Getting rid of spiders in your house comes down to removing what brought them inside in the first place: food, shelter, and moisture. Killing individual spiders helps in the moment, but unless you change the conditions that attract them, new ones will keep showing up. A combination of cleaning, sealing entry points, and reducing their prey is the most reliable approach.
Why Spiders Are in Your House
Spiders go where the food is. They eat cockroaches, moths, flies, ants, and other small insects. If you have bugs inside, you have a reason for spiders to stay. Indoor plants can attract aphids and other tiny insects, which then draw ants, creating a food chain that ends with spiders settling in comfortably.
Moisture problems are another major draw. Plumbing leaks or poor ventilation can attract insects like carpenter ants, which then become prey for spiders already nearby. Fixing leaks and running a dehumidifier in damp basements or crawl spaces cuts off this chain at the source.
Spiders also need hiding spots. They tuck into cracks behind baseboards, around window and door trim, near exhaust fans, and in ceiling corners. They prefer high, cool, undisturbed locations. Garages, storage rooms, and closets you rarely open are prime territory because those areas tend to harbor the insects spiders feed on. Clutter on floors and stacked boxes give them even more cover.
Start With Cleaning and Decluttering
Regular vacuuming is one of the most effective spider controls available, and it’s often overlooked. Spiders have soft bodies that typically don’t survive the tumbling through a vacuum hose, so you’re not just relocating them. Hit corners of rooms, window frames, storage areas, basements, and anywhere else that doesn’t get daily traffic. Sweep or mop hard floors regularly too.
Remove stored boxes, piles of clothes, and other clutter from floors, both inside your home and around the foundation outside. Every cardboard box sitting in a garage corner is a potential spider shelter. If you need to store items, use sealed plastic bins instead. Reducing clutter removes hiding spots and makes your home noticeably less appealing to spiders over time.
Seal Entry Points
Spiders don’t need much space to get inside. Caulk cracks and gaps in your foundation, around window frames, and along door trim. Pay attention to spots where pipes or wiring enter the house, since these are common entry points. Install door sweeps on exterior doors and make sure window screens fit tightly with no tears or gaps. Good screens do double duty: they block spiders directly and also keep out the insects spiders follow indoors.
Manage Your Home’s Perimeter
What’s happening right outside your walls matters as much as what’s inside. Move firewood, stacked items, and debris away from your foundation. Trim shrubs, vines, and tree limbs so nothing touches the house, since vegetation against the exterior gives spiders both shelter and a direct bridge to your siding and windows.
Outdoor lighting plays a surprisingly big role. Standard white bulbs attract night-flying insects, which in turn attract spiders that build webs near your doors and windows. Switching to yellow or sodium vapor bulbs at exterior entrances draws far fewer insects and breaks that cycle.
Traps and Treatments That Work
Sticky traps are a simple, non-toxic option that works well in dark, undisturbed areas like basements, garages, and behind furniture. They won’t eliminate an infestation on their own, but they capture spiders and also help you monitor where activity is highest, so you know where to focus your efforts.
For spiders you can see, a fast-knockdown spray (even a pesticide-free one labeled for crawling insects) handles the immediate problem. These don’t provide lasting protection, though. For more persistent issues, residual sprays or powders designed for crawling insects are more effective. Apply them lightly along cracks, corners, skirting edges, and other undisturbed spots. Once dry, they leave an active layer that keeps working as spiders move through treated areas over the following weeks.
Diatomaceous earth (food-grade) is a natural powder you can apply in dry cracks, along baseboards, and at entry points. It works by dehydrating small crawling insects, reducing the prey population that draws spiders in. The catch is that it only works while completely dry, so it’s best suited for sheltered indoor areas. Reapply it if it gets wet or disturbed.
What About Peppermint Oil and Ultrasonic Devices?
Peppermint oil is one of the most popular DIY spider remedies online, but the evidence is mixed. A study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology tested peppermint oil, lemon oil, and chestnuts on three spider species. Peppermint oil did show repellent effects on two of the three species, with those spiders avoiding it in more than 75 percent of tests. But it had no significant effect on the third species. And the researchers noted an important limitation: the spiders tested were sedentary web-builders, so the repellent effect only appeared to keep spiders from entering an area. It may not push out a spider that has already settled in. Lemon oil, despite being the most commonly recommended online, had no significant effect on any species tested.
Ultrasonic plug-in repellers are a different story. Consumer-grade devices have never been proven to work. While lab research using high-quality ultrasound generators has shown that sound can disrupt certain animal behaviors, those generators are several grades above anything sold for home use. Researchers at McGill University reviewed the available evidence and strongly advised against buying these devices, noting there is simply not enough evidence that they reduce pest activity.
Dealing With Venomous Spiders
Most house spiders are harmless, but black widows and brown recluses deserve extra caution. Black widows generally spend their time hidden in woodpiles, garages, and cluttered areas. You can recognize their webs by the silk, which feels rough, thick, and sticky compared to the delicate webs of harmless species. The spiders themselves have a soft, round abdomen and slender legs without spines.
Brown recluses are regional. They’re found primarily in the south-central United States and are absent from many states, including all of California. If you’re in their range, they favor undisturbed spaces like storage boxes, closet corners, and behind furniture.
For either species, the same prevention principles apply but matter more: reduce clutter (especially in garages and storage areas), seal cracks, shake out shoes and gloves that have been sitting unused, and wear gloves when moving stored boxes or firewood. If you’re bitten by a black widow, stay calm and seek medical attention. If you suspect an established population of venomous spiders, a professional pest control service can assess and treat more aggressively than DIY methods allow.
Putting It All Together
Spider control works best as a layered approach rather than any single fix. Remove their food by keeping other insects out. Remove their shelter by decluttering and vacuuming regularly. Block their entry with caulk, screens, and door sweeps. Manage your perimeter by clearing vegetation and debris from the foundation and switching to less attractive outdoor lighting. Use traps and targeted treatments for active problems. Each step on its own helps a little, but together they make your home a place spiders have very little reason to enter or stay.