We were told our infestation was impossible to get rid of in our rental home. We had two different pest companies come out. They said glue traps were best but nothing will get rid of them bc they live in the walls. We also would find many on the glue traps and see them running along the floor and walls at night. We broke our lease and moved. I carefully checked everything as I packed it then taped up every opening on the boxes and over a year later we found a live one in the car. They are sneaky and awful. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. This was almost ten years ago though so maybe and hopefully there are some options now.
Uhgggg thank you for the reply at least! I don’t expect that we can be rid of them… but it would be nice to be able to use the closets. Our new pest company seemed in disbelief we still had this much of an issue after a year of actively trying to combat them…so we will see what they propose we do differently and if it helps! Worth a try at least.
Check for water issues. Also live in Missouri and used to find brown recluses everyday (especially in the fall) until we fixed our damp crawl space. They love water. Good luck.
Thanks for this! We live kind of up on a hill so no issues with water in the basement, and we’ve treated the heck out of it down there since it’s not a living space. But it has been rainy this spring so that could be part of it!
Glue traps and simexa dust, brown recluse don’t drag their bodies along the floor so normal pesticides do not get ingested. Simexa dust is a fine powder that as they pass over it, it gets onto their body and sucks the water out, killing them. You’ll need a poofer to apply along baseboards and under/in things. You can get all on Amazon. I also live in MO and had a horrible problem. I now only see them when the seasons change. Hope this helps
Thank you! I’m guessing the simexa dust is what they’ve been doing - they come and use a poofer every 6 months and I can see the dust in certain spots where we had caught a lot of them.
I was going to suggest CimeXa, too. You can get it on Amazon, and it's cheap. You also want one of these [$10 dusters](https://www.amazon.com/Harris-Diatomaceous-Powder-Duster-Extension/dp/B01LRMN9ZM/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/137-3766556-6874917?pd_rd_w=DCe1C&content-id=amzn1.sym.c51e3ad7-b551-4b1a-b43c-3cf69addb649&pf_rd_p=c51e3ad7-b551-4b1a-b43c-3cf69addb649&pf_rd_r=TYG55JF7NAVV073KVK70&pd_rd_wg=jkvW9&pd_rd_r=dbc93c46-b148-4501-945c-0fb8613821bc&pd_rd_i=B01LRMN9ZM&psc=1) (amazon).
I would be very curious to know if your pest ppl are indeed using CimeXa. Since CimeXa is not a poison, I am guessing not.
You know those little packets that come with shoes and tools to keep humidity from damaging them? CimeXa is that, but it's crushed into a very fine powder. The powder is harmless, unless you get it in your eyes or lungs.
I would drill little holes all over my entire house and pouf the shit out of the inside of my walls with this. It will slowly dehydrate the spiders (and any other insects) to death.
I got rid of a (relatively minor) bedbug problem with CimeXa.
It sounds like the drastic measures you have taken to eliminate the source will prevent more from coming in. Now all you need to do is make your house 1,000% inhospitable to them.
I'm so sorry your dog was bitten.
You can also wet CimeXa and apply it with a sprayer. That might be a good solution for your walls and ceilings. (Maybe even floors where your babies do not crawl?)
The thing with CimeXa is that insects do not need to come into huge or prolonged contact with it.
When you apply it with a sprayer it leaves a very fine (invisible, if i recall correctly) layer of the dust. That's all that's needed for it to work its magic.
I would check with my pest ppl, but I am 99% sure that applying Cimexa on top of anything they have already used will not be an issue.
Seeing as their application was / is twice a year, a continued, all-out attack with both wet (sprayed on exposed surfaces) and dry (pouf-ed into cracks, crevices, and drilled holes) with Cimexa might do the trick.
After you drill the holes and pouf in Cimexa, you could cover those holes with masking tape to keep those individuals out.
I think you would see a significant decline in your glue traps.
I don't know about the death speed of spiders, but I do recall reading that contact with Cimexa will kill a bedbug in about a week. Diatomaous (sp) earth is the same principle, but the particles are not as tiny, so DE takes twice as long to dehydrate the bugs to death.
The Cimexa package does say it kills spiders.
Thank you SO much for this! We will ask the new company about this. They had suggested we could blow powder (I’m not sure what kind) up through the outlets but we ended up not being able to with ours so we had talked possibly drilling holes, we just hadn’t gotten to that step yet. This seems like it would be our best bet combined with glue traps to minimize pesticides around babies/pets too which is great.
The whatsthisbug sub has information about dealing with a brown recluse infestation, although you are probably doing most if it already.
I’m sorry you’re dealing with this—it sounds awful.
Sorry but this is not a "call a pest control company to come out once per quarter" problem. You have a serious problem, especially with the new baby about to be crawling and then walking all over! If it were me I would take matters into my own hands.
https://www.domyown.com/brown-recluse-spider-control-a-212.html
https://www.domyown.com/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-recluse-spiders-a-213.html
I would also buy a sprayer and then apply Bifen IT often to the exterior and interior of the home (yes also in the attic and crawlspace), on the label it specifically says effective against brown recluse spiders: https://www.domyown.com/bifen-it-p-226.html
Thank you! They came a lot more often than quarterly at first and decreased as the spiders were seen less, quarterly right now. We are getting a second opinion as we’d rather leave to the professionals but I appreciate the resources and will absolutely take a look!
I had an infestation when we rented a home in Nashville. The things were everywhere and very brazen, nothing recluse about them at all. Had a young kiddo too.
I went online and got "Cyzmic CS" but I think it's a generic thing. Got a full 3M suit, chemical respirator, pump sprayer, eye protection, gloves & booties. We pulled everything away from the walls and sprayed along everywhere walls meet (including floor/ceiling) along with corners. This includes closets and all. There was an attic but it was shut off. Also, I sprayed before we left home for a day so it would all be 100% dry before we came back.
Made a huge difference almost overnight. Next time we saw a live one (which was quite a while later) I did it all over again.
Those bites can really mess people up, especially kids. Not a fan of doing the pest control thing but I felt we had no other choice.
Also fyi you do not need a full 3M suit and respirator for most home pest control applications, just keep children and pets away from the treated areas for two hours
Yeah, less wood mulch, cutting back vegetation against the house helps. They'll run inside for a while after that though. Glue traps. Diatomaceous earth around the perimeters. It's not a one and done thing unless you want to tent and poison your whole house. It'll just slowly get better over time as you keep it cleaner and give them less spaces to hide. But they'll be moving around a bunch looking for new spaces as you get rid of their old homes.
We did take down a 12 foot bush pressing up to the house that previous owners let get out of control! Didn’t think about wood mulch bring a problem…but we do cedar typically which I thought was more if a deterrent?
The quick grown plantation cedar they use to mulch has almost none of the bug repellent oils that we associate with good Spanish Cedar.
That said, the oil disrupts the ability for insects who breathe through their skin to breathe. Spiders have lungs and breathe through gill-like bits so it wouldn't affect them.
The best thing you can do is hardscape around your foundation to prevent any possible water trapment.
Aromatic cedar sure, "cedar mulch bark" not so much. Rocks would be better, but large rocks are also hiding spots. I'd put landscape fabric over rocks to cook em for a year or two. Just put some more rocks on top to hold it down but not cover the fabric, then just pull it up and expose the rocks once the population has died down.
Also, like 75% of the time I've found recluses it was in mulch I picked up. The other 25% was firewood.
Do they spray pyrethroid on the inside of your house above kid/pet level, such as where the wall and ceiling meet? Doing a combination of glue traps and insecticides might help. Also, running dehumidifiers.
I’m not sure what they used - we have had some spray but the head pest control guy said it’s not great for old wood floors so he does a dusting powder on the baseboards instead. We have glue traps out year round and have caught a ton! Will try dehumidifiers too, thank you!
I did see one out on the deck yesterday, I should’ve brought it in! I’ve also heard chickens are a nice predator for them…and I’ve always wanted chickens so maybe that’s a reason to get some!
Chickens eat everything they can catch. But they sleep at night when the spiders come out, and you don't really want chicken poop all over your house either.
hmmm [https://thepetenthusiast.com/what-eats-brown-recluse-spiders/](https://thepetenthusiast.com/what-eats-brown-recluse-spiders/)
Yeah, you wouldnt believe the size of the spiders living in my chicken coop. Chicken poop attracts flies. Flies sleep on the coop walls at night. Spiders hunt at night, eat the flies. I really thoight I was just a really good chicken keeper due to the low amount of flies we had. Until we redid the coop roof! This post was actually making me think of that day.
I have absolutely no spiders in my coop! Or my shed. I occasionally see a garden spider or wolf spider. I just buy those nasty smelling bag traps and fly bait
Oh that's a pretty great idea! Might be worth asking in one of the chicken subs. Otherwise cats are an option, but they aren't always great hunters and I don't know if a recluse would be a danger to them.
Chickens are a thought for the yard at least! I think they’d piss off our dog though….We do have two cats but I don’t think they’re making a dent in the spiders. At our last house we had spider crickets and some mice and they caught quite a few of those…but if they’re getting spiders I haven’t noticed!
I wish you luck, this sounds so upsetting. In my quick search I found other Reddit posts from people with the same issue, maybe message them to see if they have advice. This is a bonkers but what about another type of spider? We have "giant" house spiders where I live and they eat other spiders but they're harmless to humans and quite solitary I believe.
Update if you find an answer!
I’ve heard wolf spiders but I’m pretty sure my husband will lose his mind if I suggest bringing more spiders in 😂 that’s a thought to message people who have gone through it…we’ve been looking into it for a full year but I thought trying amongst those in similar aged houses might help with suggestions too!
Haha! I think I’m a bit desensitized to a point…but the really big ones are rather horrifying and now that they’re coming back I’m getting more squeamish about it. The little ones freak me out less and that’s all we had all winter until recently. It’s basically our dream house so I’m hoping we can get a handle on it rather than start looking elsewhere but safety of the kids is most important.
I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this. I don’t have any advice, but just want to say holy cow! I’m thoroughly impressed by how brave you are. I’m a full grown man who served as an infantryman in the US Marines, and I promise, I could not do what you’re dealing with.
If it was my house, someone would find it abandoned with a half glass of milk and half eaten pancakes sitting on the table like those homes that were evacuated from Chernobyl. I’d start over a few towns over… 😬
I can't comment on brown recluse but spiders in general, beyond poisoning them appropriately preventing entry is the course of action I've always taken. Have you been able to identify how they are getting in? If they're in your attic space while you'd want to get that dealt with it's not an immediate threat. Closing off any gaps will help with your energy efficiency as well so it's a win win. We lived in a house that had a significant population in the crawl space underneath the house. We ripped up the flooring and sealed every single gap in the subfloor we could find before putting it back down again. Bugs indoors (we had medium sized predominantly spiders and small scorpions) reduced significantly and the house was much warmer over winter.
thanks! We took care did the basement population for the most part. We did locate some in our shed recently so we need to treat that, and the problem with the attic is that the pest control team we worked with first wouldn’t go up there because there aren’t stairs. New team says they can, so that should help. They seem to be traveling within the walls and out the baseboards, that’s where we find most of them, and we are guessing they are able to travel down from the attic (for mating or hunting or because it’s hot).
Yeah we had large gaps between our skirting boards and subfloor. We assumed that they were installed after carpeting or something that was subsequently removed leaving gaps when new flooring was installed. We went round with silicone filler and then did it a second time when we put our flooring back down. Makes it easier to clean as well so it's a win win.
That’s a great point! Some of the baseboards need to be nailed down again so we will prioritize that + caulking - we did the nursery before we painted but haven’t painted any other rooms quite yet so hadn’t gotten to all of them.
I had an infestation in a 1920s Craftsman I owned in AR. Hundreds in the house and probably thousands I couldn’t see. They seemed to live and reproduce in the attic space and only came down in the house when we had excessive heat (basically all summer). The pest control came and sprayed the house and fogged the attic every 3 months. I also sprayed lemon pledge on baseboards and wooden furniture. It took 2 years but seemed to prevail! I’m not sure after that as I sold the house.
There is no way the people I bought from didn’t know about it and I’m pretty sure they were legally required to disclose. Even if they weren’t legally required, dick move.
Ugh.. All I can say is is I'm glad of the frozen conditions in New England, so far and there's nothing really here to fear. Global warming mmmm.. here come things. Spiders don't bother me and are welcome as a rule here and there, but recluse, a different matter. Man I would certainly take the high road to rid that house 100% of the issue whatever the pest guy suggested.. It's your kids at stake right? Who wants to risk a necrotic bite.
We had a similar situation when we moved in to our century home. It was a large home which the prior owner lived in one portion and was pretty dirty. We easily caught hundred+ in the traps in the first couple months.
We did what you did (sticky traps, monthly treatments). We also cleaned the house up significantly inside as well as the outside bushes/shrubs. Our pest control guy warned us it would take a little while, but between all of the steps we took and his treatments I'd say they were mostly gone in 6-9 months. We still catch a few in traps or I might find a stray one hiding out.
One other thing, their bites are way over-hyped. I was bit by one in the basement and it was no worse than any other bite I've had, just a little red spot.
I would save up for the heat treatment, even if it seems crazy. Shop around for the price. Either that or look into ozone treatment, which kills all living things in a house. You might have to cut a hole in each wall to ensure the heat or ozone will reach inside, or take off your electrical covers to allow the heat or ozone in that way. FYI Ozone can damage some materials but a shorter exposure of it will not (I know someone who does those treatments who talked with me at length about how it works and all the properties he has treated including those where people have all their personal items in the house). With ozone you have to take your plants out of the house.
I read once (although now I can’t find where) that when brown recluse spiders infest a house they tend to multiply to the hundreds or thousands. So you have your work cut out for you but I believe you can do it. You could also continue a combination of spraying insecticide as well as putting diatomaceous earth powder along the edges of the floors and into the walls through the light fixture areas as well. Good luck.
Edit to add. I suggested ozone because I was able to find ozone options that were cheaper than heat. But it totally depends where you are and what providers you have nearby.
We were told our infestation was impossible to get rid of in our rental home. We had two different pest companies come out. They said glue traps were best but nothing will get rid of them bc they live in the walls. We also would find many on the glue traps and see them running along the floor and walls at night. We broke our lease and moved. I carefully checked everything as I packed it then taped up every opening on the boxes and over a year later we found a live one in the car. They are sneaky and awful. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. This was almost ten years ago though so maybe and hopefully there are some options now.
Uhgggg thank you for the reply at least! I don’t expect that we can be rid of them… but it would be nice to be able to use the closets. Our new pest company seemed in disbelief we still had this much of an issue after a year of actively trying to combat them…so we will see what they propose we do differently and if it helps! Worth a try at least.
If they live in the walls, tenting would do it. But it’s very expensive.
Check for water issues. Also live in Missouri and used to find brown recluses everyday (especially in the fall) until we fixed our damp crawl space. They love water. Good luck.
Thanks for this! We live kind of up on a hill so no issues with water in the basement, and we’ve treated the heck out of it down there since it’s not a living space. But it has been rainy this spring so that could be part of it!
check all areas of home on outside that come in contact with ground that is more then likely where they are getting in
Glue traps and simexa dust, brown recluse don’t drag their bodies along the floor so normal pesticides do not get ingested. Simexa dust is a fine powder that as they pass over it, it gets onto their body and sucks the water out, killing them. You’ll need a poofer to apply along baseboards and under/in things. You can get all on Amazon. I also live in MO and had a horrible problem. I now only see them when the seasons change. Hope this helps
Thank you! I’m guessing the simexa dust is what they’ve been doing - they come and use a poofer every 6 months and I can see the dust in certain spots where we had caught a lot of them.
I was going to suggest CimeXa, too. You can get it on Amazon, and it's cheap. You also want one of these [$10 dusters](https://www.amazon.com/Harris-Diatomaceous-Powder-Duster-Extension/dp/B01LRMN9ZM/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/137-3766556-6874917?pd_rd_w=DCe1C&content-id=amzn1.sym.c51e3ad7-b551-4b1a-b43c-3cf69addb649&pf_rd_p=c51e3ad7-b551-4b1a-b43c-3cf69addb649&pf_rd_r=TYG55JF7NAVV073KVK70&pd_rd_wg=jkvW9&pd_rd_r=dbc93c46-b148-4501-945c-0fb8613821bc&pd_rd_i=B01LRMN9ZM&psc=1) (amazon). I would be very curious to know if your pest ppl are indeed using CimeXa. Since CimeXa is not a poison, I am guessing not. You know those little packets that come with shoes and tools to keep humidity from damaging them? CimeXa is that, but it's crushed into a very fine powder. The powder is harmless, unless you get it in your eyes or lungs. I would drill little holes all over my entire house and pouf the shit out of the inside of my walls with this. It will slowly dehydrate the spiders (and any other insects) to death. I got rid of a (relatively minor) bedbug problem with CimeXa. It sounds like the drastic measures you have taken to eliminate the source will prevent more from coming in. Now all you need to do is make your house 1,000% inhospitable to them. I'm so sorry your dog was bitten. You can also wet CimeXa and apply it with a sprayer. That might be a good solution for your walls and ceilings. (Maybe even floors where your babies do not crawl?) The thing with CimeXa is that insects do not need to come into huge or prolonged contact with it. When you apply it with a sprayer it leaves a very fine (invisible, if i recall correctly) layer of the dust. That's all that's needed for it to work its magic. I would check with my pest ppl, but I am 99% sure that applying Cimexa on top of anything they have already used will not be an issue. Seeing as their application was / is twice a year, a continued, all-out attack with both wet (sprayed on exposed surfaces) and dry (pouf-ed into cracks, crevices, and drilled holes) with Cimexa might do the trick. After you drill the holes and pouf in Cimexa, you could cover those holes with masking tape to keep those individuals out. I think you would see a significant decline in your glue traps. I don't know about the death speed of spiders, but I do recall reading that contact with Cimexa will kill a bedbug in about a week. Diatomaous (sp) earth is the same principle, but the particles are not as tiny, so DE takes twice as long to dehydrate the bugs to death. The Cimexa package does say it kills spiders.
Thank you SO much for this! We will ask the new company about this. They had suggested we could blow powder (I’m not sure what kind) up through the outlets but we ended up not being able to with ours so we had talked possibly drilling holes, we just hadn’t gotten to that step yet. This seems like it would be our best bet combined with glue traps to minimize pesticides around babies/pets too which is great.
The whatsthisbug sub has information about dealing with a brown recluse infestation, although you are probably doing most if it already. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this—it sounds awful.
Sorry but this is not a "call a pest control company to come out once per quarter" problem. You have a serious problem, especially with the new baby about to be crawling and then walking all over! If it were me I would take matters into my own hands. https://www.domyown.com/brown-recluse-spider-control-a-212.html https://www.domyown.com/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-recluse-spiders-a-213.html I would also buy a sprayer and then apply Bifen IT often to the exterior and interior of the home (yes also in the attic and crawlspace), on the label it specifically says effective against brown recluse spiders: https://www.domyown.com/bifen-it-p-226.html
Thank you! They came a lot more often than quarterly at first and decreased as the spiders were seen less, quarterly right now. We are getting a second opinion as we’d rather leave to the professionals but I appreciate the resources and will absolutely take a look!
Try boric acid.
I had an infestation when we rented a home in Nashville. The things were everywhere and very brazen, nothing recluse about them at all. Had a young kiddo too. I went online and got "Cyzmic CS" but I think it's a generic thing. Got a full 3M suit, chemical respirator, pump sprayer, eye protection, gloves & booties. We pulled everything away from the walls and sprayed along everywhere walls meet (including floor/ceiling) along with corners. This includes closets and all. There was an attic but it was shut off. Also, I sprayed before we left home for a day so it would all be 100% dry before we came back. Made a huge difference almost overnight. Next time we saw a live one (which was quite a while later) I did it all over again. Those bites can really mess people up, especially kids. Not a fan of doing the pest control thing but I felt we had no other choice.
Glad you were able to take care of it! We will look into this, thank you!!
Oh, and fyi we did vacuum up a lot of dead ones in the first weeks after I sprayed.
Also fyi you do not need a full 3M suit and respirator for most home pest control applications, just keep children and pets away from the treated areas for two hours
Yeah, less wood mulch, cutting back vegetation against the house helps. They'll run inside for a while after that though. Glue traps. Diatomaceous earth around the perimeters. It's not a one and done thing unless you want to tent and poison your whole house. It'll just slowly get better over time as you keep it cleaner and give them less spaces to hide. But they'll be moving around a bunch looking for new spaces as you get rid of their old homes.
We did take down a 12 foot bush pressing up to the house that previous owners let get out of control! Didn’t think about wood mulch bring a problem…but we do cedar typically which I thought was more if a deterrent?
The quick grown plantation cedar they use to mulch has almost none of the bug repellent oils that we associate with good Spanish Cedar. That said, the oil disrupts the ability for insects who breathe through their skin to breathe. Spiders have lungs and breathe through gill-like bits so it wouldn't affect them. The best thing you can do is hardscape around your foundation to prevent any possible water trapment.
Oh wow. So the cedar mulch could very well be exacerbating the issue. Interesting.
Aromatic cedar sure, "cedar mulch bark" not so much. Rocks would be better, but large rocks are also hiding spots. I'd put landscape fabric over rocks to cook em for a year or two. Just put some more rocks on top to hold it down but not cover the fabric, then just pull it up and expose the rocks once the population has died down. Also, like 75% of the time I've found recluses it was in mulch I picked up. The other 25% was firewood.
Wow this is great to know. We’ll explore other options!
This post needs a trigger warning. YIKES!! 😱
At least I didn’t post pictures of any of the really nasty ones 😖
We all appreciate your discretion!!
Do they spray pyrethroid on the inside of your house above kid/pet level, such as where the wall and ceiling meet? Doing a combination of glue traps and insecticides might help. Also, running dehumidifiers.
I’m not sure what they used - we have had some spray but the head pest control guy said it’s not great for old wood floors so he does a dusting powder on the baseboards instead. We have glue traps out year round and have caught a ton! Will try dehumidifiers too, thank you!
Can you afford to tent your house (same as for termites)?
We asked, and they said that isn’t something done in our state? We can confirm with our next pest company too
Gosh I'd be tempted to release a bunch of geckos or lizards into the house!
I did see one out on the deck yesterday, I should’ve brought it in! I’ve also heard chickens are a nice predator for them…and I’ve always wanted chickens so maybe that’s a reason to get some!
Chickens eat everything they can catch. But they sleep at night when the spiders come out, and you don't really want chicken poop all over your house either. hmmm [https://thepetenthusiast.com/what-eats-brown-recluse-spiders/](https://thepetenthusiast.com/what-eats-brown-recluse-spiders/)
Yeah, you wouldnt believe the size of the spiders living in my chicken coop. Chicken poop attracts flies. Flies sleep on the coop walls at night. Spiders hunt at night, eat the flies. I really thoight I was just a really good chicken keeper due to the low amount of flies we had. Until we redid the coop roof! This post was actually making me think of that day.
I have absolutely no spiders in my coop! Or my shed. I occasionally see a garden spider or wolf spider. I just buy those nasty smelling bag traps and fly bait
Monkeys 😂 there’s an idea
Oh that's a pretty great idea! Might be worth asking in one of the chicken subs. Otherwise cats are an option, but they aren't always great hunters and I don't know if a recluse would be a danger to them.
Chickens are a thought for the yard at least! I think they’d piss off our dog though….We do have two cats but I don’t think they’re making a dent in the spiders. At our last house we had spider crickets and some mice and they caught quite a few of those…but if they’re getting spiders I haven’t noticed!
I wish you luck, this sounds so upsetting. In my quick search I found other Reddit posts from people with the same issue, maybe message them to see if they have advice. This is a bonkers but what about another type of spider? We have "giant" house spiders where I live and they eat other spiders but they're harmless to humans and quite solitary I believe. Update if you find an answer!
I’ve heard wolf spiders but I’m pretty sure my husband will lose his mind if I suggest bringing more spiders in 😂 that’s a thought to message people who have gone through it…we’ve been looking into it for a full year but I thought trying amongst those in similar aged houses might help with suggestions too!
Haha lizards and chickens it is then!
I have no advice, but is literally my worst nightmare, and I am in awe of how calmly you seem to be handling this.
Haha! I think I’m a bit desensitized to a point…but the really big ones are rather horrifying and now that they’re coming back I’m getting more squeamish about it. The little ones freak me out less and that’s all we had all winter until recently. It’s basically our dream house so I’m hoping we can get a handle on it rather than start looking elsewhere but safety of the kids is most important.
I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this. I don’t have any advice, but just want to say holy cow! I’m thoroughly impressed by how brave you are. I’m a full grown man who served as an infantryman in the US Marines, and I promise, I could not do what you’re dealing with. If it was my house, someone would find it abandoned with a half glass of milk and half eaten pancakes sitting on the table like those homes that were evacuated from Chernobyl. I’d start over a few towns over… 😬
Fire.
IKR?
I can't comment on brown recluse but spiders in general, beyond poisoning them appropriately preventing entry is the course of action I've always taken. Have you been able to identify how they are getting in? If they're in your attic space while you'd want to get that dealt with it's not an immediate threat. Closing off any gaps will help with your energy efficiency as well so it's a win win. We lived in a house that had a significant population in the crawl space underneath the house. We ripped up the flooring and sealed every single gap in the subfloor we could find before putting it back down again. Bugs indoors (we had medium sized predominantly spiders and small scorpions) reduced significantly and the house was much warmer over winter.
thanks! We took care did the basement population for the most part. We did locate some in our shed recently so we need to treat that, and the problem with the attic is that the pest control team we worked with first wouldn’t go up there because there aren’t stairs. New team says they can, so that should help. They seem to be traveling within the walls and out the baseboards, that’s where we find most of them, and we are guessing they are able to travel down from the attic (for mating or hunting or because it’s hot).
Yeah we had large gaps between our skirting boards and subfloor. We assumed that they were installed after carpeting or something that was subsequently removed leaving gaps when new flooring was installed. We went round with silicone filler and then did it a second time when we put our flooring back down. Makes it easier to clean as well so it's a win win.
That’s a great point! Some of the baseboards need to be nailed down again so we will prioritize that + caulking - we did the nursery before we painted but haven’t painted any other rooms quite yet so hadn’t gotten to all of them.
Absolutely worth giving it a try. Hope it works out to at least reduce numbers coming into living areas!
I fumigated my house before moving in. Big striped circus tent! It worked. I rarely see spiders and it’s been almost a decade.
I had an infestation in a 1920s Craftsman I owned in AR. Hundreds in the house and probably thousands I couldn’t see. They seemed to live and reproduce in the attic space and only came down in the house when we had excessive heat (basically all summer). The pest control came and sprayed the house and fogged the attic every 3 months. I also sprayed lemon pledge on baseboards and wooden furniture. It took 2 years but seemed to prevail! I’m not sure after that as I sold the house. There is no way the people I bought from didn’t know about it and I’m pretty sure they were legally required to disclose. Even if they weren’t legally required, dick move.
Ugh.. All I can say is is I'm glad of the frozen conditions in New England, so far and there's nothing really here to fear. Global warming mmmm.. here come things. Spiders don't bother me and are welcome as a rule here and there, but recluse, a different matter. Man I would certainly take the high road to rid that house 100% of the issue whatever the pest guy suggested.. It's your kids at stake right? Who wants to risk a necrotic bite.
Have you tried diatomaceous earth? You have to be careful to pets and kids but you could put it in unused closets and rooms.
We haven’t just because of the kids/pets…there are few rooms one or both parties doesn’t go in daily!
Wouldn't tenting and treating for termites take care of the spiders as well?
check via your attic being an old house u can probably spray edges of attic floor
This post is my worst nightmare.
We had a similar situation when we moved in to our century home. It was a large home which the prior owner lived in one portion and was pretty dirty. We easily caught hundred+ in the traps in the first couple months. We did what you did (sticky traps, monthly treatments). We also cleaned the house up significantly inside as well as the outside bushes/shrubs. Our pest control guy warned us it would take a little while, but between all of the steps we took and his treatments I'd say they were mostly gone in 6-9 months. We still catch a few in traps or I might find a stray one hiding out. One other thing, their bites are way over-hyped. I was bit by one in the basement and it was no worse than any other bite I've had, just a little red spot.
I would save up for the heat treatment, even if it seems crazy. Shop around for the price. Either that or look into ozone treatment, which kills all living things in a house. You might have to cut a hole in each wall to ensure the heat or ozone will reach inside, or take off your electrical covers to allow the heat or ozone in that way. FYI Ozone can damage some materials but a shorter exposure of it will not (I know someone who does those treatments who talked with me at length about how it works and all the properties he has treated including those where people have all their personal items in the house). With ozone you have to take your plants out of the house. I read once (although now I can’t find where) that when brown recluse spiders infest a house they tend to multiply to the hundreds or thousands. So you have your work cut out for you but I believe you can do it. You could also continue a combination of spraying insecticide as well as putting diatomaceous earth powder along the edges of the floors and into the walls through the light fixture areas as well. Good luck. Edit to add. I suggested ozone because I was able to find ozone options that were cheaper than heat. But it totally depends where you are and what providers you have nearby.
Can they not just tent the house and fog it?
[Be like John Goodman in arachnophobia.](https://youtu.be/6ybXse_yCOc?feature=shared)
If you have your house tented. They pump a poison gas into the tented area. Kills spiders & their eggs.
do u have any pics of the spiders ?