Spider & Earwig Perimeter Treatment · Kitchener
Spider and Earwig Perimeter Treatment in Kitchener
Spiders and earwigs are not a sign of a dirty house. They are a sign of a damp foundation, a bright porch light and a door that does not seal. The treatment goes on the outside, where they come from.
Most spider and earwig calls in Kitchener come in July and August and they come from the same kinds of properties: the low, damp lots along the Grand River through Bridgeport and along Schneider Creek and its side creeks, houses in Forest Heights and Stanley Park with fifty years of foundation plantings and deep mulch against the wall, and newer houses in Doon South and Huron Park where the builder's grading has settled and water sits against the foundation. Earwigs breed in that damp soil and under the patio stones, then come indoors at night when it gets hot and dry. Spiders follow the insects that gather at exterior lights, and they web the soffits, the north side of the house, the window wells and the corners of the garage.
What a perimeter treatment is
A perimeter treatment is a residual application by a licensed technician along the outside of the house: the base of the foundation wall, the ground beside it, around door frames and window frames, under the bottom course of siding, around the garage door, the window wells, the underside of the deck and the corners where spiders web. It leaves a barrier that crawling insects cross on the way in, and it is applied where the label allows. Inside, treatment is usually limited to the basement perimeter and the cracks and voids where earwigs and spiders are actually found. It is not fogging the living room.
Timing
The treatment works best when it goes on before the insects are moving in numbers: late May or June for the first application, with a second in mid-summer for properties that need it. A single treatment in August after the earwigs have been coming in for a month still helps, but you are told honestly that it is playing catch-up. Many households on the damp lots book a spring and a summer visit as a season, and that is cheaper and more effective than emergency calls.
Earwigs
Earwigs are harmless to people, they do not breed indoors, and they cannot be eliminated from a garden. What can be done is to stop them coming in. Beyond the treatment, that means pulling the mulch back from the foundation and thinning it, fixing the downspout that dumps beside the wall, replacing the door sweep that has a gap you can see daylight under, and screening the weep holes in the brick with mesh that lets them breathe but keeps insects out. Along the Grand River and Schneider Creek the ground is going to stay damp regardless, and the door sweeps and the treatment do most of the work.
Spiders
Kitchener's house spiders, cellar spiders, orb weavers and the occasional wolf spider are a nuisance, not a danger; the province has no common spider whose bite is a medical concern for most people. They are there because insects are there, and insects are there because of the light. The perimeter treatment knocks down the population and removes the webbing from soffits, eaves and window frames. Switching exterior bulbs to a yellow or warm-white type that attracts fewer insects, and moving the light away from the door, reduces the food supply and does more for next year than any spray.
The other summer crawlers
The same treatment handles the rest of the summer traffic at the foundation: sowbugs and pillbugs from under the patio stones, millipedes after a wet week, centipedes in a damp basement, box elder bugs and cluster flies gathering on the sunny side in September before they try to overwinter in the wall. Cluster flies in particular are a fall job on the sunny south and west walls, and the timing is late August or September before they go in, not in January when they show up at the window.
Moisture is the underlying problem
The technician will tell you what is holding water against the house, because otherwise the treatment is a yearly expense forever. Grading that slopes toward the foundation, a downspout without an extension, mulch piled against the siding, a window well with no cover and no drainage, a leaking outside tap. Some of that is an hour with a shovel. Some of it is grading or drainage work by another trade. You get the list either way.
Ontario's cosmetic pesticide rules
Ontario restricts the cosmetic use of pesticides on lawns and gardens, and a perimeter treatment is not a lawn treatment: it is a structural application to the building and the ground directly against it, using products permitted for that use and applied by a technician holding the applicable Ontario exterminator licence. The Ontario government's pesticides page explains what is and is not permitted. Products are applied at the label rate, you are told when the treated surfaces are dry and safe, and the treatment is kept away from vegetable gardens and water.
Frequently asked questions
When should I book a perimeter treatment?
Late May or June, before the earwigs and spiders are moving in numbers, with a second application in mid-summer on damp lots. A single treatment in August still helps but it is catching up. Cluster flies and box elder bugs are a separate fall application in late August or September, before they go into the walls.
Are earwigs dangerous or do they breed in the house?
Neither. Earwigs cannot bite through skin in any meaningful way, they do not breed indoors, and the ones in the house came in under a door or through a weep hole from the damp soil outside. The treatment and the door sweep stop them coming in; the garden will always have some.
Will the perimeter treatment hurt my garden or my dog?
It is applied to the foundation, the ground directly beside it and the building itself, not to the lawn or the vegetable garden, and it is kept away from water. Pets and children stay off the treated areas until they are dry, which the technician confirms before leaving. Tell us about ponds, bee hives or vegetable beds near the house before the visit.
Serving Kitchener and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.