No pest gives people the creepy-crawlies quite like spiders. These spooky arachnids tend to make Tulsa residents uncomfortable, and while most spiders are completely harmless to humans, they are an unpleasant sight around the house.
Most houses experience spiders to some extent, but if spiders are frequent visitors to your Tulsa, OK household, there may be a bigger issue at play. Let’s discuss why spider infestations happen and how to keep them out of your Tulsa property.
Tulsa’s Spider Identification Guide
Spiders vary widely in color, size, and shape, but all of them have eight legs. Additionally, most spiders have fangs, weave webs, and have anywhere between 8-16 eyes, though not all spiders have these same characteristics.
There are four common spiders that get inside Tulsa homes, including:
House Spider
House spiders vary in size and color, but most tend to be some variation of tan, brown, or black. They are most commonly found weaving webs in the corners of houses and trapping and eating other insects.
Wolf Spider
Wolf spiders can grow over an inch in size and have stout, hairy bodies that range from cream to gray-brown. Wolf spiders are a rarity in that they don’t weave webs. Rather, their long, spiny legs are perfect for chasing and overtaking their prey.
Brown Recluse Spider
These venomous spiders have brown bodies and are easily identified by the violin-shaped markings on their backs. These spiders tend to stay out of the way, but their bites may require medical attention.
Black Widow Spider
Black widows are renowned for coloring: dark black, with a red hourglass shape in the middle. These spiders are the most venomous in Oklahoma, and while they are less likely to get in your home, you don’t want to get anywhere near one.
If you ever have a bug bite with two small holes in it, you may have been bitten by a spider. Those small holes are fang marks, and you will want medical attention in case that spider was venomous.
Spider-Prevention Tips
Venomous or not, spiders are unwelcome in Tulsa households. Luckily, homeowners can prevent them. For starters, it helps to seal any cracks and entry points in your house. You can identify pest entry points based on whether there’s airflow around your windows, doorways, vents, pipes, and masonry. Sealing, caulking, and covering these cracks ensures that spiders and other pests stay out.
Additionally, clearing clutter around the house gives spiders fewer places to hide. Cleaning your storage areas and sweeping webs will discourage spiders from sticking around.
Most importantly, spider prevention coincides with general pest prevention. Spiders feed on insects, so if arachnids continuously visit your house, you may have more than just a spider problem. Spiders indicate that other pests have infested your household, so preventing a spider infestation means also preventing other pests from getting inside.
You can prevent pest infestations by clearing standing water around the house and draining water away from your property. Additionally, general lawn maintenance can keep pests away, such as trimming grasses, bushes, and foliage. Finally, if pests can get into your trash or pantry, they will, so securing food in airtight containers and trash maintenance will help keep pests from coming close.
When spiders continue to plague your property, other pests could be camping out as well. Clearing out the spider problem isn’t enough. You need the expert eye of a Tulsa, OK pest professional to determine if anything else has gotten in your home. If spiders are continuing to bother you, contact us today at Montgomery Exterminating for reliable spider control services. We’ll give you the peace of mind that your house is spider-free, and pest-free as well.
