How To Eliminate Brown Recluse Hiding Spots Around Your Home

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Visitors of the two- and four-legged variety are typically welcome. The ones with eight legs? Not so much. Although the most common types of spiders lurking on floorboards and crawling up the walls are typically safe — even encouraged, as they're prone to feasting on irritating insects like mosquitoes — most homeowners would prefer not to deal with the arachnid guests. If you're trying to get rid of brown recluse spiders, you have to be strategic. 

Typically the size of a quarter, the brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) is not usually aggressive, and bites are rare. However, if you do come in contact with a nibbler, you'll have to monitor your bite mark, as its venom can dig at tissue and cause a necrotic lesion in extreme instances. At times, more serious bites have led to symptoms like the chills and nausea. But for the most part, they're typically just lurking around in solitude. Like your favorite horror movie character, they fittingly thrive in darkness and prefer to set up shop in undisturbed areas of the house: in between fissures, underneath clutter, beneath furniture, within closets, and in garages or attics. 

While it's beneficial to use natural scents to repel spiders, you'll have to take a few extra steps with the brown recluse since, true to its moniker, it loves to hide in any dark, unmonitored spots all by its lonesome. Clear any piles of clutter lurking around the home, attic, or garage, and toss any unwanted items you come across. They're particularly drawn to storage boxes, so if you need storage accessories, airtight containers are the way to go. Seal any cracks in the wall, near the window, or around pipes to eliminate potential entry points. 

If you want to go the extra mile, deter them from even making a pitstop to your home with a few drops of citrus or lavender essential oils, scents that will stop them in their tracks. Place a Catchmaster Spider & Insect trap near areas they visit. If you're open to insecticide, one of the most effective ways to eliminate eight-legged critters from your abode is by spraying insecticides within cracks and fissures. Onslaught Fastcap Spider Scorpion Insecticide is a solid, customer-favorite choice, but it'll cost you upwards of $70.