I personally hate all insects (they don't pay rent - get the heck out of my space) and now I leave my walls exposed, nothing blocks mine especially the closets, just so I can carefully examine the walls, edges/trims, hallways and the like and efficiently eliminate all insects STAT! I find the result is a more clean and less cluttered home, it feels much more spacious with less stuff too. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.
I definitely feel that! My master bath requires walking through the closet, and every time I go through there I scrutinize everything.
But I don't mean those monsters, I mean the house centipede. Creepy, crawly, but only slightly bitey but VERY quick.
Those monsters were in my house, and are centipedes. It qualifies as a house centipede. >_>
It also moved quite fast. The vent was on the side wall because the room had vaulted ceilings; I saw a shadow moving across the wall in the glow of the TV. I got up and turned the light on, and by the time my eyes adjusted (~1 second) it had streaked across to the other side of the wall and down to the floor. Apparently their speed is measured in feet per second, not inches. >_<
Could you get a friend/family member who is less of an arachnophobe to help? Or even hire someone? Maybe even an exterminator? They (with your assistance at a safe distance) could go through everything box by box and shake it all out to make sure there aren't any spiders in your clothes/books/etc. And stomp some while they go. Then once you clear out some of the stuff you'll have more room for traps and more places to put the diatomaceous earth.
I would be afraid of a serious bite, too, but if you're mostly seeing daddy long legs and such they're likely mostly harmless. If you see a brown recluse or a black widow or anything then I'd definitely abandon ship.
That's actually what I may be doing. I have some family coming to visit this weekend anyway. And when they learned I hadn't gotten around to moving my furniture in, they've
grudgingly graciously offered to assist.
After digging around online, the "beefy daddy longlegs" appear to be some type of barn spider by it's shape. I don't know it's colorings, as I only noticed it hiding two feet in front of my face after puffing it with DE and turning it white. There were also several smaller spiders, which I'm hoping are smaller spiders and not baby spiders. I didn't see any brown recluses or black widows, but then, I haven't actually been in the storage, only opened it (and saw several right in the front).