No pest is so well known for being hair raising, spine tingling and giving people the heebie-jeebies as spiders. Spiders are fairly popular in our modern culture. They have their own phobia named after them (Arachnophobia) and their own movie named after that phobia. Spiders are symbols for evil in many ancient cultures, and star as villains in many books, such as JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit or J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. During Halloween, people use cobwebs and spiders to dress their home up to be frightening to visitors who might want to knock on their door to ask for candy. Needless to say, humans in general don’t enjoy spiders, which makes sense because from what we here at Landmark Home Warranty have found, spiders exist mostly to terrify us, constantly. Spiders are on all the landmasses of the world, except for Antarctica, where we suppose they are planning on invading next. There are at least 43,678 spider species. According to these statistics, they only have one reason to be so far spread and plentiful: world domination. Or because they’ve been around since the carboniferous period and they’re good at adapting and surviving and eating the plentiful insects that are on the far reaches of the globe. But doesn’t that sound like an excuse that someone with world domination plans would give you? It doesn’t? Fine.
Why do we have such an ingrained fear of spiders? In simplistic terms, it’s probably because of evolution. Logically, we know if a spider bites us, we can go to the hospital and with modern medicine be saved. But back in prehistoric times, our cave cousins didn’t have fancy doctors that were able to reassure them that with an IV and some rest, everything would be just fine. What they knew was that those eight legged things that moved strangely and made strange homes, were dangerous because they bit uncle cave Dave, and he died. Thus, as humans evolved, we developed an innate fear of these arachnids, even though today we know that most spiders aren’t going to kill us. Granted, some humans have somehow beaten down that caveman-self that reminds them that “spider bad, “ and keep spiders as pets. We’re not sure what the attraction is of keeping an eight legged nightmare monster as a pet, but we’re sure they have it figured out. We’re not going to bother them about it, because they have friends with eight legs, and we’d rather not run into that crowd.
Spiders are such a diverse group of pests, with different sizes (the smallest can be around .015 inches, and the largest can grow up to 3 and a half inches) and different colors and body types. All spiders have similar body structures, however, which makes it easy to classify them as spiders, and no it’s not that they all have the intent to destroy the world Here is what a general spider looks like:
The first thing, obviously, is that every spider has eight legs. That’s why spiders cannot be considered insects, because insects have six legs, and spiders have eight. Spiders also have 8 eyes, because instead of having two and not creeping us out, they wanted to make sure they could see us in a room no matter where we were standing. Spiders have three main parts: the thorax, which contains the eyes, legs, fangs and mouth parts, the abdomen, which contains the parts for spinning webs and making more evil world domination minions … we mean reproduction and the pedicel, which connects the two together.
Now, as you continue to read this article, (you haven’t been scared off yet, have you? The best is yet to come!) hopefully you’ll agree with us here at Landmark Home Warranty, that everything about spiders is creepy. The way they get their food, the way they eat their food, and even with reproduction spiders are frightening.
Female spiders can lay up to 3,000 eggs in one go, and after reproducing, they will eat their male counterpart. Some males go so far as to try and impale themselves on their female’s fangs as to provide them sustenance. Spiders can capture their prey in a variety of webs, including ones in orbs, in leaves, underground, and in your bedroom window. Most spiders bite their prey, liquefy its insides and then suck it out using their jaws. Right. If that doesn’t sound frightening, we’re not sure what does.
WHY ARE SPIDERS PESTS?
Besides the fact that spiders are evil, some spiders can be poisonous to humans, and their bites can hurt. The have been many people in the past who have died of spider bites. Although most spiders aren’t set on murdering people, they will bite when they feel threatened, and may times humans can threaten spiders without meaning to, basically by existing and being where they normally are, like beds, chairs, or heaven forbid, showers. Now one or two spiders, you can probably deal with by getting a shoe and learning to aim with deadly accuracy. However, when spiders start breeding and decide that your home is the ultimate place for building their evil world domination army, you don’t want to help them in their evil plot.
HOW CAN I GET RID OF A SPIDER INFESTATION?
The best way to get rid of a spider infestation is to get a pest control treatment done on your home. Luckily, if you have a Arizona home warranty, Nevada home warranty or Texas home warranty, you can get pest control treatment for a flat rate fee of $60. Compared to the $500-$1000 you could drop to get rid of the nightmare beasts, that is an incredible deal! If you want more information on getting spiders out of your home with a home warranty, go to Landmark Home Warranty’s website at www.Landmarkhw.com. There you can learn more about how home warranties can help you save money on home systems and appliances that fail from normal wear and tear. You can also read home warranty reviews, and see why Landmark is the best home warranty.