Spider Control Experts – Geelong, Surf Coast and surrounding areas
Victoria is home to a few dangerous species spiders, and so our professional spider control treatment (a “spider spray”) is one of our most requested pest control treatments.
Although spiders are “beneficial”, in that they eat insects, a few species have a very dangerous bite and it’s important to protect your family and pets. Homeowners often want to keep their homes free of their unsightly webs too!
Spiders are covered as part of our general pest treatment, which comes with a 6-month warranty, but we investigate a bit more thoroughly if you have a specific spider problem. This may result in us modifying our general pest treatment to make sure we deal with your specific problem.
For long-lasting protection from spiders and their web-building give us a call.
To protect your family and pets from spiders
Our Professional Spider Treatments
Spiders are part of our general pest treatment and so we spray in all the areas where spiders are likely to hide and build their webs, including:
We will also treat sub-floors, roof voids and the cornices of rooms inside if required.
Generally, we use long-lasting sprays to treat surfaces, but we may use insecticide dusts in roof voids or other areas where we cannot spray.
Sometimes we may need to treat additional areas, if there is a specific spider problem, such as wall voids and behind cupboards and appliances.
What to expect from our spider treatments?
After our treatment, it is likely you will start to see dead spiders within an hour or two. These are the spiders that would have come into direct contact with the initial spray. However, spiders which may have been hiding in cracks and crevices will only pick up the insecticide when then come out at night. So, it’s quite common to see spiders dying in the 24-48 hours after a treatment.
After our treatment, leave any spider webs in place for a couple of days. Any spiders in hiding will emerge at some point and will pick up the insecticide when they venture onto their web. After a week the webs can be removed, but they should be brushed down rather than hosed down, to avoid washing away the insecticide from the surface.
The residual insecticide on the treated surface is important for the long-term protection from spiders – it stops spiders building their webs and provides protection against “running spiders” which may try and enter the home.
All our spider treatments come with a 6-month warranty.
What our customers say
To protect your family from spiders
Types of spiders in Victoria
The most common spiders found around homes in Australia are:
Web-building spiders
- Black house spider
- Redback spider
Running or hunting spiders
- White-tailed spider
- Huntsman spider
- Wolf spiders
Others
- Victorian funnel web
- Trapdoor spiders
Web-building spiders
Web-building spiders are the easiest to spot and detect. Around home there are two main web-building spiders of concern to homeowners:
- Black house spider (builds dense, funnel-shaped webs around window, doors and eaves)
- Redback spider (builds messy webs in protected dry spots, such as vents, outdoor furniture fencing and even downlights)
Running or Hunting spiders
Hunting spiders are also called running spiders as they generally don’t build webs (unless they are laying eggs), but rather hunt for their prey. There are two key hunting spiders in Victoria:
- White-tailed spiders
- Huntsman spiders
These can be more difficult to kill as they walk on the tips of the legs. As such, when they walk on a treated surface, they pick up a lower dose of insecticide, so they may take longer to die. However, with a spider treatment also eliminating their prey, hunting spiders are less likely to find your home an attractive place to hang out!
White-tail spider myth: The idea that white-tail bites cause flesh to decay is not supported by facts. Research on white-tailed spider bites show there is nothing in the white-tail spider bite that can do this and there is no evidence of necrosis in the 138 confirmed spider bites in the scientific trial.
Victoria funnel-web spiders are generally only found in Melbourne and in the southeast (Gippsland), so aren’t very common in Geelong and western Victoria. It’s only the males that you may encounter, when they leave their burrows in the warmer months, looking for a mate.
How to prevent a spider infestation
Spiders eat insects (and other spiders) – if there are less insects around your home, there will be less spiders. There are 3 key actions homeowners can take to reduce the number of spiders around the home:
- Remove vegetation and garden beds from the immediate perimeter of the building (or at least trim it well back)
- Make sure there are no gaps around insect screens to door and windows.
- Get an annual spider spray / general pest treatment.
Spider bite first-aid
The standard first-aid for spider bites for common spiders (apart from funnel-web and mouse spiders):
- Calm the victim and keep them still.
- Clean the bite area with water and disinfectant.
- Apply ice if the bite area becomes painful.
- Seek medical attention, if
- It’s a redback or white tail, especially if it is a young child
- You are at all concerned or the victim develops other symptoms
If you can see the spider, take a photo of the spider with your phone for identification.
Bites from a funnel-web spider (and similar looking mouse spiders) need to be treated differently – you should apply the same first aid as you would for a snake bite:
- Calm the victim and keep them still.
- Immobilise the affected limb.
- Apply a pressure bandage to the limb with the bite.
- Call for medical assistance immediately.
For the non-experts it can be difficult to identify spiders, so if you are bitten by any large black spider, apply the funnel-web spider first aid and seek medical assistance.