I am so tired of always cleaning up spider webs in my house. Seems like they’re everywhere I look. Why are there so many in the winter when there don’t seem to be any bugs around for the spiders to feed on? F. M., Lee, NH

It might not necessarily be that you have so many spiders, but that you have a few spiders that are making lots of webs. Our most common indoor spider, the American house spider, is known for making multiple webs. It will start a web and if that web doesn’t catch any prey, the spider may abandon that web and construct another one in a better location. As these many abandoned webs gather dust, they become even more noticeable. So the number of webs is not any real indication of the number of spiders present.

The American house spider hangs upside down in its tangled, irregular-shaped web waiting for an insect or some other arthropod, such as a centipede, to wander in. As you say, webs can be found in multiple places: near windows, in corners of rooms either high or low, under furniture, in closets. But these spiders really prefer damper indoor areas like basements and crawlspaces.

There is Plenty of Spider Food in Your Home

You also may have continued spider activity because of unseen pests in your home. Even in winter, there can be plenty of pests that live totally indoors that could be supplying spider food. Add to that certain outdoor insects that might be spending the winter hidden in your home. Some examples are cockroaches, bed bugs, house centipedes, silverfish, stink bugs, clothes moths, drain flies, fungus gnats and other houseplant pests, and any number of stored food (or pantry) pests. Many of these pests are active mainly at night so you wouldn’t even notice them.

If new spider webs are appearing after you have vacuumed up the old, give us a call. Household spiders can often be eliminated without the use of pesticides. Our technicians use specialty vacuums and brushes to remove spiders and their webs. But beyond that, our technician will be looking for insects that are providing food for the spiders. You may have an ongoing pest infestation that you are not even aware of. Call Colonial Pest today!

For more on spiders in homes, see these Colonial blogs:

• Too Many House Spiders!
• Why Do I Have So Many Spiders Inside My Home?
• How Can I Get Rid of Spiders in My Home?

Photo Credit : By The original uploader was Patrick0Moran at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link