Keep Spiders Out of Your Hair for Good
Spiders have a scary reputation they don’t really deserve, but that still doesn’t mean you want them all over your house. While it’s not a good idea to kill spiders – they’ll protect you from other, more dangerous pests and squashing them is a hygiene risk – they can still cause problems around the home. They track dirt and bacteria everywhere and will be really off-putting to anyone who might be afraid of them. Spiders are so common that they’re tricky to completely get rid of, but these 5 tips will definitely help.
Clean Up
Tidy your house from top to bottom and try and clear out your food waste regularly. Spiders aren’t attracted to dirt themselves, but the things they feed on are! If you have flies in your kitchen, a hungry spider won’t be too far behind, so try to keep things clean. It’s worth moving your bins as far away as you can, too.
You should also try and de-clutter your home as much as you can. Spiders like sheltered spots where they can build a web in peace, meaning old boxes, piles of books, and general clutter give them the perfect hiding spots! You should be extra-tidy in the build-up to spider season, which happens around the beginning of autumn every year. This is when spiders move indoors to mate, which is why you’ll start seeing lots more of them around this time of year.
Seal Any Cracks
If you’ve got a few cracks in your skirting boards that you’ve been putting off sealing up all year, you’ll want to get them fixed in time for spider season. Spiders can sneak through the tiniest cracks and will often use gaps in walls to hide during the day before venturing out into rooms in the evening. While it’s impossible to completely seal your home, you should still try to fix up any obvious holes in your roof, walls, or skirting.
Use Peppermint
Peppermint is a natural spider repellent. Nobody is exactly sure why this is, but many people believe it’s because spiders have sensitive taste and smell receptors all over their body, and peppermint simply overwhelms them. It could also be that peppermint is toxic to spiders, which is why they avoid anything that smells like it. Whatever the reason is, spiders won’t go near an area that smells of peppermint, so use this to your advantage! You can use peppermint plants or peppermint oil to deter them. If you want to keep them away for longer, you can use a high-peppermint spider repellent spray. A good-quality spray will stay active for months after a single application, so it’s well worth the money for arachnophobes!
Some claim that chestnuts also act as a natural spider repellent. There isn’t much evidence to support this although some people will swear it works for them. If you find it works, go for it!
Tidy Up Cobwebs
If you find an empty cobweb, dust it away as quickly as you can. Spiders are really cautious creatures and will look for somewhere else to live if their webs are destroyed. That means tidying up their webs is one of the most effective ways to get rid of spiders!
Use a Mechanical Spider Repellent
Mechanical spider repellent works a little differently to the regular kind. It uses spiders’ wall-climbing ability against them by creating an invisible barrier that they can’t cross. When it dries, this spray creates millions of microscopic lumps and bumps. These tiny divots are so small we can’t see or feel them, but they make spiders move like they’re walking through treacle. Why? Well, spiders climb walls using thousands of tiny leg hairs which grip onto the smallest imperfections on a wall (this is why they can’t climb perfectly smooth surfaces like a bath). They’re basically covered in tiny climbing hooks. When there are too many bumps on a surface, a spider’s leg hairs have too many things to grip onto and they get pulled in all directions, so moving is almost impossible for them.
After a few minutes of being stuck on some mechanical spider repellent spray, the spiders will simply give up and move elsewhere. Spray it around door and window frames, airflow bricks, and any other possible entrances to your home. You should also spray some around your CCTV cameras or motion-sensitive burglar alarms if you have them. This will mean spiders won’t interfere with your security system!
