September 11th, 2020 by Sarah Miles

Autumn is many people’s favourite season but there is an element of autumn that nobody looks forward to and that is spider season. Although spiders generally don’t bite here in the UK, and they don’t spread disease in the same way that flies do, most would prefer not to have them in their homes, and many are terrified of them. Spider season is therefore not for the faint-hearted!

What is spider season?

Spider season is the term commonly used for the time of year, usually around early autumn, when spiders move indoors en masse to mate. Male spiders have been feasting on insects all summer and become sexually mature at this time of year. This means that they’re heading into our homes in search of female spiders to mate with where it’s warm and dry. If the thought of large numbers of spiders in your house having a love fest doesn’t fill you with enough dread, just think of the baby spiders that this will ultimately create!

How can you prepare for spider season?

Whether you’re a fully certified arachnophobe or just don’t fancy the idea of a house full of spiders, don’t worry – there are things you can do to reduce the spider population and, best of all, no spiders have to die! Even if you hate the critters, there is no denying they do good work keeping flying insect numbers at bay. That’s why your best strategy is to make your home as unappealing as it can be.

Here's how to do that:

Make your home smell bad – to spiders!

One of the most powerful repelling strategies you have with spiders is to use their sensitivity to scent against them. Spiders have hundreds of tiny hairs on their legs (hence them facing the accusation of ‘big and hairy’) which they primarily use to climb walls, but it’s also believed that the hairs help them to smell and taste as well. Strong scents can therefore easily overwhelm them.

The scents that they are known to particularly dislike are tea tree, lavender, citrus, and peppermint so these can be used around the house. Home fragrances and essential oil burners can be very effective but if you’re not sure whether you’ll enjoy your house smelling like a hospital ward or mouthwash, you could try a spider repellent spray that is pretty stinky to spiders but is barely detectable to humans. Xterminate’s Spider Repellent Spray contains a high volume of peppermint oil but is pleasantly scented and non-toxic to humans and pets and won’t stain. It will also keep working for up to 3 months.

Exterminate cobwebs

The most common evidence that you have spiders in the home is the presence of cobwebs. They look unsightly and obviously they harbour dead flies and insects so they’re undesirable in every regard. However, while dusting them away or vacuuming them up will get rid of the web, it won’t necessarily stop the spider spinning a new one.

If you want to up your cobweb game, then you need to both eradicate the web as well as deter the spider from creating a new one. Cobweb remover spray offers a triple whammy of web destruction: it disintegrates the cobweb, hygienically breaks down flies and spider droppings and leaves a barrier that deters spiders from returning. This can be particularly helpful for high areas that are difficult to reach such as ceilings and around CCTV cameras (where webs across the cameras can render footage useless).

Insect Clean Web Free Spiders Web Remover 500ml

Price: £13.99

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Ground them

As we’ve already established, spiders’ legs are covered in tiny hairs that enable them to defy gravity and climb walls and ceilings. They like to build their webs and nests for mating in dark, hard to reach areas such as in high corners so one way of making their lives difficult is to inhibit their ability to climb. That doesn’t mean smearing your walls with Vaseline (a common strategy for CCTV cameras, although this can smear the lenses which means it’s not a good idea); the best way to do this is to cover the surface of walls with mechanical spider repellent. This makes it really hard work for spiders to scale it – it’ll be as if they were wading through treacle. such as the Spider Free Spray from HSD.

500ml Spider Free Insect Repellent Spray

Price: £14.99

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It’s invisible to the human eye, won’t damage surfaces, and doesn’t leave any sticky residue behind. So how does it work? Well, it creates an uneven layer of bumps and holes, which means those hairs that spiders use to grip onto surfaces have too much purchase when they try to climb. The bumps and holes means each spider hair is gripping in a slightly different direction, which slows them down dramatically. Before too long, the spider will be so exhausted that it’ll give up and look elsewhere for a place to set up a web.

All these strategies can be used to deter spiders, meaning you don’t have to deal with spider season, without actually harming them: good news for you, better for your karma and bad news for flies!