Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We live on a lake which I fear makes the spider problem worse, they are everywhere.

Thanks for any help.

No doubt spiders seem to be more of a problem around lakes. My personal thought is that it's directly due to the abundance of flying insects. I keep a boat at a local lake and it invariably is covered with webs if I don't treat it regularly with an aerosol called PHANTOM. This odorless, "dry" formulation is well suited for the boat and other hard to treat surfaces like a window screen. At the house I use it for several screened windows as well as the baseboard areas in rooms with hardwood floors. It's so efficient you can't even tell where it's been applied so it's good for areas like this. That "no wet" look after spraying is a big advantage to using it.

I also suggest you review our SPIDER CONTROL ARTICLE and get one of the concentrates we have listed to use around the entire perimeter of the home. No doubt keeping the home treated can really help and if you're not addressing the rest of the structure, I'm afraid the windows will be harder to keep spider free.

Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:

Phantom:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/aerosol/pt-phantom-17-5oz

Spider Control: http://www.brownrecluse.com/brown-recluse-spider-control/spiders-outside

Can you please tell me how to get rid of this spider?

I know they live naturally in the woods but they are coming into my house (basement door, kitchen door and deck sliding glass door). It is making me want to move. Y'all helped me get rid of camelback crickets a few years ago and we haven't seen them since.

Thanks so much,

Katherine

Great image of a wolf spider! These are predatory spiders that tend to travel and forage at night. Commonly found in turf, flower beds and mulch islands, wolf spiders will be active where other insects are out and about. They don't make nests and though some will forage into homes, they usually don't become a major invasive pests unless you have lots of "open" locations around entry points that lead inside the home.

What's a problematic entry point? Doorways would be number one on the list. To see if your doorways present a problem, the first thing to look for will be the weather stripping located at the bottom of the door. This needs to be sealed tight to the door frame threshold if you want to keep pests out. A good way to check is to go outside the home and try to look inside, under the door, and see if any light comes out. This works best when you do this late at night and in many cases, having someone shine a flashlight at the bottom of the door from inside the home will help reveal any weak spots. Many insects are drawn to light and if there is any peaking out under the door it would be a sure invitation to both local insects and the wolf spiders who are tracking movements. Insects are also drawn to cool temps in the summer and hot temps in the winter and direct routes into the home will assuredly allow them to enter.

Garage doors and basement doors are more likely to be vulnerable so be sure and inspect them as well. Repair these routes of entry and in most cases you'll be able to keep the spiders (and other pests) outside where they belong. But if this doesn't help, there are two preventive applications that can help.

The first would be to treat with some CYONARA around the entry point that has the problem. Do a general spraying over the areas just around these vulnerable points. That means spraying the ground and the foundation with a light mist, maybe 10 feet by 10 feet, so that any foraging insects or spiders will either die from the treatment or avoid the area because they sense the treatment.

If you find that spot treating described above is not working, you'll need to do a more complete application. This will include treating the yard, mulch islands, flower beds, etc. with some BIFEN GRANULES. Next, spray over the top with the Cyonara. In most cases, doing this 2-3 times a year will keep everything in check.

Here are direct links to the products listed above:

Cyonara:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/cyonara-32-oz-rts

Bifen G:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/granule/bifenthrin-g-25-lb