spiders on the house

I live right on Lake Erie.My neighbors have their homes sprayed every year for spiders.I have never had my house sprayed.My house is covered in spider webs.I wash the house down with high pressure water.Within days they are all back.I love the toads and gardner snakes and all the birds etc.I have noticed the lack of creatures in my neighbors yard.Wildlife knows my yard is pesticide free.However I would like to paint my house.Considering the time and expense,I don't want my house full of webs after I paint.Any suggestions? Is there any thing,I could mix in the paint?I take pride in my home and it looks horrible.

If you can stand sky blue the color helps to repel spiders as they think it is the sky and prefer to build under cover it helps but wont get rid of all of them as some spiders hide during the day and build webs each night I watch a few spiders build webs every evening here. but I have to either remove or kill a few of them because they overrun my porches and stuff after a while I have some that arer so big they can actually catch hummingbirds I have rescued more than 1 from webs on my front porch more than 1 being 2 it may have been the same bird.

I read somewhere here about Hedge Apples. I just bought some off eBay. Supposedly they repel spiders.

Hey there,

Here is one recipe I could find.

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=48

Sorry about the messy house. It seems as if there must be some way to balance things out so there are some spiders, some bugs, but not too many. Good luck.

David

You can also try using pieces of eucalyptus around door sills and areas inside the house. Evidently, we like the odor, but the spider's don't. I didn't want to use pesticides in or around the house and one of our older neighbor's told me to try that, so far it seems to be working.

I have problems with black widows in my house and under it. The house is old, built in 1867, and is not air tight or spider tight. I don't want to spray but they are dangerous. Is there an organic pesticide?

I'm curious even about those who use synthetic chemicals on their house for spiders--- my understanding is that due to the way that spiders walk and then build webs that they mostly live on, that a chemical residue would have very little effect on them (although maybe on the bugs they catch?). How often do these neighbors treat their houses? All of the bugs that are affected by the spray, including any spiders, are likely to also affect the birds, too. No one I know in NM sprays their houses like that, but we are like the 4th poorest state in the country, so I guess we get used to the webs. Or just let the 50 mph winds take care of it!

Black widows are a problem in New Mexico, too. They have built webs inside shoes and backpacks at our house overnight.. I don't know anyone, organic gardener or not, who has found a way to prevent them. Spray, as far as I know, only works if applied directly. Insecticide soap or pyrethrin spray might work, but no better and certainly no faster than a well-placed shoe! The main thing I have found is to learn what their webs look like and then avoid or smash them. I try not to kill anything, but I will kill a black widow in or near my house. My cats like to play with spiders and can't be taught "good bug, bad bug."

You're right, spiders are tough to get rid of. You can certainly get exterminators to come out and put down poisons, but they really won't be that effective, and the harmful effects of the poisons on you, kids, pets, etc are hardly worth it. The best way to get rid of spiders is to get rid of their habitat--black widows love to hide, so places like woodpiles, old boxes, abandoned plant pots, etc are perfect hiding spots. If you've got anything like that around the house, I'd remove it, and if there are certain rooms in the house they tend to get into more than others, I'd do my best to spider proof the room by removing things like that too, if they can't find a hospitable place to hang out, then they'll be more likely to go back under the house.

I don't know if this would help, but...

We do have the occasional black widow in my area, but I have not seen one. My cat ate a daddy-long-legs once and I think he got poinsoned - he seemed to loose his vision and balance - but he recovered after a few weeks.

Anyway, ever since then, I vacume up all the spider webs and egg cases and this has reduced their population quite a bit. Use the long tube extention of course. You have to get into all their dusty, dark hiding places. The run the vacumm for a second, then quickly remove the bag and seal in a plastic bag.

Hope this helps.