Why Are There Suddenly So Many Spiders in Your Home?

Why Are There Suddenly So Many Spiders in Your Home?

You walk into the bathroom and there it is. A large spider sitting in the bath.

Later, another one races across the living-room floor. Then somebody spots one lurking in the corner of the bedroom.

Welcome to spider season.

Every year, particularly during late summer and early autumn, it can suddenly seem as though our homes are being invaded by spiders. But why does September bring so many eight-legged visitors indoors?

Why Are There More Spiders Around in Autumn?

The good news is that your home probably hasn’t suddenly acquired hundreds of new spiders.

Many of the spiders we notice at this time of year are house spiders that may already have been living quietly in and around our homes for months. They tend to stay hidden in darker, undisturbed places where we rarely notice them.

Then autumn arrives and everything changes.

For several common house-spider species, this is mating season. Adult males leave their usual hiding places and begin wandering in search of females.

That is why you may suddenly see a surprisingly large spider sprinting across the carpet, appearing in the hallway or becoming trapped in the bath.

It isn’t necessarily coming into your house to escape the cold, it may already have been there. It has simply started moving around.

Why Do They Come Into Our Homes?

Our homes provide many of the things spiders need: shelter, relatively stable temperatures and plenty of places to hide.

Cracks, cupboards, garages, sheds, lofts, behind furniture and underneath floorboards can all provide suitable environments. And where there are insects, there is also a potential food supply.

Open windows and doors can provide routes inside too, so some spiders certainly do enter from outdoors.

But the dramatic increase in sightings during September and October is largely about visibility and activity, rather than a sudden mass invasion.

What If You’re Terrified of Spiders?

For someone with arachnophobia, knowing all of this doesn’t necessarily make seeing a spider any easier.

The reaction can be immediate: racing heart, panic, sweating, freezing, screaming or needing somebody else to remove the spider. Some people constantly check rooms, avoid opening windows or struggle to sleep after seeing one.

And that’s when a fear has started controlling your behaviour.

The interesting thing about a phobia is that the conscious part of you may already know the spider is just not going to hurt you but your subconscious response behaves as though you’re facing a genuine threat.

Hypnotherapy can help change that automatic response.

So, if spider season fills you with dread every year, perhaps this autumn is the time to do something different.

The spiders don’t necessarily need to disappear. The fear can. Book a Call here…