Thin-legged wolf spiders are menacing-looking pests that can be found in homes in mountainous or boreal regions of the United States, from the Pacific Northwest to the North Woods. Here are three things you need to know about thin-legged wolf spiders.

How are thin-legged wolf spiders identified?

Both male and female spiders are quite large, according to Bug Guide. The males are between 6 and 7.1 millimeters in size, while the females range between 7.4 and 8.6 millimeters. It's important to note that spider size measurements only include the body size, not the legs.

Thin-legged wolf spiders have brown bodies with a brownish-red stripe down the center of their backs. Dark, narrow stripes can be seen on either side of the central stripe. They also have prominent pedipalps that you may mistake for large fangs. The pedipalps are actually antennae that the spider uses to sense and grab prey or mates.

Why do they infest homes?

Thin-legged wolf spiders are ground-dwelling spiders that prefer to live outdoors. They like to live on forest floors, beneath rotten logs, and underneath dead leaf litter. However, their hunt for food may bring them into your house. These spiders don't make webs, so they need to roam around looking for bugs to eat. If there are a lot of bugs in your house, they'll stay.

Females carry their eggs sacs on their bodies until the eggs hatch, and these eggs may then hatch inside your house. The average egg sac contains 48 eggs, according to the University of Michigan, and females will produce either one or two egg sacs. It's easy to see how an infestation can occur in this situation.

How can you control thin-legged wolf spiders?

Since these spiders are outdoor spiders, the best way to prevent an infestation is to make them unable to come into your house. To do this, you'll need to seal any openings in your home that the spiders could wander through in their quest for food. Since these spiders are ground-dwelling, pay extra attention to ground level openings like the gaps beneath doors.

To seal the gaps beneath doors, install door sweeps. Spiders can fit through a gap of 1/16 inch, so if you can see light coming underneath the door, assume that a spider could also get through. For extra protection, apply caulk to the bottom edge of the outside of your door. If thin-legged wolf spiders are still finding their way inside, have a pest control company like Godfather's Exterminating Inc spray pesticides around the entire perimeter of your house to repel them.

Thin-legged wolf spiders are outdoor spiders, but they can infest your home if you don't take steps to keep them outside.

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