A bed bug infestation in your spaces may be challenging to control; you’ll require professional help and top-quality bedbug control equipment and natural bed bug predators.
- After the ban of DDT and other synthetic pesticides some 40 years ago, bed bugs have been noted to make a major comeback.
The technique chosen may have different side effects and effectiveness. So, below I’ve discussed the issue of “do spiders eat bed bugs?”
In summary, YES, most spiders (especially the Cobweb spider and Philodromid crab spider species) will eat bed bugs and all the insects that get trapped in their webs.
So, let’s check the details!
Do Spiders Eat Bed Bugs? What Spider Species?
Well, maybe you should not get worried when you find that spider around the house – as they may actually help you not just control flies but also bed bugs.
- The Philodromid and cobweb spider species are the two main species that are known to trap and eat bed bugs; these spider species are common all over America.
Despite that spiders will feed on bed bugs, it’s impossible for these creatures to feast on all the bed bugs (in all life stages such as the Baby Bed Bugs).
1. Will Philodromid Crab Spiders Feed on Bed Bugs?
The Philodromid crab spiders may be physically and in features similar to the crab (both front and rear); this is a very common spider species both in America and all over the world.
- The Philodromid (Thanatus flavidus) spider will mainly inhabit the outdoors but may sometimes get into the house.
These spiders will get into the house with the mission of hunting and eating those small insects including bed bugs. However, the phildromids will not employ webs to trap the bed bugs.
- So, how do they catch the bed bugs? Well, the phildromids move faster than bed bugs and thus they’ll hunt them down, inject some venom into their body and eat them.
The Philodromids are distributed all over the globe including Canada, North America, Asia, South America, Europe, and even Africa.
Since these spiders will take residence in the wild and the house, they’ll hunt those many insects and flies by injecting venom into their bodies.
- When the Philodromids aren’t indoors (which is most of the time), these spiders will hide under grass and undergrowth in your garden or yard
2. Will Cobweb spider Feed on Bed Bugs?
The Cobweb spiders will also be helpful in feeding on the bed bugs around your house; at least that’s a positive use for the spiders that you fear.
- These Cobweb spiders will create their webs on the house corners and they’ll use the structures to trap the various insects including bed bugs.
However, there are some cobweb spiders that are poisonous and hence we might not want their services in eating bed bugs around our houses.
Thus, I advise you get a professional spider or pest exterminator to check the type of cobweb spiders that are in your residence, yards, or garden.
3. Will Jumping Spiders Feed on Bed Bugs?
There are over 600o jumping spider species globally. The food they take includes crawling insects – both those that live outdoors or even indoors.
- Thus, if the spiders are in the indoor spaces, they’ll also feed on bed bugs among other insects.
If the jumping spiders are living in the outdoor spaces, they will feed on flies, grasshoppers among other insects.
The jumping spiders will mainly Hunt in the daytime since they have a great sense of sight.
- These spiders can be found in those unique house corners where it will be difficult for one to notice them easily.
The jumping spiders may be considered to be slow spiders. Thus, they will eye their prey such as the bedbugs from a distance and jump to eat them.
- The jumping spiders may even jump up to 30 times their body length and thus the witch many of the insects.
An interesting point that you will note is that the jumping spiders may also Hunt other spiders.
4. Will Cellar Spiders Feed on Bed Bugs?
So on the question of whether cellar spiders will feed on bedbugs, I am happy to note that these spiders, like other spiders above, will also eat bed bugs.
- On their body structure, the cellar spiders look like the harvestman (Daddy-Long-Legs) but they have venom and also create webs.
To know whether you have them in your house you need to check any of their carcasses that may be on webs.
However, the cellar spiders will not chew bed bugs. They will simply inject venom into the body of the bedbugs and swallow them whole.
- The bedbugs among other insects will be digested by the digestive juices that are found in the cellar spiders.
- However, the cellar spiders and their webs sometimes get out of hand and you might need to control them.
For this, I recommend that you contact your local pest exterminators or get some certified technicians that will control both the webs and the spiders.
But most of the time you might not need to control this by the cellar spiders.
- This is because these spiders will help you also control other insects including mosquitos, flies, or moths in the garage shed, yard, or garden.
Why Avoid Spiders in Controlling Bed Bugs?
In this section, I will outline reasons why you should avoid using spiders in controlling bed bugs in your spaces.
1. Spiders Feed on Many Insects
We’ve noted that spiders can act as great natural predators to eat those spiders that are in your spaces.
However, it is also clear that spiders may not effectively reduce the whole bed bug population.
This is because spiders will not just feed on bedbugs but will consume a range of insects to satisfy their dietary needs.
- Therefore, as you wait for the spiders to feed on their whole bed bug population, they will be elsewhere feeding on other insects.
Thus, the spiders will not significantly reduce bed bugs in your house.
2. Spiders are Feared
The next issue in using spiders to control bed bugs is that spiders are generally feared by most homeowners.
- So, it will be unimaginable that you’ll keep so many spiders to control bed bugs in the house.
- Finally, after controlling the bedbugs, you could have a major spider problem in your spaces.
Therefore, most of us will avoid spiders due to fear and also avoid creating a spider’s problem in the end.
In addition, the spiders could also frighten those in your house as they’ll generally hide around the coaches, sofa sets, and near your bed.
So, if you’re not confident enough to be seeing spiders roaming around you may need to avoid them in controlling bed bugs.
3. Spider Webs are Unsightly
- In fact, most of us hate the job of removing the spider webs from various corners of our houses.
Any Other Predators for Bed Bugs?
As an expert, I have to note that there are other natural predators that you can use to control spiders.
- However, you must take into consideration that some of these predators may also the household pests.
First, I have to note that pets such as cats and dogs will only eat bed bugs by accident.
1. Lizards
Lizards such as geckos are notable predators that can eat bed bugs.
- Unlike spiders, lizards are considered harmless and cute but may also eat most insects including bed bugs.
- However, if you’re not keeping the results as pets, you may need to check the lizard population as too many may be unpleasant.
A key disadvantage with the lizards, just like with spiders, is that you might need to keep too many of them, and finally, they’re not removing the whole bed bug population.
2. Cockroaches
Some cockroach species, such as the German and the American (which are very common) are known to eat bed bugs.
- Generally, spiders including the Oriental and the brown-banded species will eat many insects.
- However, just like with the other natural predators, cockroaches have their large share of problems while controlling bed bugs.
For example, cockroaches will reproduce fast and hence leave you with another pest control issue.
Alternatively, you may need to use techniques and an appropriate pace that will control both the bedbugs and the cockroaches.
3. Pharaoh Ants
Ant experts have concluded that the pharaoh ants are an appropriate species that we can use to target and control bed bugs.
One unique benefit is that ants may be used as a giveaway and hence they’ll draw the experts to locations that bed bugs could be hiding.
Pharaoh ants are a major natural predator for bed bugs. Other species of arms that you can use include their fire ants and the Argentine ants.
However, a disappointing fact with these predators including ants is that they won’t be effective to remove bed bugs.
These animals will mainly feast on bed bugs especially when the population is high but they won’t make a major difference in controlling the bed bug population.
So, the major advantage is that you can use the bed bugs to pinpoint locations that bed bugs have burrowed.
Conclusion
In conclusion, spiders are considered as natural predators for bed bugs but using them may prove inefficient.
- Notably, the method could make you neglect professional help that can help reduce the bed bug population rapidly.
- Also, bed bugs are creative creatures that will hide even in small crevices and cracks to stay off predators.
In fact, you might need a very large population of spiders to significantly reduce the bug bed bugs in your house.
Therefore, instead of using spiders to control bed bugs, using professional spiders’ exterminators may be the best option.