How to Get Rid of Cobwebs

How to Get Rid of Cobwebs

How to Get Rid of Cobwebs

Fake cobwebs around your house are great if you're hosting a Halloween party. They give off an eerie, abandoned look that you associate with a real haunted house.

Bad news: Halloween only comes once a year and those are real cobwebs that are making your house look eerie and abandoned when you don't want it to. Having cobwebs around your house and in your garage definitely makes your home look unkempt and for a reason: dust, mites, pollens, and other little critters can live there long after the spiders have abandoned their webs. Not only do they make your house look dirty but they can also be a breeding ground of bacteria and can trigger allergies and aggravate respiratory problems.

What are Cobwebs?Cobwebs are spider webs that have been abandoned. You can tell if they're abandoned if the web is shapeless, torn down and gathering dust. A cobweb may also have collected fragments of webs from other parts of the house. It can also a fragment of material a jumping spider uses to jump from place to place to hide eggs. From afar, cobwebs can look like a small, white cloudy area. Even if you don't see any actual spiders in your house, if you find yourself dealing with cobwebs, there's a big chance that you may have them.

What You'll NeedBefore you try any of the suggested methods for removing cobwebs from your home and garden, you may need the following items:

• A chair, for hard-to-reach areas
• Broom: the longer the handle, the better
• High-pressure water hose
• Stick
• Paper towels
• Tissue paper
• Old sock or hand towels
• Duct tape
• Vacuum cleaner with an extension hose

Things You Can Do to Get Rid of CobwebsGrab 'em. Donning your rubber gloves, you can grab cobwebs from where they hang using paper towels. You can also wipe away any residue with paper towels.

Brush them aside. Knock cobwebs from ceiling corners using a broom. Wipe the broom bristles using paper towels or rinse them afterwards to get rid of any cobweb residue left. You can also get cobweb dusters and brooms specially made for removing cobwebs called “websters” - just check in your neighborhood hardware store.

Poling system. If you still can't reach those high crevices with your broom, you can employ a long, sturdy pole to help you out. Cover the upper part of the pole with duct tape, sticky side facing out. Use it to make the cobwebs stick, and it's as easy as that!

If you don't have duct tape, put a sock on the top of the pole and use it to sweep off those annoying cobwebs. You can also tie a rubber band around the sock to ensure that it doesn't fall off.

Stick 'em up. Cobwebs can be a pain when they retreat into tiny corners and difficult angles. Use a stick, a chopstick, or a twig to fish them out in those small spaces, like the smaller spaces in bicycle wheels. Small pine branches with needles are particularly effective.

Tissue. You can also use tissue to get rid of smaller cobwebs in small spaces.

Fabric softener sheets. Fabric softener sheets have uses other than making your clothes soft. Use these to wipe down cobwebs. They even prevent them from coming back!

Hose it down. To get rid of cobwebs in the outdoors, such as trees and bushes, water by itself won't do much. If you put pressure behind the water, though, it will do its job and bust the cobwebs away into oblivion.

You can also use a pressure washer for this purpose.

Vacuum. You can use your vacuum cleaner (with an extended hose for hard-to-reach areas) to vacuum cobwebs away. Using a vacuum cleaner may be tricky for small spaces, so be warned.

Dilute bleach solution. Spray a diluted bleach solution such as Clorox Cleanup on cobwebbed areas. It can also kill molds and prevent them from growing back.

Make the most out of a sticky situation. Cobwebs are naturally sticky, which not only helps spiders to catch their prey, but allows adhesion on surfaces. Spraying products such as Lysol can help seal a surface and make it smoother. By making walls less prone to adhesion from dust and cobwebs, it's less likely you'll find them back.

There are also specific products on the market that targets cobwebs, such as Web-Away and the Cobweb Eliminator. There are a lot of products that are non-toxic and that won't harm you, other animals or your pets. Just ask your hardware dealer what will suit your needs the best.

Call the professionals. If you find that cobwebs keep coming back despite your efforts and regular house cleaning, it's time to call the exterminator. You may be having a serious spider infestation in your house.

Get rid of the spiders. It only follows that without spiders, there will be no cobwebs. If you have animals or children in the household, here's a safe way to get rid of spiders: Put pure peppermint oil on cotton balls and leave them in the corners of your home. There are also alternatives such as Raid for Spiders, and other insecticides. Keep in mind that spiders help get rid of other nastier bugs, so think wisely before taking this step.

Some Things to Keep in MindKnow your spiders. Dealing with cobwebs means dealing with spiders. Don't just touch or grab spiders indiscriminately when you spot them in the cobwebs. Know the poisonous spiders native to your area. If you're unfamiliar with a spider you run into, take note of its characteristics (color, size, etc.) and look it up in a library or on the Internet.

Dust regularly to keep them away. Cobwebs don't just go away, and you may have to establish a regular cleaning routine to discourage them from establishing webs in your home. Regular cleaning also keeps other bugs away (and those bugs are what attracted spiders to begin with!).

Spiders are our friends! Cobwebs can be a pain, but it doesn't mean you have to take it out on the spiders. Spiders perform an important function by keeping the bug population down. Losing spiders means more bugs, so think twice before you squash them underfoot!

Or if you really want to get rid of all and sundry, call an exterminator. It will kill the spiders and the bugs they feed on, and if you keep a regular cleaning routine, they're unlikely to come back.

Your house doesn't have to look like it's perpetually Halloween. Getting rid of cobwebs makes your house look cleaner, shinier and brighter. It will certainly be friendlier to people and not ghosts. Happy cleaning!

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