Richmond is home to around 13 different kinds of spider species. While they can help keep insect populations under control, there are some spiders that can be dangerous or even deadly. It’s important to keep these bugs out of your home, which is where a professional spider exterminator in Richmond, VA can help. To ensure effective pest control, you’ll need to know the exact type of species you’re dealing with. Here’s a complete guide on spider identification in Virginia to help you out.
Spider Identification in Virginia
Black Widow Spiders
The most distinctive marking of these spiders is the red or orange hourglass marking on their bellies. Black Widows typically make their webs on ground level with an irregular shape or uneven lines. Their bite, while painless, can cause within 30 to 60 minutes swelling, intense pain, or severe abdominal pain.
Arrow-Shaped Spider
These are brightly colored spiders with spikes on the abdomen that look similar to an arrowhead. They make spiral webs in woodlands or gardens.
Barn Spider
Barn Spiders are yellow in color with brown striped legs. True to their name, they usually live in barns or wooden structures and spin their webs at night to hunt.
Brown Recluse Spider
Light to medium brown in color with black markings, the Brown Recluse is one of the few venomous spiders that are dangerous to humans. They usually nest in dry, isolated places like sheds, garages, basements, or woodpiles. Their bite can cause intense pain or stinging and create a deep purple or blue area around the bite.
Black and Yellow Garden Spiders
Most of this spider’s body is covered with black and yellow markings with white around the eyes. They spin their webs in concealed outdoor spaces in a circular pattern.
Bowl and Doily Weaver
This is a very small spider that is brown in color and spin webs in trees or shrubs. Their name comes from the unique webs they create which feature a bowl-shaped web and a flat-shaped web that the spider lives between.
Hobo Spiders
Hobo Spiders have a brown coloration and a distinct zig-zag pattern on top of their abdomen. They usually inhabit dark places like flowerbeds, house foundations, and underneath rocks and woodpiles.
Goldenrod Crab Spiders
These spiders are typically white with red stripes but can change their coloration to yellow. Their name comes from their similar appearance to crabs and the way they move. Crab spiders inhabit places with white or yellow flowers to camouflage themselves to hunt prey.
Yellow-Sac Spiders
This pale yellowish-green spider is typically smaller in size. They inhabit a small silken sac during the day and come out at night to hunt. You’ll find these sacs in corners of baseboards or ceilings or beneath tree bark or underneath stones or logs.
Daddy Longlegs
One of the most common spiders in Richmond, VA is Daddy Longlegs. These insects are not true spiders but have one flat, round body part with eight very long legs attached. They’re found outdoors in trees, shrubs, or foliage.
Jumping Spider
The Jumping Spider gets its name from the fact that they will jump or run when threatened. They have a hairy black body with white spots and green coloration around the mouth.
Nursery Web Spiders
These spiders are a light brown color with a darker stripe running down the middle. They don’t build webs, but rather hunt their prey in moist, wet areas outdoors.
Wolf Spiders
Wolf Spiders are larger than others, have a hairy body that’s usually gray, black, or brown in color, and short legs. They live in holes underground and hunt prey during the day.
Keep Spiders From Entering Your Home
Spiders belong outside, not in your home—especially ones that can be harmful to you or your pets. Additionally, once spiders get inside, they’ll start to reproduce and their numbers can quickly grow into the thousands, making it difficult to eradicate them.
Luckily, there are a number of precautions you can take to keep spiders out of your home, including:
- Regular indoor cleaning
- Vacuum up spiders and their webs
- Get rid of clutter
- Remove all spider webs from your property’s exterior with a broom or vacuum
- Smash or capture spiders inside your home
If you’re still struggling to keep spiders under control in your home or business, you may want to consider professional spider control in Richmond.
Hire a Spider Exterminator in Richmond, VA
Even with all the right precautions, spiders can still enter your home and create a number of problems for you and your property. If you’re looking for affordable and effective spider control in Richmond, contact Evergreen Pest Control. Using powerful and environmentally-friendly materials, we’ll permanently take care of any spiders threatening your property. Contact us today to get started.
