It is very important in a well balanced ecosystem to have a healthy population of all kinds of spiders. That does not mean you have to allow spiders to take over your house. You can have a rich population of spiders outside while minimizing their residence inside.
The first rule is to avoid the use of broad spectrum insecticides at any time of the year. These products will kill all the spiders in contact with them and it can take 6 to months for an area to be repopulated by spiders after being sprayed by an insecticide, whether it is a synthetic chemical or an natural chemical.
If you use mulch extensively throughout the landscape, you will have lots of spiders in residence; they love living in mulch, especially loose materials such as chopped leaves, hay, or pine straw. Gardens or plantings that have plants close together with their leaves just touching make an excellent habitat for spiders.
Mow the lawn no shorter than 2 ½ inches or better 3 inches to maintain a good spider population in the lawn.
A quarter acre yard can provide habitat for thousands of spiders and you will seldom see one of them.
