How To Find A Spider In Your Room

How To Find A Spider In Your Room

Spiders glow under a blacklight and are known for having diverse and widespread fluorophores within the entire family. So, while they hide incredibly well under normal light and dark conditions, if you grab a UV blacklight, you’ll spot them much faster.

It may seem strange to think of hunting bugs with light, but it’s also practical. How do you find a spider in your room?

The fastest way to find a spider hiding in your room is using a UV blacklight to make the spider light up so you can spot it. Many arachnids, like spiders and scorpions, contain natural fluorophores that shine when a black light is used. Search around window frames, under furniture, corners of ceiling, near lightbulbs, inside closets and around plants.

How To Find A Spider Hiding In Your Room

There’s nothing quite creepy as spotting a spider in your room and then losing it, so it is vital to know how to find a spider in your room.

While you could frantically toss your room like a cat burglar, there’s a better way to find your spider. In fact, there are several ways to locate an arachnid pest.

Some people prefer a live and let live policy, but the live and let live somewhere else approach is more sensible when it comes to venomous species. You can also opt to squish them. Either way, I recommend finding and removing it.

For larger spiders, I suggest first doing a visible inspection of all the areas it would commonly hide. Check behind boxes and decorations, in plants, and anywhere a spider would fit easily.

Don’t forget to check out the corners of the room, especially near the ceiling. Spiders are master climbers and not as constrained by gravity as humans.

According to Earth Kind, “They live in hidden spaces and undisturbed areas, like behind a bookshelf or underneath the basement stairs. Some spiders may stowaway inside an old box you’ve brought in from the garage or in a bundle of firewood brought in from outside.”

Seek out spiders in areas that aren’t fully covered but with plenty of accessible small hiding spots.

If you cannot spot your spider easily with the naked eye, then move on to using its natural fluorophores against it. For this trick, you’ll need a UV blacklight flashlight and some patience.

Skip past the tiny lights unless you want to spend all day or night looking for the invading pest.

As Royal Society Publishing points out, “We document that spiders, a species-rich and ecologically diverse group of organisms, possess fluorophores and can fluoresce. Remarkably, the externally visible expression of UV-induced fluorescence varies considerably both among portions of the body in individual spiders and from species to species.”

I prefer the UV Beast Black Light UV Flashlight from Amazon. Unlike the tiny pocket backlights, you can illuminate a larger area easily for spider spotting.

The only downside to this incredibly powerful 395nm wavelength light is that it’s so well made there are knockoffs.

How To Find A Small Spider In Your Room

Finding very small spiders in your room is a lot more complex than spotting their larger cousins. As soon as you pull out your blacklight, you’ll discover just how many things fluoresce.

Anything with fabric softener, some dust, and plenty of other things can make the UV method impractical, but there’s another way to try and locate your spider.

The best ways to find a miniature menace like this are to lure it out or set traps everywhere it could be.

Spiders are attracted to insects, so arranging a small piece of cheese or meat where it will draw bugs into your room is one option. Of course, most of us don’t want more bugs in our bedrooms.

A more practical way to find tiny spiders in your room is to set traps near where they like to hide. I suggest picking up a set of J T Eaton Spider and Cricket Glue Traps from Amazon.

This non-flowing and non-drying glue won’t make a mess. Better still, JT Eaton pest experts have been around since 1932, and all their products are made in the USA.

J T Eaton Spider and Cricket Glue Trap (Pack of 5)
  • Glue traps for crawling, jumping, slithering pests
  • Scented glue attracts insects, crickets & spiders, Pre-baited nonpoisonous, ready to use, disposable
  • Made in USA by JT Eaton, pest experts since 1932
  • Adhesive works in variety of temps, even in cold: Non-drying, non-flowing glue
  • Each Trap: 10”L x 2.5”W

Where Do Spiders Hide In Your Bedroom

Spiders can hide anywhere their small bodies will fit. However, they have some common favorite spots that are easy to explore.

The list below are some of the most common places to find spiders in a bedroom.

  • Start with the corners of your ceiling. Spiders love corners because there’s more real estate to attach a web to for catching prey.
  • Wherever there is clutter, there are many hiding places for spiders. Unfortunately, this means that naturally messy people and hoarders are in trouble for the poisonous bug hunt. One way to reduce spiders indoors is by cleaning.
  • If you have plants, then you can expect spiders to try them out as more natural habitat.
  • Spiders like to get under the furniture. A small space with limited light is inviting to insects. Bugs like roaches want to hang out in enclosed spaces, so the spiders will show up.
  • Closets and cardboard boxes also make ideal hidden spots for spiders to find a meal away from the hustle and bustle of your everyday activities.
  • Decor, such as picture frames and wall sconces, make superb spider spots.
  • Door and window frames also make ideal web-spinning spots. Getting up high allows a spider to catch flying insects and avoid ground-based predators.

How To Find A Spider Nest In Your Room

Before you can find a spider nest, it’s important to distinguish what you mean. Spiders don’t make nests.

If you mean a spider’s web, then it’s a gossamer structure that sticks to walls, doors, furniture, or wherever a spider can find purchase to attach a strand of silk.

Alternatively, if you mean the place a spider lays its eggs, that is called an egg sack. These balls of spider silk contain dozens or hundreds of eggs and are often attached in or near the spider’s web.

You will find both the web and egg sacks near the spider. Luckily, spider silk also fluoresces under UV light, so scan around with your blacklight flashlight.

Helpful Tips To Know About How To Find A Spider In Your Room

Finding a spider in your room can seem like looking for the needle in a haystack. Fortunately, just as you can get the needle with a magnet, there are tools like traps and UV flashlights to assist you in finding that spider.

Here are more helpful tips to know about how to find a spider in your room.

  • No one likes the feeling of walking through a spider’s web, but it’s a great way to start looking for spiders in your room. If there are new webs, not the old dusty variety, then a spider nearby made them.
  • If you find a spider’s egg sack, one of the best disposal methods is vacuuming it up. Your vacuum works surprisingly well on spiders too. Once you have them trapped in the bag or collection container, you can dump them in the outdoor trash right away.
  • Spiders need some water to live, check areas in your room where condensation occurs naturally. Windows, especially those with AC units, doorways to private bathrooms, and near vases with flowers inside, are likely landing pads for thirsty arachnids.

Final Thoughts

Whether you welcome every living thing in your home or spiders freak you out, it’s a good idea to know how to find them.

Safely removing spiders to the outdoors where they can’t bite you, your family, or pets is better than letting them run amok in your bedroom.

Spiders may catch pesky insects, but not everyone wants to live with them, and if you have dangerously venomous spiders, you shouldn’t let them stay.

Grab a glue trap and your UV flashlight to find all the spiders in your room.

Ted Smith

My name is Ted Smith and I’m the creator of AnimalThrill.com. I have a passion for educating people about animals and wildlife. I have been working with the National Wildlife Federation for the past 10 years and I became a wildlife blogger to help people become excited about animals and encouraged to care for these wonderful creatures.

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