. They mostly stay outside. The webs are annoying, but the spider itself is just eating the bugs your porch light pulls in.
Wolf spider. Dark brown with pale or yellowish markings, a hairy, sturdy body, and quick on its feet. Wolf spiders don't build webs. They're hunters that live in burrows outside, and when they wander indoors they tend to stay low: along walls, in corners, under furniture, and in garage clutter. They look scarier than they are.
Worth being careful with
Black widow. Shiny black with a red hourglass on the underside of the belly. Instead of a neat round web, they build messy, irregular webs close to the ground in dark, dry, out-of-the-way places: garages, crawlspaces, woodpiles, and under decks.
Brown recluse. Yellowish-gray to dark, with fine gray hairs on the abdomen and legs that are darker than the body. Look for a violin-shaped mark on top. Up close, they have three pairs of eyes arranged in a half-circle instead of the usual eight. As the name says, they hide in places nobody bothers: garages, sheds, wood and rock piles, and storage areas.
You don't need to get close enough to count eyes. If a spider looks like either of these, leave it alone and treat the area with some caution.
Safe Habits Around the House
A few simple habits make it much less likely you'll ever have a run-in:
Wear gloves when you're digging through the garage, the shed, storage boxes, or the woodpile. Those are exactly the dark, quiet spots widows and recluses like.
Shake out shoes, boots, and work gloves that have been sitting in the garage or by the back door before you put them on.
Shake out boxes and stored items before you carry them inside, especially holiday decorations coming down from storage this time of year.
Don't handle spiders, even ones you're pretty sure are harmless. A broom, a vacuum, or a cup and a piece of paper all work fine.
Keep kids and pets from poking around woodpiles and under decks.
If you're bitten and concerned, see a doctor.
How to Keep Spiders Out (and Clear the Webs)
The best way to have fewer spiders is to give them less to eat and fewer places to hide.
Go easy on the lights
Turn off porch and landscape lights you don't need, or put them on a timer or motion sensor. Warm or yellow bulbs by the doors tend to draw fewer insects, which means less for spiders to hunt.
Clear out the clutter
Swap cardboard boxes for plastic bins with tight lids. Cardboard gives spiders easy hiding spots and doesn't seal.
Get stored items up off the garage floor where you can.
Move woodpiles, extra lumber, rock piles, and yard debris away from the house.
Trim shrubs and bushes so they aren't touching the walls or roofline.
Close up the gaps
Replace worn weather-stripping and add door sweeps, including on the door between the garage and the house.
Keep window and door screens in good repair.
Seal gaps around pipes, cables, and vents. (Same note as last week: leave the small weep holes along the bottom row of brick open. They let your walls drain.)
Knock down the webs
Use a long-handled broom or an extendable duster to clear webs from eaves, porch ceilings, light fixtures, and window corners. Orb weavers will rebuild, so clearing webs regularly through the fall helps. Wear gloves when you sweep out low, messy webs in the garage or under the deck, since those are more likely to belong to a widow.
When to Call for Help
If you're clearing webs every morning, seeing spiders indoors on a regular basis, or finding what looks like a black widow or brown recluse around the house, a professional treatment can help.
Spiders are already included in our quarterly pest control plan, along with crickets, ants, American cockroaches, centipedes, and a list of other common pests. We treat inside and out, including the garage, and de-webbing the eaves is part of every visit. If covered pests come back between visits, we'll come back out for a free retreatment.
We're a local, family-owned company here in the McKinney area, and we've been taking care of homes around Collin County since 2012. If you're in McKinney, Allen, Frisco, Plano, Prosper, Melissa, Anna, Princeton, Fairview, or Lucas, the easiest way to get started is to request a free estimate online. If you'd rather, you can also call or text us at (469) 340-0200. We'll find a day that works for you.
Here's to fewer webs on the front porch this fall.
John
Around the Block Pest Control
(469) 340-0200 | aroundtheblockpest.com