You're Inviting Spiders in Your Home If You're Not Fixing This One Thing

Spiders can enter your home through your air vents.

Especially in the fall when they're on the hunt for a mate and shelter, spiders are eager to get into your home, and according to Terminix, there are two ways they do it. One method is hitchhiking on you, your bag, your shoes, etc. The other way spiders get inside your home is through any overlooked openings. You likely know enough to have screens on all your windows, seal cracks, and put door sweeps in the gap between the outside and your home, but you may have forgotten about your air vents. These grates leave plenty of space for spiders to crawl into your home.

Burns Blackwell, the owner of Terminix-Triad in North Carolina, explains that air vents are basically large open tunnels of travel for spiders and other insects, noting that they're often connected directly to the outdoors, which makes it super easy for spiders to sneak into your home. "Spiders can enter from the outdoors into your ductwork and HVAC system and travel throughout your household to wherever they desire," ays David Carragher, owner of Safer Pest Control Project of Chicago, Illinois.

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To prevent spiders from entering your home, you need to add filters to your air vents.

To prevent spiders from entering your home through your air vent, you need to install mesh filters. Blackwell says Terminix generally recommends that "you cover all your interior air vents with a screen or filter."

He adds that not only will adding filters help prevent spiders and other unwanted creatures from moving into your home, but it will also improve the air quality for you and your family.

Spiders can also enter through other openings.

Just like your air vents, experts warn that spiders can also enter through any air conditioners that sit in your window, seeing as half of the device is outside of the house. "You should ensure that the outdoor air conditioner return is properly sealed and doesn't have any easy entrances for spiders or insects to enter from," says Carragher. "If you do notice a crack or hole, I'd recommend sealing it with a fiberglass screen or silicon, depending on the size of the hole."

And because spiders can find their way through even the smallest gap in your foundation or piping, Terminix suggests using caulking or steel wool to fill these cracks. However, Don Adams, the general manager at Regional Foundation Repair, which serves 14 states, warns that if you use caulking for any wood in your home, you need to keep in mind that wood expands in the heat and shrinks in the winter. "If you decide to use caulking and gaps in the colder months, you can experience cracking of door and window frames during the summer months," Adams says.

Other pests, including cockroaches, mice, snakes, and raccoons, can enter through your vents, too.

Unfortunately, spiders may be the least of your concerns if you have wide-open vents. According to Griffith Energy Services Inc. of Maryland, cockroaches, mice, rats, snakes, squirrels, and raccoons can all find their way into your home through your HVAC system. To avoid having enough creatures in your home to put on a Disney musical movie, keep up with regular maintenance and install filters.

"If you aren't putting screens or filters on your air vents in your home, you are giving spiders and other insects an easy entrance to your home," says Carragher.

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