20 Common Places Where Spiders Live in Your Home

The last thing you want to find is spiders in your home. There is something worse though; that spiders are hiding in spaces you don’t know about. You could very well be sitting right on top of a spider hiding place while reading this article!

Spiders hide anywhere with a food and water source. Your shed, light fixtures, under furniture, garages, beds, fireplaces and closets are the most common to find spiders in your home. Look in dark spaces, cupboards, and bathrooms where water droplets appear frequently.

In all seriousness, spiders have pretty distinct habits. Knowing where to find them and why they’re there is more than half the battle. Read on to find out how spiders get into your home, where spiders live, and how to get rid of them!

How do Spiders Enter My Home?

Nature does a great job of creating the perfect body for creatures that will best serve their survival. It gives them the ability to evolve and create future generations.

The spider is small with spindly or flexible legs and no real skeleton that’s going to inhibit them from going anywhere it can fit. To those arachnophobes out there, a spider is large, but by nature’s standards, they’re tiny.

How do spiders get inside your home? The simple answer is, through anything large enough that they can squish down and walk through or slide under. There are spiders in the southern US that are as thin as a dime and can slip through a hair-thin crack.

Some of the ways that spiders enter the home are not your fault for not noticing. If you live in a building, for example, there are naturally tons of cracks and fissures around pipes, cables, and power lines. When the building settles, as with a house, there are thousands of entry points created.

In your home, you can significantly reduce the number of entry points by doing a full home inspection. You can fill or repair any cracks leading into the home.

Believe it or not, you could unwittingly let them in when you open the door. Your doorframe is a great hangout to keep them warm and dry. Plus, when the room is occupied; they want to go to the light…. What they don’t know is– if you catch sight of them– they most certainly will find the light. Get it?

According to UCIPM.edu spiders can enter the home by way of firewood, boxes, and furniture to name a few.

The best way to avoid this is to inspect the objects and clean them before taking them in. This is not always practical because spider eggs are hard, if not impossible to spot, especially in firewood or furniture, and you can’t use wet firewood.

Furniture can also carry termites as well as spiders. Be sure you know where the piece comes from and determine if you can clean it out before use.

If you’d like to learn more, take a look at our full guide about how spiders get into your home here.

20 Places Where Spiders Live in your House

This is where you take all the spider wisdom you just learned and put it to work hunting the little buggers down. You know the top spiders you are likely to find; how to identify them, their habits, and their habitat. It’s time to put awareness into action.

The most common places where spiders live in your home are:

• Water sources (bathrooms, drains, and showers)
• Sheltered places
• Bug attracting spaces
• Cardboard boxes
• Outdoor stockpiles
• Door frames
• Window frames
• Barns
• Sheds
• Garages
• Ceilings
• Lamp shades
• Structurally damaged areas
• Gutters
• Fireplaces and chimneys
• Indoor plants
• Outdoor bushes
• Closest

Next, we’ll go over the specifics of each on of these places and why spiders are there in the first place!

Water Sources

Spiders need food and water. Even those that prefer a dryer atmosphere will need a water source. At the same time, they want to live in these areas, so sinks, drains, and bathroom or kitchen cabinets may be the perfect place to begin.

If you have a spider issues near your most commonly used water sources – don’t worry! You can read more in-depth about how to keep spiders out of your shower and bathroom here.

Sheltered Places

Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for the spider, your home offers a variety of prime real estate. Think of how many dark, warm, and dry or damp locations are provided by your furniture alone. Is the lining under your box spring sagging? If it is, you may not be sleeping as alone as you may think.

Any sagging lining underneath furniture is a prime spot for dark and dry-loving spiders. Look for webs in and around any nook or cranny underneath your furniture. It won’t matter how close to the ground it sits either, Spiders climb as effortlessly as they crawl. You would too if you weighed less than an ounce.

Don’t discount tables! You may think there’s no drawer, so no spider, right? Nope. Check underneath where the legs meet the tabletop. This is especially true on older models where the legs are screwed into a triangular holder.

These places can use an over-the-counter pesticide that you can apply yourself like this one: Mighty Mint Spider Repellent peppermint oil. This is a natural spider repellent made with mint essential oil you can spray liberally indoors or outdoors. Just be aware of pet food and water.

Bug Attracting Spaces

A space that attracts bugs is described as any space that a fly, roach, or any juicy morsel of spider food can hide. Even mosquitos. If your home has collections of paper, cardboard, or any unuseful clutter that gets dusty and unmoved for months or even years on end.

A spider can hide and catch its prey very easily from one space. Dinner will gladly wander in all on its own without much effort on the part of the spider. To prevent such issues, dump or give away all that you know you’ll not use in a year.

Don’t worry – there are lots of ways to get rid of spiders if they are already a problem in your home.

Buy plastic containers to store sentimental things and get it all to the garage, attic or if need be, the storage unit.

Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard boxes are a roach, bug, and spider attractor. Roaches will even eat it. This is the worst type of storage for anything. We don’t even suggest it for the short term. Face it, you may convince yourself it’s short-term storage, but you know good and well it may stay there months if not years.

Storage bins like these are cheap and durable. The IRIS USA Plastic 19 CT Stackable Storage can be stacked for convenience and they have plastic latches to ensure a proper fit of the lid which is important to keep spiders out.

Why shouldn’t a spider take up residence with the family? It’s been in your home for years and never actually met you…. Think about that! Then, you open a box and at the very least get a disturbing surprise, and at the worst, you may just get bit.

Outdoor Stockpiles

Outdoor stockpiles can be different things to different people depending on how and where you live. The most common stockpile outside and inside a home shed, yard, or barn would be a woodpile. You have to stack firewood in a particular way for it to work and you certainly can’t clean it.

You could have a professional pest control specialist come and treat the area in a way that won’t harm the wood or render it dangerous for you to use.

Conversely, you could just take it inside when you are ready to use it so the burning takes care of creating anything that could be there. It’s not recommended to store wood for long periods anywhere in the home.

If you have spiders outdoors, check out our full list of the best outdoor spiders sprays!

Door Frames

Your door frame, namely the door that opens into a garden or grassy area is prime real estate for a spider. As we stated earlier, the bottom is a great hangout, but the corners on the outside of a recessed or inside of a recessed entryway are the places to look.

Window Frames

The windows are places that are most often overlooked both in the interior and exterior of the window. Higher windows may be spray washed and still only be providing a water source for the spider. If you have recessed, Bay, or wooden frames they can still be missed. A good inspection once a year or once every six months if you found them once already is good.

Get a professional pressure washing on the higher windows and a pest control company to hit those spots that are too hazardous to do on your own.

Wood frames are especially vulnerable due to their porous nature. If you have a much older home, there is an elevated chance that spiders are in the rotting wood often found in a very old wood frame.

If you’re finding them by your window frame, check out our guide on using scents to repel spiders. You can use several of them around your window to keep them out of the area!

Barns

Barns are the quintessential space for a spider, the Club Med for wealthy arachnids. Why? It has it all. Dark and much cozier spaces, water from rain and animal or agricultural stores, fecal matter, wood, and sticky areas. Last but not least, a haven for tiny dead bugs, flies, and mosquitos.

You are quite guaranteed to have spiders in your barn without pest control and just as much to have them hard as heck to find. 

For many barn spiders, consider calling in a pest control professional.

Sheds

The shed is just a stone’s throw from a barn. In fact, in rural areas, it’s just a mini barn. With or without the same contents, it still houses the same nutrient and survival support a spider family needs to thrive.

Some spiders can live for 7 years. So, don’t think your time bunking together will be short; they could outlive the family pet.

The Garage

It helps to have the garage be a detached version with no opening to the house. Most homes in the US have one that’s attached. Either way, you could find spiders in the car too, or the lawn equipment that hasn’t been used.

The garage is another descendant of the barn with all the bells and whistles of other arachnid resorts with a big plus for some types of spiders. This includes the venomous Yellow Sac spider. It loves the smell of gasoline and what does a garage provide? An aromatherapy salon for that and other spiders that may like the same.

Make sure that if you see spiders around that you have a very tight gas cap. You don’t want to ruin a collectible car or any vehicle that is kept in a garage long-term.

Ceilings

For those with sharp corners where the wall and the ceiling meet, you may find some cobwebs there. If you see a rogue spider on the ceiling, look for their home first. Vacuum the areas of all cobwebs, that hasn’t been used as they could be used as a new spider home and cause an infestation.

If you have popcorn or any textured ceiling, it may give them additional traction by which to walk and even build smaller funnel webs for specific spiders that do that.

Lamp shades

Ever seen a thin, wispy cobweb inside a lampshade? That’s because a spider will go into annoying light to get those bugs that are attracted to it. A good regular dusting would suffice and keep spiders from living in there.

Structurally Damaged Areas

This could mean any crack that is in an interior or exterior wall. Also, check any grout or cement holding together brick or any decorative fascia that could be have spiders living inside.

Gutters

Neglected guttering is a haven for big, hairy spiders and small ones too. If you have a nice stock of dry leaves that can hold bugs and some water, you have another home for spiders inside.

Fireplaces and Chimneys

We don’t use our fireplaces all year and if you can believe it, some don’t get used at all. This is another dark, dry and bug-ridden space to house a spider. Get the flue flushed out as needed and keep it shut. Pest control wouldn’t hurt an unused fireplace either.

Many people find that regularly cleaning their chimney is a great way to keep spiders out of their home. If you want to do this yourself, you may want a kit such as this 23 Foot Chimney Sweeping Kit or to call a professional near you.

Indoor Plants 

It’s great to have plants that clean the air and beautify the home. However, do inspect them for spiders. If you bring them home from stores or nurseries you are bound to have a species in there, even just the eggs will begin an infestation.

Outdoor Bushes

Some folks like a good security bush like a spiky Century bush or hedge. Don’t be surprised if you see a spider family peering into the window. This is an invader that loves to be up close to the neighbors, that’s you. At least to get bugs off your windows and walls. Black widow and brown recluse can be found most often here.

In these outdoor bushes, you’re most likely to find spiders at night as they are nocturnal.

Your Closets

This is the scariest and most invasive place to find spiders, and yes, Black Widow and Brown Recluse love it here. Deep closets especially. Make sure to inspect any shoes and spaces in the corners for them.

Similar to mothballs, some companies are creating scented pouches that are supposed to repel spiders from places like your closets. One great example is Grandpa Gus’s Spider Repellent Pouches.

It’s best, even if you have never seen them, to get specialized pest control for these two spiders. Trekking through the closet yourself may not be a good idea and neither would be stepping into a pair of boots you haven’t worn in a while and getting a bite.

That’s a Wrap!

Now, you have the ins and outs of the spider’s life, the ones you are most likely to meet, how to hunt them, prevent them, and rid yourself of them. Remember the bright side of the spider too. They are largely misunderstood and will rid your home of pests. They rarely bite and only show up once in a blue moon to hunt if they need to.

If you’d like to learn more, take a look at our guide on what happens when you wash spiders down the drain here!

References

Vertebrate prey capture by Latrodectus mactans (Walckenaer, 1805) and Steatoda triangulosa (Walckenaer, 1802) (Araneae, Theridiidae) provide further insights into the immobilization and hoisting mechanisms of large prey, 2021, Food Webs

Australian wolf spider bites (Lycosidae): clinical effects and influence of species on bite circumstances. Isbister GK, Framenau VW. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol, 42(2):153-161, 01 Jan 2004