How to Get Rid of Black Widows in the Garage

Besides housing automobiles, the diverse use of garages has seen most DIYers using garages as workshops for various projects, including woodworking, painting, and assembling. The garages also serve as a storage point for surplus household items, a practice that has made garages ideal habitats for the black widow spider. The presence of black widows in your garage is not only disgusting and unpleasant to watch but can also put you in immense danger as a bite from them is perceived poisonous. The bite can make the victim experience dire discomfort if medical attention is not rapidly sought. Considering the revulsion and the dangers black widows pose to the garage owners, the mechanics and DIYers are always looking for the correct procedure of How to Get Rid of Black Widows in the Garage.

You could either use natural or chemical approaches to get rid of the black widows in your garage. The natural process involves spraying strong scents from essential oils such as peppermint, eucalyptus, and lemon in your garage, spewing a mixture of water and vinegar on their habitats, vacuuming and dusting the garage to keep the garage free of clutter, and eradicating all potential habitat for the black widow spider. You also need to seal all the possible entry points of the black widow.

On the other hand, the chemical approach involves applying insecticides and pesticides to the black widow spider and their egg sacs to terminate their lives and remove them from your garage. These insecticides are either in the form of powder(dust) or liquid.

When removing these insects from your garage, make sure you wear protective gear since you do not want to risk getting a bite from the black widow spider.

A picture showing black widow spider nests

How to get rid of Black Widow Spiders Naturally

You can kill the black widow without the hassle of going to the store to buy chemicals but by using the available resources at the disposal of your home. This method is not only convenient but also cost-effective.

The following are some of the natural ways you can use to get rid of the black widow spider:

Sanitization of the garage

Your first step to removing the black widow from your garage is to get rid of their webs which they depend on for shelter and food. Remove any spider webs by vacuuming high and low, paying particular attention to hiding locations such as corners and dark areas beneath the furniture. Egg sacs should be carefully targeted, and then everything should be safely disposed of in the vacuum cleaner’s canister shot.

If there are holes that black widow spiders are using to emerge into your garage, you should consider dusting the vents and later sealing such ducts to prevent further infestation. Before you close any gaps, make sure to spray the area with vinegar to kill the spiders. You can seal windows and doors with door sweeps or weather stripping. Make sure that your garage window frames and vent screens are tight-fitting and have no holes.

Remove Litters

You will need to reduce the amount of litter in your garage to make the garage an unsuitable environment and a less attractive place for black widow spiders. When cleaning and removing clutter, it is vital to wear protective gear such as gloves, long sleeves, boots, and hats to prevent spider bites since the spider may interpret the cleaning process as a threat and bite you in self-defense. You should insert the end of sleeves to your gloves and the end of your pants to your boots as an extra precaution when decluttering your garage.

Use glue boards or sticky traps placed against ages near entry points into your garage to catch and detect black widow spiders and consequently prevents further invasion of these spiders in your garage,

Use Strong Scents

Black widows are not fond of strong scents such as the smell of peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, and peppermint essential oils. You should therefore mix these items to create a potent concoction to keep the black widow away. Add the concoction you just made (or you could use a specific essential oil) to water to form a solution. Put the created solution in a spray bottle and spray to the dark corners in your garage, on the window ledges, and even beneath items stored in the garage.

Use vinegar

Vinegar is acidic. Its acidity kills the black widow spiders by burning their body in contact. The repellent is made by combining equal amounts of water and vinegar to make a mixture, putting the resultant mixture in a spray bottle, and then sprinkle it directly to the black widow spider or a spider’s egg sac.

The video below shows four simplest steps to get rid of black widow spiders

How to get rid of Black Widow Spiders Chemically

If you have tried the homemade remedies to kill the black widow and they don’t die, it’s time to make a trip to the drugstore to buy some insecticides that will efficiently kill the black widow in your garage.

Use Insecticides

An image of Black Flag Spider & Scorpion Killer Aerosol Spray, 16-Ounce, one of the best pesticide for black widow spider

Black widow insecticides can be applied as a dust or as a liquid. The insecticides that come in the form of dust are suitable for areas where humans are unlikely to enter, such as basements, crawl spaces, and window sills. Other regions, such as well-known webs, are well-suited to liquids. Insecticides will kill any existing spiders while also preventing new ones from appearing.

Black widow spider’s egg sacs are best targeted using oil-based pesticides like pyrethrin. When you find an egg sac, generously apply the pyrethrin, coating both surfaces as much as possible. The insecticide will kill black widows, and others will be discouraged from entering your garage.

Setting traps for insects

Because spiders eat other insects, removing flies, moths, grasshoppers, and earwigs reduces the food supply for spiders. Putting traps for these pests will automatically minimize a black widow spider’s chances of building her web nearby. Removing the spider’s source of food will successfully eliminate the black widow from your garage.

How to treat a Black Widow Spider Bite

Black widows bite in self-defense in response to perceived danger or when they feel threatened. Despite the small size of the black widow spiders, they are considered very poisonous and the most dangerous spiders.

A bite from a black widow may be fatal or cause severe symptoms if immediate healthcare attention is not sought. You should therefore seek medical attention immediately. There are, however, some remedies you could use to prevent further infection and relieve the symptoms. These homemade ways of treating a black widow spider include:

Washing the bitten area with soap and clean water
Administering an over the counter pain reliever such as Tylenol to the bitten individual
Smearing an antibiotic cream to the potion of skin that has been bitten

Enclosing an ice pack with a cloth and rubbing the ice pack to the bite
Raise the location of the bite; for instance, if the black widow had bitten on your leg or hand, keep it elevated till you get to a hospital

At the hospital, you might be administered medications that aid in reducing the blood pressure that occasionally results from a black widow spider bite and ease the pain. In severe cases, a muscle relaxant and an antivenom or antitoxin or antitoxin will be given to you to neutralize the toxins and venom from the black widow’s bite.

Frequently asked question

What attracts black widow spiders?

Black widow spiders love dark, hidden spaces such as cracks, woodpiles, garages, gloomy corners, basements, closets, and crowded areas. They spin a tangle of irregular webs around the ground level and under a protective overhang, such as under lawn furniture or woodpiles. They will devour trapped flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars.

What bug spray kill black widow

Stryker 54 contact spray, a type of pyrethrin aerosol spray, can kill black widow spiders when sprayed on the black widow.

Will vinegar kill a black widow?

You can use vinegar in a variety of ways, such as a spider repellent. Even though white vinegar is harmless when consumed by humans, it contains acetic acid that is very poisonous and highly volatile to spiders. To effectively use vinegar to get rid of these unwanted guests in your garage, you can mix water and vinegar in equal amounts to make a solution that will kill the black widow spider when sprayed directly on it.

Can daddy Long leg kill a black widow?

Daddy-long-legs spiders can kill a black widow. The specific daddy-long-legs Spiders that kill a black widow are the cellar spiders of the family Pholcidae. These cellar spiders are usually mistaken for the Harvestman, another type of spider that belongs to the Pholcidae family. Even though daddy-long-legs Spiders, specifically the cellar spiders, are believed to be one of the most deadly spiders on the planet and that their bite can kill a black widow, they can’t kill humans since their fangs are too weak to penetrate the human skin.

How to kill a brown widow

Brown widow spiders, like other spiders, can be physically removed or killed with insecticides. Cleaning and decluttering your garage will be a great start to get rid of a brown widow, but it won’t eliminate the brown widows. To keep brown widow spiders out of the garage, you should store items like gardening gloves, roller skates, boots, shoes, and other items in zip closure bags.

Sweep off spider webs and vacuum behind windows, corners of the garage, in storage sheds, and regularly throughout your home. The brown widow spider is a tiny creature that you can readily dispatch with a broom. Seal cracks and holes that may be present in the garage to prevent further entry of brown widows. You can also apply insecticides to the brown widow and their egg sacs to kill them.

Conclusion

To terminate the lives of black widows and get rid of them from your garage, you can choose to use both natural and chemical ways to get rid of black widows in your garage. Killing the black widow will prevent the risks of bites when working in your garage and make the garage a safe place to do micro tasks and tackle your projects.