Spiders that might injure people, such as black widows, usually like to hide in dark, dry, sheltered places and are not out in the open during the day. Pesticide control of spiders is generally not recommended. The best and safest approach for control of spiders outdoors is to clean the webs off the house manually with brushes, hoses or vacuums. You might want to seal any cracks or crevices to prevent hiding places or entry into the house. Keep the area next to the house free of trash, leaf litter, heavy vegetation or other materials and trim plant growth away from the house.
Spiders also have natural enemies such as wasps, birds and reptiles.
Q. Last summer, some of the branches on our magnolia tree became bare and lots of leaves began falling and continued to fall. It's a giant tree and we don't want to lose it. We've seen other magnolias with the same problem. A. Magnolia grandiflora trees are often infected by scale, says UC master gardener Bill Pierce. California red scale, greedy scale or oleander scale look like shiny little bumps on the branches and cause dead and dying twigs and branches as you describe.