insect removal

soon to be Mrs. Connolly

I live in Mass and have an infestation of spiders in my yard and on the exerior of my home.  Does anyoen know of any "enviornmentally safe" insect removal companies??

blue_elle

If you want them dead an insecticidal soap will work. You can make your own - Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and water (I think I did 2 tablespoons to 32 oz water). Spray it directly on the spiders and they'll perish pretty quickly.

soon to be Mrs. Connolly

Will this kill any eggs as well?

blue_elle

I haven't tried it on eggs so I can't say for sure. On egg sacs I would repeat application every 5-7 days to ensure it was effective. I think the only sure thing with sacs would be to remove them.

Just out of curiosity - are these poisonous spiders, are you overrun, or they just give you the hebbie-jebbies? Spiders are beneficial to your yard and will get rid of a lot of pests for you, so it's generally advisable to leave them unless they're a danger to you. We've got two big ones on our courtyard windows, but we leave them be to take care of our bugs

derky17

Yeah, Charlie's Soap also can work in a similar way as the Dr. B's.  But as Blue Elle stated, unless it's REALLY actually a problem, I'd probably just leave them be.

CharlottesWeb

I'm in MA as well and in a pretty shaded area. Lots of big old trees. So we have A LOT of spiders on the outside of our home. Other than making annoying ugly webs everywhere (which I have to brush off every few days) they don't do any harm. I don't know if you need to kill them off...?

SuperGreen

We have a bunch of spiders in our veggie garden and I encourage them to be there.  They eat lots of nasty, veggie-eating bugs and since they're not poisonous, they're no threat.  The morning dew on their webs is so beautiful, I don't see how I could kill them.

That being said, if you have a legitimate infestation the Dr. B's peppermint in water should work.  That works on any soft-bodied insect, it dries them out.  It took care of our aphids overnight.

soon to be Mrs. Connolly

I am fine with bugs in the yard, but I am seriously over run by spiders.  Everywhere I look there are huge webs.  I take them down, and they are back up the next day.  They have taking over my patio furniture, windows, bushes, all over the outside of the house, staircases, etc.  I feel as if I am going to be tied up whenever I walk down my outside stairs.  They have even begun to spin webs on our cars.  I was driving the other day and there was a web connecting the passengers window to the side windown!!