RELATED: Leaving This One Thing in Your Bathroom Is Attracting Spiders, Experts Warn. Whether you’ve been rearranging furniture since grade school or you only got into interior design during COVID-19 lockdowns, it’s almost impossible to have missed the explosion in popularity that houseplants have had in recent years. But for as much as you may love your rubber plant, parlor palm, or ficus, there’s a good chance spiders are just as thrilled about them.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb According to experts, adorning your windowsills and corners gives arachnids a little slice of nature indoors that they can call their own. “Houseplants provide an ideal environment for spiders in terms of shelter,” Alex Altizer, owner of Eastside Exterminators, tells Best Life. “We don’t move or touch our plants a lot, so they make a great spot for them to hide and build a nest—especially if the plants have a lot of leaves.” This can be especially true if you don’t keep up with their maintenance. “If you have lots of potted plants and foliage around the house where spiders love to build webs, it’s time to clear and prune,” says Jordan Foster, a pest expert with Fantastic Pest Control. Besides falling behind on pruning, even the most basic aspect of plant maintenance can make them especially enticing for spiders: Your watering schedule. Experts warn that overwatering certain plants can attract an infestation of bugs such as fungus gnats, whiteflies, thrips, and mealybugs as they take advantage of the overly damp soil. These conditions can harm your houseplant outright and essentially turn them into a hunting ground for spiders, Josh Baker, Chief Administrative Officer at Triangle Pest Control in North Carolina, tells Best Life. To avoid this, make sure to test the soil before you reach for the watering can: Even if it feels like days since you last hydrated them, they may still be retaining moisture, experts at Smart Garden Guide warn. This is especially true if there are high humidity levels in your house or little circulation in a room where plants have been placed. On top of your watering schedule, you might want to keep a calendar to check in on any infestations, dead branches, or other growth that may have made its way into your planter. “It’s important to regularly remove any organic material or rotting parts of the plant,” Altizer says.
RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. Even though the idea of having a few spiders hanging about your indoor garden might freak out arachnophobes, experts point out that they’re relatively good tenants for your houseplants. Unlike the pests they hunt, spiders themselves don’t damage plants or attack their roots and can even help eliminate any infestations you may have. And according to indoor gardening website Houseplants Corner, arachnids are territorial by nature, meaning it’s doubtful you’ll find more than one spider in any given plant. But it’s not just what’s growing inside your home that could attract spiders into your house: Experts say that certain plants growing just outside could also bring them indoors. “Spiders are often attracted to tall plants like sunflowers because of their ability to use them to spin larger webs,” Andrew Gabries, owner of Go Green Lawn and Pest Control, tells Best Life. This also means other tall plants such as hollyhocks, delphiniums, and foxgloves could be bringing spiders around your yard and into your home if they’re planted close to the foundation or brush up against exterior walls or windows. If you’re looking to keep the arachnids away from your living space, stick to growing anything tall or with long limbs away from the outside of your home. RELATED: If You’re Not Cleaning These 2 Spots, You’re Attracting Spiders to Your Home.
