Repeling spiders (and sorta fixing walls)

[Momo-P]

This past summer we moved into a new house. Although the house is incredibly well taken care of (new windows, doors, you name it) spiders get in the basement. Now...I'm sure you're thinking "well that's just normal", but in this house that's a bit more of a problem. My bedroom is down here.

Because the last guys who owned the house were like...home decorators (their summer job is actually remodeling people's houses) the basement is really nice. Beautifully done walls, fancy light fixtures, carpeting (you would never know it's a basement, it's so soft!), at first you'd wonder how spiders would even get in here. Then you notice the only problem. Because it is a basement, it's totally impossible to stuff up the small space between the carpet and wall. It's not anything you notice, but when you get to thinking about it...spiders are small. It's no problem for them to fit in there.

Last summer I think I saw a total of twenty or something. Most of time the little jerks ran straight across my floor (fully grown buggers too x_x), but...ack! I don't want them! I've been thanking God for the cold weather for months now, but eventually it's gonna end and my horror will restart. I've been reading up on stuff to repel them this time, but I really need extra help.

Anyone got any advice? If you can especially figure out a way to fully seal the space between the wall and the carpet, I will love you forever. This week I totally plan to do a huge clean up and make sure any loose stuff is off the floor and properly locked up. Obviously keeping spiders away is an everyday sort of thing (I plan to do lots of vacuuming this summer and whatnot) but I need any good advice you can give me. Also ways to repel crickets would be good too. I actually adore crickets, but I have a feeling the spiders probably feed on them, so they're probably making my problem worse. Poor little dudes...

EDIT: Oh, and don't know if this may help in some way, but the main spiders I see are a pretty good size. Not like the size of my hand or something, but if you picked up a pop can and looked at the ring on the bottom...I'd say with their legs out they're about that big. They're also kind of brownish in coloring. Not dark brown or anything, but lightly colored. Just thought I should throw that out incase someone happens to know their spiders fairly well. Knowing exactly what it is is always nice. ^^;

[Sheenar]

Do the spiders have a violin shape on their cephalothorax (the part the legs are attached to)? If so, those are poisonous Brown Recluse spiders. You'd definitely want to get rid of those. If they lack the violin shape, then they are most likely harmless jumping spiders.

I had quite a cricket problem in my dorm last semester. Killed 20 in a single night. They were getting in through cracks in the walls. The maintenance people came and caulked up the cracks around the door and built-in shelves. Haven't had a cricket since.

You can buy caulking pretty cheap at a home improvement store such as Home Depot or Lowe's. You would use a trowel and spread it smoothly along where the bottom of the wall meets the floor and around the edges of any windows/cracks where spiders get in. If you don't trust your ability to do it well (I can barely paint, much less caulk) you can ask your dad or someone from church if they can help you caulk the cracks/crevices in your room.

Hope this helps.http://www.livingwithbugs.com/spider_id.html

[Sheenar]

Also, there are spider traps that tend to be pretty successful. It is not recommended that you use insecticides/poisons on spiders.

http://www.livingwithbugs.com/spider_tp.html

[Momo-P]

Thanks for the information Sheenar! Nice stuff to know! However, errr...would you happen to have a small non-gross picture of this Brown Recluse? ^^; I know you gave me that page with the identification info, but I hate looking up spider pictures online. Just...x_x I don't like spiders, but I actually deal better with them if I see them in real life, than online. Something about pictures just creeps me out...probably because they're so up close and then you get that feeling like the thing might be around you. *sweatdrops*

[Sheenar]

http://www.livingwithbugs.com/recluse.html

It's an illustration, so it's not remotely gross/scary. I hate looking at pictures of spiders too...

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Just be glad you don't live in Australia, we have almost every poisonous spider and snake known to mankind.

[termyt]

lol. I never want to meet a Sydney Funnel Web spider.

I live in an apartment, so pest control is rather difficult - it doesn't matter how clean I am if my neighbors aren't. I used to have a lot of ants and spiders and even the occasional mouse. I invested in a few electronic pest repellers and the numbers of pests have been greatly reduced.

[Mithrandir]

One option might be sprayable caulking things. I have a few cans that I keep around. You spray it out as a foamy liquid, and it dries solid. It's done wonders to keep spiders out of my garage!