August 17th, 2018 by Chris Chapman

The Best Spider Repellents for Homes, Gardens, and Businesses

Spiders have a bad reputation, and while spiders are quite placid creatures that are a million miles away from the ferocious killers some people picture them as, they’re still often unwanted house guests. Come the autumn, spiders like to move indoors to find warm and dry places to mate, meaning your house is odds-on to become a nursery for broody spiders! Spiders present a real hygiene risk as they leave droppings and track germs wherever they walk. They can also cause a security nightmare for business owners as a spider walking over a security sensor can trigger a burglar alarm, and they routinely ruin CCTV images by building webs over the camera lens. Spider repellents are a great way to solve all these problems in a natural and eco-friendly way, so if you’re an arachnophobe, read on for the best natural ways to get rid of spiders.

1. Tidy Your House

The easiest and cheapest form of spider repellent is to simply tidy your house! Removing clutter and cleaning up dirt will make it far less likely that you’ll see a horde of spiders. Spiders aren’t actually attracted to dirt, but a lot of the insects they prey on (such as flies) are. If you have less potential food sources around your house, then you’ll have fewer spiders! Spiders are naturally shy creatures that like to have places to hide, so removing clutter from your home means there are less potential hiding spaces for an eight-legged lodger.

2. Vacuum Up Spider Webs

Spiders are very cautious, and many species of spider won’t return to a web that’s been destroyed. This is a natural survival instinct – if their web gets destroyed, the area it’s built in probably isn’t safe, so the spider takes this as a sign to move somewhere else. Vacuuming up spider webs as soon as you find them is a good way to deter spiders as it lets them know they’re not welcome!

3. Mechanical Spider Repellent

Spider legs are covered in tiny hairs that help them cling to virtually any surface. This helps them climb walls and across ceilings, but it’s a trait that you can use against them with mechanical spider repellent! It’s a spray that reacts with these hairs to create an ultra-sticky surface that spiders get bogged down on. The spider will exhaust itself as if walking through treacle and will eventually simply give up and go away. As it’s designed to work with spider hairs, it doesn’t actually feel sticky at all to humans, meaning you can happily spray it around any surface in your home to create an invisible barrier that spiders can’t cross. As mechanical spider repellent works like an impenetrable barrier, it makes sense to spray it around possible entrances to your home. Use it the whole way around door frames, window frames, skirting boards, attic spaces – anywhere that spiders might crawl through. If you have CCTV or burglar alarms, spraying a protective ring of mechanical spider repellent around them will keep them free of spiders, meaning you won’t have any bogus burglar alarms going off in the middle of the night!

4. Use Peppermint Oil

It’s been used as an old folk spider repellent for years, but does peppermint oil really keep spiders away? You might be surprised to learn that it does! Nobody knows exactly why spiders hate peppermint so much, but many theorise that it has something to do with the strong scent it gives off. Spraying diluted peppermint oil around any entrances to your home will deter spiders as long as they can smell the oil. Another good approach is to dip some cotton wool in peppermint oil and stuff it into your door and window frames. This should keep spiders out of any room where the oil is present!

5. Use Spider Repellent Spray

If peppermint oil isn’t doing the trick, using some all-natural spider repellent might be called for. Xterminate’s spider repellent is probably the best spider deterrent we’ve found as it’s made from a mixture of natural compounds and fragrances that spiders hate. The spider repelling effect tends to last much longer than peppermint oil – up to 6 months in some cases! This means one spray of spider repellent will see you through the spider season (when spiders move indoors to mate) that lasts from autumn and through winter. Again, you want to mainly spray the spider repellent all the way around entrances to your home and it’ll deter them from entering. Don’t forget your loft space which spiders love as attics tend to be quiet and warm.

What Not to Do When Getting Rid of Spiders

Don’t squash them. Spiders are an important part of the ecosystem and will keep flies and other pests out of your house. While spiders in the home or in your business are a hygiene risk, splattering them all over the room is even more of a hygiene risk, so just pick them up in a tissue or a cup and take them outside. Let them live outside where they pose no hygiene risk and let them do their thing! You might also have heard about the supposed effects of conkers on spiders. Conkers are an age-old folk remedy for spiders and some people swear by them, but no scientific tests have ever managed to prove that they actually work. The theory is that conkers contain a natural chemical that deters spiders, but this has never been proven.