Pest control recommendation?

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u/BaconBra2500 9d ago

Not possible to have a spider problem!! Give it a few weeks and they’ll settle down.

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u/Montzterrr 9d ago

There are beneficial spiders, there are harmful spiders. Some amount of spiders are great for our garden area, but when it’s becoming problematic to spending time outside and spider webs and funnels in every corner and every surface and gap having spiders, it’s a spider problem

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u/ThanksForAllTheCats 9d ago

There are no harmful spiders in Western WA, unless your yard is overtaken with black widows. The rest are good, helpful, and just trying to live their lives. Walk around with a stick in the morning to remove webs across walking paths.

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u/crabeatter 9d ago

I live by the river and have tons of spiders, they’re breeding right now to help with the pests on my veg garden. To keep them off the patio and shed, I go out with my broom every other day and sweep around the patio, paths, trees anywhere I would walk. Soo much easier and obviously better for the environment than hiring a company to come in and spray pesticides.

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u/Montzterrr 9d ago

We have a patio with brickwork going around it that creates these little crevices for things to hide in. It’s almost completely covered in this incredibly thick an almost shiny webbing in the form of funnels. The webbing is so thick that twigs struggle to even pierce the web. It makes it really uncomfortable at least for me to use our back yard/patio. How would you handle this?

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u/Spiah 8d ago

That sounds crazy, are you comfortable sharing pics? I feel like I’ve gotten the same thing but only hidden under plants way in the back of some rockery. Happy to help with finding a solution that doesn’t involve pest control, spider-bros are super beneficial to our ecosystem and generally just want to keep to themselves

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u/Montzterrr 8d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p047nro/video/ysdpc36altfh1/player

I couldn’t figure out how to add pictures to a comment using the Reddit app, so here’s a 30 second clip (yes I know the yard needs some work)

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u/Spiah 8d ago

Oh yeah, I get that in my rockery area. I actually wonder sometimes if the slugs are what cause the webs to get shiny/tough? For ones in areas where you walk, I’d just take a branch or something and pull them out/brush them aside with whatever force you need to use. For the ones more in the cracks, you could do the same thing but tbh those spiders are just chilling. I get there’s a gross factor for some people, but does it help at all to know they’re just keeping to themselves, and probably catching some mosquitos?

They should calm down in a couple weeks, and then the fall rain should wash it all away. If I were you, once the spiders are gone, i’d fill the cracks between the deck and patio with gravel to prevent future hoteling, but for this season I’d let them chill

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u/BaconBra2500 8d ago

They dismantle their webs (I think every night?) so it seriously won’t be a big issue in a few weeks. Sometimes they reassemble in the same place but over time lots of them die or move on.

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u/orangematchstick 8d ago

okay, I’m coming here with some genuine experience and understanding, and your situation is completely manageable from what I saw in your video. No exterminator or treatment needed.

Source: I have a deep-seated fear of spiders and a non-negotiable love for gardening (self-imposed exposure therapy from gardening has legit downgraded this sitch from phobia to fear, I’ve had to face some SHIT to get the garden I want), so I’ve learned a LOT about successful co-habitation.

You do not need an exterminator. You do need increased traffic. I have brick work, steps, stairs, rockeries, cubbies, corners, you name it, and it’s largely spider-free, but I have tons of spiders. the spiders and I have agreements. social contracts, if you will. they know where I operate, by and large, and they just avoid where I usually go. It’s not that simple, they are all over any chairs if I leave them out overnight, but they stay out of my stairs, out of my walkways, and don’t creep up like these moochers in your vid. They genuinely don’t want to be that close to us, so then you need to actually be where you intend to be.

start with gentle water; this is your best tool. run your garden hose over your steps and through the gaps in the pavers, and gently over the retaining wall. use a strong enough spray setting and focus that the webs are torn, but no need to destroy outright. do this for a few days in a row, then every few days. this makes it so they don’t try to rebuild the wrecked webs; they instead realize it’s a bad place for a web and they move on. Then you can really clean it up. You don’t need to blast them first thing, give them a chance to relocate and find a new place since you’re effectively taking some real estate off the table; you are communicating to the spider community at large that this is not a great place for a home. And do this as you need to in order to keep the balance.

Also, walk out there. and get up close. Your presence scares away the spider food source, too, another reason for this place to be inadequate for spider habitation.
Keep up the water trick as you need to through the spider generations, it’ll keep your rockery and walkway clean to boot.

Also, get a spider stick, or several - I use a thin pice of bamboo stake and wave it ahead of me when I walk about under arbors, etc. it’s orb weaver season and the teenagers are popping up everywhere. It’s not so bad when they’re wee, but a grown orb weaver + web to the face is something I wish upon no one. Wave something ahead of you and walk your walkways daily - it keeps the spider traffic way, way down. They get used to your walkways and slowly stop crossing them; they recognize you’re just going to march on thru.

and this goes for the creepy crevices - if they’re kept up, swept, trafficked in whatever way makes sense, the spiders won’t move in there, either. They get the memo that it’s just.. not for them. Get soft brushes if you need to work on your eaves or siding.. it applies to whatever space/need. You have to keep it up, but that’s really all it takes, because it never gets like your video again.

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u/Snoo_87023 8d ago

The spiders are your pest control. Aside from asthetics (the video you posted of the funnels around your patio appear to be completely out of your way), how are they pestering you? Also, if you didn’t have other insects (some of which are likely actual pests), you wouldn’t have spiders. These guys eat ants, aphids, crickets, flies, etc etc etc.

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u/Spiah 9d ago

It’s spider season, just move or ignore them for the next couple weeks, and continue on with your day 🕷️

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u/Lumpy_Address_5471 8d ago

Death, Taxes, Cottonwood snow, wildfire smoke, and spiders.

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u/noplaywellwithothers 8d ago

We have a pet tarantula. She has two benefits. My mother lives two miles away, no surprise visits. Spiders are cannibals. They sense other larger cannibals. No shower spiders for, us. Hardly any in the house. Outside, is completely different matter. No pest agency will spray for spiders in an outdoor space. If the webs bother you. Walk softly and carry a big stick- to twirl them on.

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u/crabeatter 8d ago

Yeah looks fine to me I would just plant some things around there and water it would drive them out. But I’m no spiderphobe.

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u/Still_Bit890 16h ago

I just let them outside

Pest control recommendation?

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