Spider season is not an invasion. It is the few weeks each autumn when male house spiders leave their webs to find a mate, and their route happens to run through your living room. They are not arriving from the garden in numbers. Most were already in the building, out of sight, and are simply moving.
It runs roughly from early September to mid October in the UK, peaks in the evenings, and ends as suddenly as it starts.
Why you are seeing them now
They are looking for a mate
The ones crossing the carpet are almost always males. Females stay put in their webs, which is why you see spiders wandering rather than sitting.
It happens in the evening
Peak activity is after dusk, which is when people are sitting still and notice movement.
They were already inside
Lofts, cavities, garages and under floors. Autumn changes their behaviour, not their address.
Warmth is not the reason
House spiders are not coming in from the cold. They are a species that lives indoors year round.
The false widow question
Most autumn spider calls we take mention false widows, usually after a newspaper piece. It is worth separating the facts from the headline.
The noble false widow is established in the UK and is more common in the south. It can bite, and a bite can hurt, but serious reactions are rare and the species is not aggressive. Most spiders people identify as false widows turn out to be common house spiders.
If you want to know what you are actually looking at, our guide to identifying spider species in UK homes covers the ones you are likely to find and how to tell them apart.
What actually reduces them
Spraying skirting boards achieves very little against a spider that walks across it once. What works is making the building harder to live in and less attractive to the insects spiders eat.
Close the gaps
Gaps around pipework, air bricks, cracked mortar and worn door brushes are the routes in and between rooms.
Cut the food supply
Spiders follow flies and other insects. Reducing what they eat does more than treating the spiders themselves.
Fix the lighting
External lights draw insects to the door, and the spiders follow. Moving or shielding a light often changes what turns up.
Clear the harbourage
Cluttered lofts, garages and under-stair spaces give them somewhere undisturbed to sit out the year.
What our team sees every autumn
Leigh Fowler, Assistant General Manager at JG Pest Control and RSPH (BPCA) Level 2 qualified, was asked about the autumn increase by the Daily Express in September 2026. His answer is worth repeating here, because it is the part most people get wrong:
Spider sightings tend to increase in early autumn because many common house spiders become more active as they search for mates. It can feel as though they have suddenly appeared indoors, but in many cases they may already have been living unnoticed in and around the property.
On what actually helps, he gave two practical measures:
Regular vacuuming is one of the simplest preventative measures. Pay particular attention to corners, behind furniture, beneath beds, around window frames and other undisturbed areas where spiders and webs can build up.
It is also worth reducing clutter in garages, cupboards, lofts and storage areas. Cardboard boxes and items that are rarely moved provide ideal hiding places, so using sealed plastic storage containers can make these spaces less inviting.
That last point is the one worth acting on before the weather turns. Cardboard holds warmth and stays undisturbed for months, which is exactly what a spider is looking for. Swapping the boxes in a loft or garage for sealed plastic boxes removes the harbourage rather than treating the symptom.
When it is worth calling someone
It is not seasonal
Spiders through winter and spring usually mean a harbourage or an insect problem behind them, not the autumn cycle.
Commercial premises
Webbing across stock, signage or food areas is an audit and presentation problem rather than a nuisance.
You have been bitten
Reactions are rare, but if you are worried about a bite, speak to a pharmacist or GP first. We can identify what you have.
There are a lot of them
A genuine concentration in one area usually points at something feeding them nearby.
What we do
We survey the building rather than treating the room. That means finding where they are living, what they are eating and how they are moving between spaces, then dealing with the cause. Where treatment is appropriate we use it, and where proofing or an insect problem is the real answer we will tell you that instead.
Our full spider control page covers the treatment side. For a survey, get in touch or send us the details and a member of the team will come back to you.
Frequently asked questions
Roughly early September to mid October. It is not driven by cold weather: it is the mating season for common house spiders, when males leave their webs and wander in search of females, which is why you see them crossing floors and walls in the evening.
In most cases they have not just arrived. Common house spiders often live unnoticed in and around a property all year, and become visible in early autumn when the males become active and move around in search of a mate.
Vacuum regularly in corners, behind furniture, under beds and around window frames where webs build up. Reduce clutter in garages, cupboards, lofts and storage areas, and replace cardboard boxes with sealed plastic containers, which removes the hiding places rather than treating the symptom.
Usually not. A seasonal increase in common house spiders settles on its own once the mating season ends. It is worth a survey if numbers stay high outside autumn, if it is a commercial premises with a hygiene or reputational risk, or if the spiders are a sign of an insect problem feeding them.