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Are Spiders A Danger To My Home?

Spiders are arguably the creepiest of the creepy crawlies. It’s easy to assume that spiders in your home can be part of the problem. Creepy appearances aside, spiders can actually prove to be somewhat of a benefit around your home.

The Danger of Spiders

First off, let’s remove any doubts. Spiders are still indeed dangerous to some degree. Bites from most spiders leave an irritated and inflamed bump on your skin and most people have a mild reaction to bites. People who are allergic to spiders can develop more serious symptoms when bitten, but overall, most spider bites are relatively harmless aside from the mild pain and irritation to the skin.
Some household dwelling spiders like the Brown Recluse or Black Widow can produce a much more devastating bite. For example, according to healthline.com Brown Recluse bites contain a pair of toxins in their venom that can destroy skin tissue and rapidly spread that venom into the tissue affected at an accelerated rate. Healthline also states: “Bites from the brown recluse spider almost never result in death but can cause serious skin damage, nausea, and muscle pain. With proper care, mild bites resolve within days to weeks, while more severe cases can take months to heal.” As for the Black Widow, Poison.org states: “Black widow spider bites can be dangerous but fatal bites are rare. Black widow spider bites often are painful right away. After a bad bite, severe pain and muscle cramps can start in a couple of hours. Pain and muscle cramps can be treated.” You can spot the signs of Brown Recluses and Black Widows by paying close attention to spiders you see around your home. Brown Recluse spiders tend to hide their tightly compressed webs in corners or crevices and hunt their pray by moving around your home, rather than staying in a single stationary web, like the Black Widow. Female Black Widow Spiders weave webs in places that they think won’t be disturbed often. Places like garage corners, sheds, or even an old worn out pair of boots in the attic are prime locations for a Black Widow to lay down their web. Black Widows tend to be less mobile and attemt to catch their prey, rather than hunting it down. All of this said, these spiders are definitely the worst of the worst when it comes to the danger factor, and if you spot them, you should consult a pest control expert as soon as you can to handle their removal.

The Benefit of Spiders

Even knowing that these types of spiders may be around your home, they could be preventing pests that carry disease, destroy crops or multiply at an insane rate. Spiders are Apex predators of the bug world and actually eat many insects and other small pests that can cause your home or the people and pets in it harm. According to an article from Anypest.com: “Spiders deliver many benefits to both our ecosystem and inside our homes. For example, spiders like to feast on pesky insects, like roaches, aphids, moths, and earwigs, which help keep their population in check. This also helps alleviate the spread of diseases and the destruction of our farmland crops. Norman Platnick, a leading arachnid scientist at the American Museum of Natural History cites, “If spiders disappeared, we would face famine.” The same article goes on to say: “one spider can eat 2,000 insects in one year.” Now that’s some quality pest control!
Wether spiders like to hunt their prey or weave webs to catch their prey, one thing is certain; spiders certainly carry their weight when it comes to taking out other harmful pests. Fleas, cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes are just the short list of insects that find their way into a spiders food source. While those insects aren’t the only prey to these web weavers, they’re undoubtedly some of the most dangerous pests that can be found around your home. All of the pests listed above carry a multitude of diseases that can prove harmful to people. Cockroaches and flies carry diseases like Salmonella with them that spread over contact with food and utensils in our kitchens, while fleas and mosquitoes carry diseases such as Lyme disease.
Oddly enough, different species of spiders also hunt some of the dangerous spiders we discussed earlier. You may have heard of the “Daddy Long Legs” spider. The unique body shape and extra long legs are a differentiating factor from most other spider species, but Daddy Long Legs are also known to kill and eat Black Widow spiders.
In the West Texas region, most people are familiar with the Wolf Spider. This is arguably the most common type of spider you’ll find around your home. They’re often confused for the much more dangerous Brown Recluse, but they are much less dangerous. The good and bad thing about Wolf Spiders is that they are very prone to multiply. The pros of having a lot of Wolf Spiders around your home, is that there is more coverage for them to take out other pests at a higher scale. The cons to having a lot of wolf spiders around your home is that they find their way inside your home more often than not. Luckily, they don’t pose a serious threat to people, but they do pose a big threat to other pests around your home!

In Conclusion
Spiders can pose a threat to pretty much anything they come in contact with. Even though most spiders aren’t venomous, most of them do bite. In most cases, no spider bite is fatal to humans, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be removed from your home either. The best way to prevent spiders and other pests from getting in your home is by keeping your home clean! Most pests are drawn to food, and most spiders are attracted to be where pests are so they can eat them. It’s also wise to regularly have your home and yard sprayed with insecticides to keep pests of all sorts away from your home.
While spiders can actually provide some level of pest control for your home, it’s best to keep them at bay and let the professionals handle it. Meers Pest Solutions has 50 years of knowledge to help control your pests at home or at your office. If you’re in West Texas and have an infestation of spiders, insects, rodents or any other pest, visit our website or give us a call at 806.745.3738.

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