Spiders
Spiders in Totteridge Outbuildings
Spiders need shelter and insects to eat. Outbuildings on a big plot give them both. Doors are left open in summer, lights attract moths at night, and corners stay undisturbed for months. What attracts spiders explains the pattern.
Garages and stores
A garage used for storage is ideal: boxes, garden furniture, sports equipment and gaps behind shelving. Spiders breed there all year, and where the garage joins the house some move through into the utility room or kitchen.
Stable blocks and tack rooms
Stables attract flies, and flies attract spiders. Webs gather across the rafters, round light fittings and in the corners of the tack room. That is normal in a working yard and is usually a matter of cleaning rather than treatment.
Pool houses and summerhouses
Glass doors, lighting and water all bring insects, and a pool house shut for months fills with webs. False widow spiders are often found round window frames, in door runners and under outdoor furniture in these buildings.
The rooms nearest the outbuildings
Spiders that reach the house usually turn up first in the rooms closest to the garage and garden: the utility room beside the garage, a garden room, a basement or the boot room. Why spiders keep appearing in the same rooms explains why the same rooms are affected year after year.
Are Spiders a Problem?
Most house and garden spiders are harmless and eat other insects. False widows can bite, though bites are uncommon and usually no worse than a wasp sting. If a bite becomes very swollen or painful, speak to a pharmacist or GP, and call 999 for signs of a severe allergic reaction. Dangerous spiders in Barnet homes explains which species live here.
What Treatment Can and Cannot Do
Treatment can reduce the number of spiders in a room or building, and it helps most where spiders are clearly building up. It cannot stop spiders arriving from the garden, fields and hedges around a large plot. Can pest control reduce spider problems? explains what to expect. Lots of spiders can also point to another insect problem, such as flies around a yard or carpet beetles in storage.
What to Do Now
- Clear webs with a long-handled brush or a vacuum
- Move stored boxes off the floor and away from walls in the garage
- Keep outbuilding doors and windows closed when they are not in use
- Switch off outside lights when they are not needed, as they draw insects
- Check window frames and door runners in the pool house for false widows
Wear gloves when clearing out a garage or pool house that has been shut for months, and shake out outdoor cushions, boots and gardening gloves before using them, since that is where a hidden spider is most likely to be pressed against skin.
Keeping Outbuildings Clear of Webs
Regular sweeping is the simplest answer in outbuildings. Brush the stable rafters and the corners of the tack room every few weeks, lift boxes in the garage off the floor onto shelving you can clean under, and vacuum pool house window frames and door runners before the building opens for summer. Brush strips on garage and outbuilding doors cut down what walks in. Reducing spiders around windows and doors has more ideas.
Booking Spider Control
When you book spider control, tell us which buildings and rooms are involved, whether it is the garage, stable block, pool house or rooms in the house, and have keys ready. You will be told what to expect afterwards. How to stop spiders coming back covers the longer term. If wasps are nesting in the same outbuildings, see wasp nest removal in Totteridge. For spiders across the borough, see Spider Control Barnet.
