Why Spiders Gather Round Wembley's New Flats
Glass and light are the draw. A lit living room behind a floor-to-ceiling window, a wall light by the balcony door and the lighting on a roof terrace all attract moths, midges and flies at night, and spiders go where the insects are. Planting in podium courtyards and on terraces adds more insect life right beside the building. What attracts spiders into a property explains why food matters more than anything else.
Balcony rails, frames and outside lights
Orb-web spiders, the familiar garden spiders, often spin between a balcony rail and the wall in late summer and autumn, rebuilding in the same place night after night. Smaller spiders tuck into the corners of window frames, the track of a sliding door and the back of an outside light. Height is no barrier: young spiders can drift on silk threads carried by the breeze, so upper floors get them as well as the ground floor.
False widows round windows and balconies
The noble false widow is a glossy, dark brown spider with a rounded body and pale markings, often found in gaps round window frames, under balcony furniture and behind outside fittings. Bites are uncommon and tend to be likened to a bee or wasp sting. Anyone whose bite becomes badly swollen, or seems infected, should speak to a pharmacist or GP; call 999 if there are signs of a severe allergic reaction. Are there dangerous spiders in Brent homes? has more.
House Spiders in Older Wembley Homes
The Edwardian and interwar terraces and semis around Wembley Central, Tokyngton and Barn Hill have a different spider season. From late summer, large house spiders that have spent the year in lofts, sheds and wall gaps start to roam, and the males appear in baths, on landings and running along skirting boards in the evening. A few every autumn is normal in a house with a garden and a loft. Why there seem to be so many spiders in the house explains the seasonal pattern, and why spiders collect in lofts covers the space overhead.
What Treatment Can and Cannot Change
Treatment is for rooms inside your home where spiders and webs build up again and again, and it can bring the numbers there down. It cannot stop garden spiders spinning on a balcony that faces planting and lights, and the outside of a block, including frames you cannot reach and communal walkways, is for the building management to keep clean. Whether pest control reduces spider problems goes into this honestly.
If a lot of spiders are feeding on another pest indoors, such as carpet moths in a wardrobe or carpet beetles under the bed, that needs dealing with too. Whether lots of spiders mean another pest looks at the link.
Before you book
- List the rooms where webs keep coming back, such as a bedroom with a balcony door or a living room with a big window
- Say whether you live in a flat and on which floor, or in a house with a loft or shed
- Note where you have seen false widows, and take a photo if you can do so safely
- Clear stored boxes and clutter out of the corners of those rooms
Spiders will still arrive from outside, particularly in autumn and on balconies. Should the treated rooms fill up with webs again, call us back and say where they are.
Fewer Webs on a Wembley Balcony
Light and regular clearing make the biggest difference. Reducing spiders around windows and doors goes further, and Spider Control Brent covers the rest of the borough.
- Close curtains or blinds after dark so indoor light does not spill onto the balcony glass
- Turn balcony and terrace lights off when not in use, or fit warmer-coloured bulbs if the fittings are yours to change
- Brush webs and egg sacs off rails, frames and furniture every week or two in late summer and autumn
- Bring balcony cushions and covers indoors or keep them in a sealed box
- In a house, keep loft storage in lidded crates and clear webs from the shed and window corners
