It is not necessary, or even desirable, to kill any pests in order to make the PestAvoidance concept work. It isn’t even necessary– in every case–to employ a large number of complicated mechanical habitat modifications. In fact, with some pests, such as brown recluse and black widow spiders, extensive mechanical habitat modification should be the last thing on the list. The acts of handling and removing clutter that is potentially infested with these spiders are fraught with two very significant risks:
1. First, handling such clutter is a good way to get bitten, unless you suit up in a tyvek bunny suit that covers you from head to toe. Although these spiders are not aggressive, they–like most spiders–will bite when handled roughly. Picking up clutter that may contain live specimens brings you into the kind of close contact that could result in a bite.
2. Second, removing clutter containing live specimens of such spiders from one location to another is a good way to transport the infestation to the new location. When you do that, you broaden the infestation zone to include the new location, including whatever vehicle the clutter is transported in.
Neither approach portends of a happy outcome.
There’s a better way, and though it works well, it doesn’t involve the use of pesticides, repellents, or mitigants. This means, for one thing, that the procedure does not involve exterminating the pests involved. This has far-reaching consequences. For example, if you happen to have pets in your home, you won’t have to worry that your cats, dogs, kittens, or puppies, will be exposed to dead or dying pests while you are in the process of making your home pest free.
Furthermore, only three simple steps are involved.
Let’s first set the stage. You want to make a certain area within your domain free of insect and/or arachnid pests. That area is what can be called the PestAvoidance area. It could be a very small space, such as one room in your home, or it could be quite large, such as your entire home, or your entire yard and home. The more extensive the area, the more complicated and time-consuming the job. But PestAvoidance works on all areas, large or small. You have to decide, though, how much time you can devote to the task, and — like with most things in life — it is usually wise to start small and enlarge on it as you become more familiar with the process.
Let’s assume you are determined to rid your home of spiders. The spiders known to produce medically serious bites varies, in North America, by location. One study (Hank Guarisco [1999]: “House Spiders of Kansas,” J. Arach. 27:217-221) listed 15 species of true synanthropic spiders in Kansas. These are spiders that are able to produce breeding populations in homes, are rarely found in the wild, and are easily transported from one home to another in boxes, clothing, and other stored goods; two of these are known to produce medically significant bites. Another 26 species are seasonally abundant inside homes, mostly during the late spring, summer, and early fall months; three of these (representing distinct species of black widow spiders) produce medically significant bites. In addition, another 33 species of spiders were found to occasionally enter homes.
Kansas is not particularly unique in this regard. It is not unusual for homes anywhere in the U.S. to harbor multiple species of spiders that live there throughout the year. Similarly, it is common for the diversity of spiders found in our homes to increase during the warmer months of the year. Some are wandering hunters, others spin webs in corners of rooms, under furniture, behind appliances, in closets, and so on. From time to time these spiders may come into close contact with you and other members of your family, and–though the incidence tends to be rare–the possibility of a medically significant bite cannot be ruled out.
If you are troubled by the number of wandering spiders and spider webs you have been finding in your home, you may be ready to turn your entire home into a PestAvoidance zone that is entirely free of spiders. You realize that is a natural, rational response, but if you are familiar with spider biology you also know that spiders are — in general — among the most beneficial organisms found in our environment. To some, that fact presents a serious dilemma. How can you rid your homes of spiders while respecting the benefits they provide mankind? The PestAvoidance concept provides an answer to this question by using habitat modification processes that produce an environment which neither nurtures nor attracts spiders of any kind. Once such an environment is established in your home, spiders cease to be found there. Those that are there when the project commences are not killed; they simply vacate the area, some dying natural deaths, while others migrate to nearbyt locations that positively attract and nurture them.
How, specifically, can the PestAvoidance concept work to rid your home of spiders? One effective way–one, in fact,that has been carried out successfully by people from all walks of life, is described as follows, in three easy steps:
STEP ONE–IDENTIFY A FEW TEMPORARY PESTAVOIDANCE ZONES (tPAZ) TO WORK WITH:
Survey the area you want to make pest free (in this example, your entire home), until you find a few small areas within it that are already entirely free of pests. You know the areas are free of pests because you can’t see any there, even using a good flashlight to search for them. Even a home thoroughly infested with spiders of all kinds will usually have a few small places that are free of them altogether. In some cases, these areas may be the visible areas that are free of clutter.
These are temporary PestAvoidance Zones, or tPAZ for short. Most tPAZ are relatively free of things that attract and nurture pests, though they may have a small amount of visible and invisible grime, oil, wax, and other natural substances that will, from time to time, attract and nurture pests. Given time, pests will pass through those areas, and some might even take up housekeeping there, unless you take proactive steps to make them permanently pest free.
STEP TWO–CONVERT EACH tPAZ TO ITS OWN PERMANENT PESTAVOIDANCE ZONE (pPAZ):
Once you identify a few tPAZ, apply small amounts of a cleansing solution to the walls, baseboards, and other parts of each tPAZ ONLY, to dissolve and wash away the grime, oils, waxes, and other substances that may attract or nurture pests. Only small amounts of cleansing solution are needed. Resist the temptation to overdo it. Almost any natural, non-toxic cleansing agent will suffice, including any of the BotaniWash™ products developed by EntomoBiotics Inc. If the cleansing dispenser provides for a fog application, adjust the nozzle to this setting and gently fog a small amount of the solution onto the walls, baseboards, and other surfaces, being careful not to apply the solution to the point of run-off, or to hard floor surfaces where it may cause a slip hazard. A few natural cleansing agents, particularly those with pure essential plant oils, contain residual substances that continue dissolving grime for days and weeks after they are applied, even if the surfaces they are applied to are not wiped or scrubbed down.
Note that most natural, non-toxic cleansing agents are not designed to work as pesticides, pest repellents, or pest mitigants. They simply neutralize and wash away the natural substances that attract and nurture pests. In the process, you create a small permanent PestAvoidance Zone, or pPAZ. Of course, it is only as permanent as you make it, by applying small amounts (emphasis on small, as — when using botanical-based natural essential plant oils — less is better) of fresh cleansing agents in that area on a regular basis. Honestly, less is really better.
STEP THREE–ENLARGE EACH pPAZ VIA THE NEW tPAZ IT CREATES ON ITS EDGES:
Once you have created a few small pPAZ, wait and watch.
Within a few days you will begin to notice that each pPAZ is now ringed by a small area of new tPAZ, as spiders find no reason to approach each pPAZ and thus spend all their time, instead, in other places, further and further away.
As this happens, enlarge the size of each pPAZ by applying small amounts of the same cleansing agent you used before to the new peripheral tPAZ ringing each one.
You should also begin to notice new, isolated tPAZ that were once inhabited by spiders, but that now are temporarily free of them. This happens because enlarging each pPAZ has the effect of reducing prey and habitat. There are fewer spiders around to inhabit your home, and those that are around are not getting fed as often because–in the process of making your home less attractive and nurturing to spiders–you are also making your home less attractive and nurturing to the organisms they prey on. When food supplies dry up, those that depend on those supplies simply die of natural causes or move out.
Convert each new tPAZ to a pPAZ as soon as you notice them, by applying fresh cleansing solution to them. Then keep up the program until–usually within a relatively short time–you have established the entire house as a Permanent PestAvoidance Zone that you created, not by killing a solitary thing, but merely by capitalizing on the natural temporary PestAvoidance Zones you find, first by making them permanent–which soon results in new temporary PestAvoidance Zones on their peripheries, then making them larger until, voila! the whole area is included.
Once that condition has been reached (and the whole area has become a PestAvoidance Zone), that’s the time to start an aggressive de-cluttering program to tidy things up, discard unused and unnecessary stuff that just gets into the way. That’s habitat modification at its best. And with household spiders, that’s the best, and safest, way to get the job done.
So… How well does it work?
Beginning in 2008 EntomoBiotics Inc. began developing and testing a number of formulations of natural, non-toxic cleansing and washing solutions. Ultimately this project resulted in several formulations — which we now market under the brand name HabitatBiotics™ — that contain different mixes of proprietary herbal extracts, one based on vinegar and the other on mineral oil.
The remaining formulations, and others like it, can be used merely as cleansers to wash away oils, waxes, pheromones, and other natural grimes and detritus that nurture and/or attract pests. That process, in conjunction with mechanical habitat modifications, creates permanent PestAvoidance zones, which can be expanded to produce pest-free environments in a relatively short time frame. These formulations work, not as pesticides, repellents, or even as pest mitigants, but as simple habitat modifiers that do nothing more than create conditions that are not attractive or nurturing to these spiders or their prey. And remember, they don’t work alone. Getting on with mechanical habitat modifications the minute it is clear that the areas needing such modifications have become PestAvoidance Zones, is crucial. Only by doing that will you easily maintain permanent PestAvoidance Zones in your home or yard.
But let’s get back to the question of how well this procedure works with household spiders. Do they work? The evidence seems clear that they do, simply because:
(1) dead spiders are only rarely or almost never found (as would be the case if the habitat modifiers simply killed the spiders outright the way a pesticide does) ;
(2) new infestations do not appear to crop up in other locations nearby (as would be the case if the habitat modifiers merely repelled the spiders so that they moved away, to other places in the same locality);
(3) the spiders are not simply found in smaller numbers than before (as would be the case with ordinary pest mitigants); and
(4) live spiders cease being observed, either running free or getting caught in sticky spider monitors placed in nooks and crannies, as well as in all the other areas where they had been observed in the past.
In summary, the spiders don’t die en masse (if they did, you’d find their dead bodies everywhere), or run off to other places (and they’d start showing up in those other places), or just diminish in number (as going from seeing a bunch every day to seeing half as many a week later, followed by say, a quarter as many the next week, and finally to seeing only one or two a month. Such gradual reductions are not observed. The spiders simply disappear.
We could ponder the dynamics of precisely what is taking place, and, in fact, I’m doing just that, but so far I have no firm answer beyond the simple observation that habitat modification, using mechanical modifications to the environment, along with using natural, non-toxic products, is at its root the practice of PestAvoidance. The objective is to create, or take advantage of existing–and usually temporary–PestAvoidance zones in the area you want to make free of pests, making them permanent. Before long you will notice that each permanent PestAvoidance zone is larger than it was earlier, and the longer you continue to practice PestAvoidance procedures there the larger it gets until the entire area is pest free. Click on the link to read more about that process.