How to get rid of spiders from your home.
5 – Top tips to make your home spider free!
Trying to get rid of spiders from your home can be a daunting task, but with a few simple remedies, tips and tactics, your days of living in fear of the eight legged beast lurking in the shadows will be a thing of the past.
For many years my wife’s fear of spiders was unreasonable and bordering on manic.
On seeing a spider in the home she’d become hysterical, sweating, palpitating, even screaming with fear on occasions.
This creature often measuring only a few millimetres scuttling across the floor, or sat still on a wall would become the largest thing in the room, and getting rid of it would be the total focus. (Usually my total focus).
She’s been known to run over to the neighbour’s house in my dressing gown and slippers when I’ve been out, literally begging for somebody to catch and remove the spider. Once, even asking our 84 year old neighbour to tackle the beast.
The elderly neighbour simply walked in, dropped a damp cloth on its head to stop it running off, and scooped it up to release outside.
Thankfully these days, and after much research and trial and error into the best ways to maintain a spider free home she’s more in control and leads a much calmer life, but if this scenario sounds like you, and you simply don’t want to share your house with these 8 legged monsters, then here’s 5-Top Tips to rid your home of spiders and lead an arachnid free existence.
5 Top Tips to Get Rid of Spiders.
1) Keep Them Outdoors.
Most spiders prefer to be outdoors. However, they may come inside if the weather turns particularly wet, cold, or your house attracts a lot of insects that offer a good food source for arachnid’s.
Spiders like to hide and make their homes in dark quiet spaces such as wood stores, piles of leaves, underneath dustbins, underneath plant pots, mats, fuel stores etc.
Where possible, keep these spider sanctuaries away from the house, and certainly not piled up against the brickwork where it’s only a hop and a skip into a nice warm home.
2) Stop Them Entering The House.
Seal up any cracks in the brickwork or damaged mortar. Spiders can go completely flat and squeeze into the narrowest gap where it feels safe.
Again, seal any windows or frames that may have gaps, and fit insect screens to any wall or brick vents. The same applies to any pipes that lead to the outside including waste pipes underneath the kitchen sink, bath or basin.
Gas pipes often come through the brickwork into a cellar. If the gaps are large, consider an expanding foam filler.
If your front or rear door has a gap underneath, fit a brush strip. Not only will it keep the arachnids at bay, it’ll stop the wind whistling around your toes.
Loose fitting opening windows should have a soft draught strip fitted for the same reasons, as should letterboxes or any other opening.
Try to deter insects coming into your house attracted by bright lights and open windows. Although the insects may not bother you, they are an attractive food source for the spiders.
3) Keep a Tidy Home.
Once you’ve prevented them from entering the home, then keeping your house tidy will discourage any existing spiders from staying…
Clean homes give spiders fewer places where they can hide and breed, making them less likely to stay even if they do manage to get past your defence.
Do not leave leftover food lying around, as crumbs or other delicacies will attract different pests like ants, which, in turn, will attract spiders.
Take the recycling out frequently. Left over food, including pet food attracts flies, and flies attract spiders.
Fruit bowls are a great attraction for those tiny annoying little fruit flies, especially if the fruit is turning soft and ripe. While the flies might be only mildly irritating to us, spiders absolutely adore them. If you do keep fruit out in the open, make sure you consume it before it starts turning soft and rotate it regularly in the bowl.
Regularly sweeping, vacuuming of floors and dusting corners, shelves, bookcases and ornaments etc, along with wiping down worktops and counters, plus not allowing dirty dishes to pile up will keep disturbing any area a spider or insect might consider.
Keep on top of it…
Pick up as much clutter as possible. Old newspapers and magazines make the ideal hiding place for dark loving spiders.
Curtains or drapes that fold onto the floor make welcome resting places. Either change your curtains to shorter ones or shake them down when vacuuming.
The same applies to bedding that drape onto the floor.
Pick up discarded clothing, towels or laundry piles. Spiders love the soft warm and quiet conditions. Give them no place to hide out.
Consider using plastic storage containers for books, seasonal clothes or items such as Christmas decorations which only come out annually. Airtight plastic containers are difficult for spiders to crawl into, but cardboard boxes are easy game and are dry and warm.
4) Mechanical Methods & Tools
Use the vacuum on spiders and webs.
One of the simplest methods for getting rid of spiders is vacuuming up egg sacs and webs as soon as you spot them.
Generally, if you spot a spider in your home, the likely chances are that it’s laid some eggs in a dark place or corner, so be on the lookout with your vacuum cleaner hose.
Other methods include glue traps.
Glue traps are pieces of sticky cardboard placed on the floor where you know spiders have been seen. They can be very effective at ridding your property of small infestations of floor bound spiders and spiderlings.
Remove once you’ve caught a few spiders and keep replacing until no more are captured. However, ensure you keep glue traps away from contact with house pets or children.
Web-building spiders that spend most of their time along the ceiling are not likely to fall victim to the glue trap, but they are very effective against ground-dwelling spiders like jumping spiders and house spiders.
Using glue traps in conjunction with your vacuum cleaner is a very effective method of fighting back and taking control of your living space.
5) Make Life Uncomfortable.
Once you have rid your home of spiders, removed their favourite haunts and generally made life uncomfortable for them (they are after all quite shy and sensitive), then the aim is to keep them away.
There are numerous repellent sprays and sonic devices on the market that do this quite effectively.
Spiders are very sensitive to certain smells and substances. In particular horse chestnuts, walnuts and peppermint oil.
Split open walnuts and horse chestnuts to release the odour and place in corners of a room or where spiders have been seen.
Mix peppermint oil in a diffusion of water and spray the area frequently. Also, spray around entrances such as door thresholds and window ledges.
Alternately, use a diffuser to gently fragrance the room for hours.
We like this one with several coloured light options and whisper silent.
GET THE BEST PRICE AND FASTEST DELIVERY FROM AMAZON
Disturb their peace and quiet.
Spiders are also extremely sensitive to certain frequencies. They pick up on vibration rather than sound. So while shrieking like a banshee at the sight of a spider might split your family’s ear drums and have them running around like a bunch of crazies, the sound does very little to intimidate the spider. It’s the vibrational frequency that sends shivers running up and down his eight little legs.
Therefore, save your family members from a lifetime of hearing damage, and fight back with technology.
A simple plug in device will emit a certain frequency and produce a vibration within a room that makes the spider very uncomfortable. Eventually the discomfort gets on the spider’s nerves so much that he packs his bags and ships out.
Generally, one plug in would do one room as the frequency doesn’t transmit through a wall. However, there are Whole House Units that plug into one electrical outlet and transmits the frequency throughout the entire electrical circuit.
This enables the vibrational frequency to transmit within walls and under floors where cables are routed and spiders hide out without being disturbed. This method goes deep into the fabric of the house and drives spiders out by generally annoying them with a constant bombardment of vibration 24/7.
It’s a bit like living next door to somebody who plays music all the time that has a constant deep bass thud. Not pleasant.
We like this model with variable frequency power and timing. Deters all types of insects and rodents but won’t affect cats, dogs or children.
GET THE BEST PRICE AND FASTEST DELIVERY FROM AMAZON
To Kill, or Not to Kill?
If you are feared of spiders, generally the first reaction is to eliminate them whatever the method. However, spiders are very beneficial to humans, as without them we would be overrun by more annoying insects and pests that spiders feed on.
Rather than killing spiders, it would be better and kinder to transport them outside if possible, or drive them elsewhere humanely by vibration, using scents, or keeping your home less inviting.
By deterring spiders from entering your house in the first place, and making it difficult for them to stay, then maybe, just maybe you can learn to live in harmony with your spider friends and view them as a thing of beauty where they belong, OUTSIDE!
2 thoughts on “Get Rid of Spiders from Your Home”