Spiders come in many sizes and colors, but we all recognize one when we see one. They all have eight legs, and two body regions – cephalothorax and abdomen. Spiders can be very intimidating, but they rarely attack people; most spider bites are the result of a person’s accidental contact with a spider, or out of self-defense.

Some spider bites can be very painful (even harmful), but spiders do not feed off of people, like mosquitoes, fleas, or bed bugs do. In fact, they can be quite beneficial, as they consume 400 to 800 million tons of insects (and other spiders) each year. Most suspicious itchy/painful bumps are not the results of spider activity.

Hobo spiders are quite common in and around structures of Western Washington. They are rather large in size, with long, hairy legs, and are easily identified by their funnel-shaped web commonly placed in dark, moist areas like crawlspaces, basements, and woodpiles.

Their bite can have a serious effect on humans, sometimes resulting in tissue loss. They are also fast walkers, known to cover 15 to 20 inches per second, which is quite an unsettling sight when you are not expecting to see one!

Cellar spiders (similar to daddy long-legs spiders) can be large in size but are completely harmless to humans. They are known for their thin, long legs and clumsy walking habits. Cellar spiders can be a great helper in keeping insect populations down but will also clutter your house with thin, flimsy webs that gather dust and insect bodies.

Though they are not a danger to you or your home, their presence can be annoying, particularly if you walk into a room that has been unoccupied for a while and your face gets covered in webbing. This can be quite startling for most people.

Giant house spiders, like their cousin the hobo spider, can create quite a stir when they run across the floor of your living room. Contrary to common belief, though, they are relatively harmless to humans.

These arachnids prefer to be outdoors but can set up their funnel-shaped web inside if the situation suits them. Minimizing stored items around the exterior perimeter of your home has been shown to reduce the potential for these spiders to move in.

Orb weavers are primarily an exterior pest, commonly found in western Washington.  They can spin some beautiful webs in the late summer and fall, but those webs can also be an annoyance. We use an extension pole with a Webster brush attachment to reduce the presence of these webs, then we follow that with a residual application around the perimeter of the structure to discourage spiders from reestablishing in our treatment zone.

Black widow spiders are more common in Eastern Washington, but they can also be found in Western Washington. Female Black Widow spiders are known for the red hourglass marking on the underside of their abdomen, and their bite can potentially be fatal. Fortunately, we do not run into these in our area often. A similar-looking spider commonly referred to as a False Black Widow is much more common, and they are not dangerous at all.

Even though a rare few have been identified in Western Washington, likely introduced to the area as hitchhikers on trucks coming from the Midwest, brown recluse spiders have not been found to be established here. They are only known to be established in the southern Midwest region of the United States. They are known for the fiddle or violin marking on the backside. Their bites can be dangerous and should be treated medically if a bite is confirmed to be from a brown recluse spider.

Spider control techniques can be quite varied, as it depends on the conditions around your property. We will often recommend removing stored items from areas around the perimeter of the structure, such as woodpiles, building materials, garbage cans, ladders, and other similar items.

After the initial control has been established, we strongly recommend a recurring preventative service to keep the exterior populations from reestablishing at your house or building.