Tips and tricks to keep spiders out of your home this autumn

It’s happening again.

As summer draws to an end with colder and shorter evenings and much more rain – spider season is here.

We want to be outside less, and so do they. So they up sticks from their outdoor homes and head into ours.

There are probably people reading this for whom this news is no concern; there’s plenty of space, and spiders can provide interesting artwork with their complicated web creations.

Fair enough! However, for the rest of us, this time of year can inspire a desire to move country (not to Australia, where this problem prevails all year round), burn the house down, or maybe just close the windows.

Closing all of the windows tight is a reasonable choice in these key months between mid-August and early October, when our eight-legged neighbours seek to move home and hopefully breed.

Is it a good option though? Shutting out the breezy evenings, the sounds of summer drawing to a close, and the smell of rain?

With your comfort and enjoyment of autumn in mind, we’ve scoured the web and asked around for the best tips and tricks to keep spiders out of your home.

Ways to stop spiders coming into your house

Conkers: Starting right off the bat here with a trick we all know, but does it work? Apparently not, it seems the idea is that conkers give off a noxious chemical that spiders avoid, but there is little in the way of scientific evidence. We’ll be carrying on this one though, especially as conkers are plentiful and free.

Clean and clutter-free: This isn’t an easy one, it is a general lifestyle change if you like having a home which isn’t just an empty space. Spiders like warm and undisturbed spaces, like behind furniture. We like furniture too though, so the other part of this is regular cleaning, vacuum behind furniture, in corners and ceilings, and keep the webs away.

Strong smells: Specifically citrus, cinnamon, garlic, peppermint oil and vinegar. These seem to come up frequently as smells to keep away spiders. You can place cinnamon sticks at windows or make a lemon water spray and spritz that around. Peppermint oil similarly can be mixed with water to make a spray, and dotting garlic around will help twofold – spiders AND vampires kept away.

Get a cat: OK, this one is a lifestyle change, but cats (for the most part) are great hunters and have been kept in homes and workplaces to keep pests at bay. Also, they’re great pets, independent and smart, but loving and sometimes even cuddly.

Get planting: Along the trend of smells to keep away spiders, you can get to work outside of your home as well as inside. The suggestion is to plant a mint, lavender, or lemon balm outside to deter the devils. Or a eucalyptus tree perhaps, which also means you have your own fresh eucalyptus to add to flower arrangements or hang in the shower.

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