Spiders in the New Bern Area
Craven County's mild winters and abundant insect life support diverse spider populations. The vast majority are beneficial predators — wolf spiders, garden orbweavers, and cellar spiders that eat more mosquitoes and gnats than any spray could. But both the brown recluse and southern black widow are present in New Bern, and encounters happen in homes with undisturbed storage areas.
- Brown Recluse — Medium brown, violin-shaped marking behind eyes, six eyes in three pairs. Found in cardboard boxes, closets, behind picture frames, inside shoes. Bites cause necrotic tissue damage requiring medical treatment.
- Southern Black Widow — Glossy black with red hourglass marking. Found in crawl spaces, garage corners, meter boxes, wood piles. Bites cause severe cramping and systemic symptoms.
- Joro Spiders — The large invasive orbweaver from Asia, now spreading through the Carolinas. Their massive golden webs span between trees and structures. Alarming but harmless to humans.
Reducing Spider Activity
Spider control is a two-part job: eliminate the insect prey base that attracts them, and treat the entry points and harborage zones where they shelter. We remove webs and egg sacs (each can contain 100-400 developing spiderlings), apply residual treatments to web-building sites, and use sticky traps to monitor recluse populations in concerned homes.