Question
I live in Preston Idaho and seem to be the new living space for
hobo spiders. How can I control the spiders and keep them away
from my home and garden? They have infested my strawberry
patch and now I am too afraid to pick them. My other problem
are centipedes. When I finaly get a stawberry that is not near a
spider it ends up that the centipeds have make a meal out of it.
It lookes like they are laying their eggs in the strawberry. Once I
found a very nice large starwberry washed it off and took of the
stem to find that about 30 little baby centipedes started crawling
out of it. It was a good thing I did not just take a bite.

Answer
Diane, most crawling insects such as spiders and centipedes can be controlled with powdered insecticides such as diazinon or an organic control called BT.  BT is short for bacillicus thuringiensis, more commonly sold under the brand names Dipel or MVP. The advantage to BT over diazinon is that it is non-toxic to humans and pets.  Any of these products can be purchased locally at a reputable garden center or online through sites such as Gardens Alive or Planet Natural.

I hope this information helps.  Please write again if I can ever be of assistance.

Regards,

Mike