Learn how to control spiders with these tips from the City of Goleta Environmental Services Division.

Only A Few Spiders Are Dangerous!
Spiders are helpful creatures, and very few of them bite! Because they eat large quantities of insects, you should probably tolerate them around home and garden if you can. There are more than 3,000 species of spiders in the U.S., but few are dangerous or even have mouthparts strong enough to pierce human skin. If you think you have a spider bite, it’s more likely a bite from a flea, tick, mosquito, or mite—or a skin condition.

What Can I Do?
Harmless or not, the presence of spiders or their webs in the house is upsetting to many people. Unfortunately, spider webs are often associated with poor housekeeping, under the mistaken assumption that a “clean” house harbors no insects or spiders at all. On the contrary, spiders can be an asset to the conscientious housekeeper since they capture and consume many pest insects before the human residents ever see the pests.

Keeping Spiders Away From Your Home

Inside Your Home
If you’re not comfortable having a few spiders indoors to assist with pest management, it’s better to move them outside rather than killing them.

• Catch the spiders you find in a container, cover with a piece of paper, and release outside.
• Get rid of messy spider webs by periodically vacuuming with a crevice tool. If some spiders escape, know that they’ll continue to eat bugs in your house.
• Reduce spiders’ food supply. What are those spiders eating? If they’re going after fruit flies, try storing ripening fruit in paper bags that are folded over twice and sealed with a large clip.
• Keep spiders out of the house. Caulk cracks and crevices. Install doorsweeps under doors and screens on windows.

Outside Your Home
Don’t spray your garden or around the outside of your house to kill spiders. Sprays generally don’t last long and will not affect spiders unless there’s direct contact. Outdoors, spiders provide a very useful pest control service. Leave them to do their job!

• Use a cobweb brush to remove spiders and webs from the side of your house and under eaves. You’ll find these brushes at hardware stores and garden centers. Look for brushes that have telescoping handles and soft, microfiber bristles.
• Consider replacing your porch light with a yellow bulb. The yellow light will attract fewer insects, so the spiders that feast on them will also stay away from your door.

Find more information on controlling spiders with eco-friendly products in our OWOW brochures in English and Spanish. 

The City of Goleta along with the Cities of Buellton, Carpinteria, Solvang, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and the County of Santa Barbara have partnered with the OWOW organization to promote the use of less-toxic products in an effort to reduce pesticide pollution in our communities. By reducing pesticide use and the use of less-toxic products around the home, you can help reduce pesticides and other pollutants such as herbicides and fertilizers from being picked up while watering or when it rains and transported to the nearest storm drain inlet and into our waterways. The OWOW website is user-friendly and a great resource for finding less-toxic products to use around your home or garden.

Drop off recyclables, used paint, oil, batteries and more for free or CRV

Do you know about Marborg’s Goleta Recycling Center? It’s a great facility and service that provides an easy and eco-friendly way to recycle some of your household hazardous waste, such as asbestos, batteries, oil and paint (ABOP), in addition to other recyclables. And it’s FREE! Disposing of or recycling waste correctly keeps our community and watersheds clean and reduces the environmental impact of waste by recycling.

Household Hazardous Waste (ABOP)

Household hazardous waste items that can be brought to the Goleta Recycling Center include:

• Antifreeze
• Batteries
• Oil (petroleum-based: motor oil, hydraulic oil, etc.)
• Paint (both oil and water-based)
• Fluorescent light bulbs
• Electronic waste (E-waste): computers, monitors, radios, cell phones etc… anything with an electrical cord.

Be reminded, these are considered household hazardous waste and should NOT be put in your general trash disposal. Recycle them the safe way for free!

CRV

The Goleta Recycling Center also offers the CRV (California Refund Value) that pays you when you recycle beverage containers. The minimum refund value established for each type of eligible beverage container is 5 cents for each container under 24 ounces and 10 cents for each container 24 ounces or more significant. CRV items include plastic beverage containers marked with CRV (all caps must be removed), aluminum bi-metal, and glass. Not only is this program eco-friendly, but it also pays you back to recycle.

Hours and Other Recycling

The Goleta Recycling Center is open 8 am to 4 pm, Monday – Friday, but they also offer a 24-hour free drop-off of the following items: Aluminum Cans, Glass (no plate or window), Newspaper, Cardboard, Magazines, Office paper, scrap metals, tin cans, plastic bottles that held a liquid, but the cap must be removed. The 24-hour drop-off is a free disposal program available to all Goleta Residents.

The Goleta Recycling Center is a fantastic service facility for all residents to use. Be sure to use these free programs and dispose of your waste in the most effective way possible. If you have hazardous waste other than ABOP, you can take that to the Community Household Hazardous Waste Center. 

The Goleta Recycling Center is located at 20 David Love Place, Goleta. For more information call (805)963-1852.

The City of Goleta Environmental Services Division would like to share some tips to help protect our watersheds during the rainy season. As winter approaches, let’s stop water pollution and keep our storm drains and creeks clean! Winter rains produce stormwater runoff which is rain that does not soak into the ground and flows over land and other surfaces. Stormwater runoff can carry trash and pollutants into storm drains, which flow directly to creeks, rivers, and the ocean without any treatment. The trash and chemicals in the runoff pose a threat to wildlife and water quality.

Remember “only rain down the drain.”

If you observe stormwater concerns such illegal dumping, or any discharges of non-stormwater (any fluid that’s not rain) entering the storm drain within the City of Goleta, report water pollution to environmentalservices@cityofgoleta.org. Hazardous Materials Spills should be reported to 911 immediately.

Here are some great ways to keep storm drains clear of trash and pollutants:

• Keep garbage and recycling cans tightly covered to prevent litter from being blown away during storms.
• Take your car to a commercial car wash prior to the first rains.
• Do not drain or pour any automotive fluid onto the street or into a storm drain.
• Sweep dirt out of curbs and into landscaping to prevent it from entering storm drains.
• Adjust your sprinklers to prevent over-watering and prevent water from draining onto paved surfaces such as driveways and sidewalks.
• Do not apply pesticides or fertilizers before a rain event or within:
• 5 feet of pavement
• 25 feet of a storm drain
• 50 feet of a water body
• Compost leaves and yard clippings.
• Always pick up after your pet.

Photo credit top right photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto