It goes without saying that no one likes having spiders crawling around any part of their home. These critters are not just an eyesore; some spider species can actually be deadly. Whether you’re looking to get rid of a few spiders simply because you can’t stand them or an infestation that can’t be ignored has occurred, you’ll find it fairly easy to control these creepy insects.
To keep spiders away from your balcony, use the right insecticide types for indoor and perimeter treatments, clean your balcony, change your balcony lighting, use electronic spider repellents, remove spider webs, grow spider-repelling plants, prune nearby plants, or hire an exterminator.
If you’d like to learn more about using the above measures to keep spiders away from your balcony, keep reading.
1. Use Residual Insecticides for Perimeter Treatment
Perimeter treatment is the first control method you should consider when you have spiders creeping from your balcony into your indoor space to hunt. More often than not, this is a sign of an infestation (as opposed to having a few spiders crawling around your home), so you need to act quickly because the more spiders you have to deal with, the harder they’ll be to control.
For lasting results, simply spray a residual insecticide treatment like the Onslaught Fastcap Spider and Scorpion Insecticide around common entry points and your house’s perimeter. It works great on exteriors of buildings (particularly in areas such as balconies and decks), mainly because its effectiveness isn’t easily compromised by weather conditions.
And like many residual insecticide formulas, Onslaught Fastcap kills spiders when sprayed directly, when they eat an insect sprayed with the formula, or when they walk over its chemical residue. With up to three ways to kill these critters, this insecticide provides a long-term solution to spider infestations.
2. Use Aerosol Insecticides for Indoor Treatment
Indoor treatment is often the second phase of controlling spider infestations in a home using chemicals. When you keep encountering spiders on your balcony, chances are there are a few of them inside your home, so an indoor chemical treatment may be necessary.
To keep your indoors spider-free, spray an insecticide aerosol along baseboards, under furniture, in corners, and in any other hard-to-reach areas in your indoor space. When doing this, be sure to use a crack and crevice tip so you can get the formula in areas where water-based products struggle to reach.
If you can’t find an aerosol insecticide in your local store, check out one of the most effective options on Amazon, the PT221L Aerosol. You’ll especially appreciate its super-easy application and the fact that it’s safe to use on virtually all parts of your indoor space, including food storage areas.
3. Clear Out Your Balcony
Another effective way to control spider infestations on your balcony is to simply make the area unfavorable for spiders. There are several ways to do that, and clearing out your balcony is one of them.
Spiders tend to build webs around solid surfaces, particularly those that are often left undisturbed for long periods. As such, removing items such as litter, debris, or some types of plants (some plants can actually repel spiders. More on these later ) from your balcony can help drive spiders out. This works because it discourages the formation of webs, which spiders can’t thrive without.
4. Change Your Outdoor Lighting
If spiders keep coming back to your balcony, chances are there’s plenty of food in the form of their prey. More often than not, spiders prey on insects, and insects are typically attracted by lights. So, by moving your outdoor lighting away from your balcony, you might be able to drive spiders away.
Alternatively, you can change the light bulbs on your balcony to discourage insects from flocking that area. Generally, LEDs attract fewer insects than other commonly used light sources and are typically more energy-efficient than many other outdoor lighting solutions. So, by switching to LEDs on your balcony, you can make your home not only spider-free but also more energy-efficient.
5. Get Rid of All Spider Webs on Your Balcony
While this doesn’t kill spiders, it destroys their natural habitat, discouraging them from lingering around. You can remove spider webs manually or use web eliminator sprays. While the former is obviously cheaper, the latter is more efficient when you’re looking to cover a larger area.
Should you choose to go with eliminator sprays, be sure to opt for a versatile option like the Nisus Web Out Cobweb Eliminator. It works great on spiders, as well as a variety of other common household pests such as ants, mosquitoes, crickets, and cockroaches.
That means you can repurpose it when you’re done controlling spiders and get a bang for your buck. And since it doesn’t corrode metal, wood, brick, and painted surfaces, you can use it on virtually all parts of your home.
6. Grow Spider-Repelling Plants on Your Balcony
Some plants naturally repel spiders with their scents, and growing plenty of these on your balcony can be an effective way to control these critters without using chemicals.
Popular examples of such plants include:
- Peppermint
- Basil
- Lavender
- Eucalyptus
- Lemon balm
7. Use Electronic Spider Repellents on Your Balcony
Purchase and use plug-in spider repellents in electrical sockets in parts of your balcony where spiders are visible. The beauty of this method of spider control is that you can use electronic repellents both indoors and outdoors without worrying about toxic chemical residues that may harm pets and other people in our home.
Electronic repellents are readily available in local stores, too, and don’t produce any odors or distracting noises. And if you choose a versatile option like the Zeropest Ultrasonic Pest Repeller, you’ll control not just spiders, but also rodents like mice, roaches, ants, mosquitoes, and fleas. It’ll drive away all these critters without killing them, which is great if you aren’t comfortable with killing animals or insects.
8. Prune Plants Near Your Balcony
Usually, spiders find their way into your home by climbing walls, and having overgrown backyard plants touching the walls of your house makes their journey much easier.
So if you have any shrubs or tall trees whose branches tend to grow into your balcony space, chances are these are helping spiders get there. Prune them to keep the branches off your balcony, and make a habit of doing that regularly to keep spiders and other pests at bay.
9. Hire an Exterminator to Get Rid of Spider Infestations
Sometimes, it’s almost impossible to get rid of spiders using simple DIY measures, especially when dealing with an acute infestation. Even with just a handful of spiders to deal with, DIY measures can sometimes be too complicated or pose safety threats, more so when chemicals and/or poisonous spider species are involved.
In either case, it’s best to let the professionals handle it.
Professional companies use safe and effective pest control systems and are usually trained on how to handle poisonous spiders. They often begin with an initial inspection to determine the extent of the infestation, the types of spiders, and the cause of the infestation.
With this info at hand, they’ll then devise the safest and most effective control method to deal with the spider problem. In some cases, they even schedule follow up visits to inspect the remedy’s progress and determine if additional control measures are necessary.
Ultimately, hiring an exterminator is the most efficient way to deal with any type of pest infestation, particularly when you don’t mind the cost involved.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen in this mini-guide, there are several ways to keep spiders away from your balcony. Ultimately, the method you choose will depend on how comfortable you are handling chemicals, how much you’re willing to pay to keep your balcony spider-free, the extent of the infestation, and other situational factors that might shape this decision.
Whichever method you choose, be sure to bookmark this article for quick reference. Best of luck!