Fall is here, and along with the changing leaves, the heartwarming soups and the cool crisp air, comes the unwelcome eight-legged critters.
Well, finding spiders in your home can be unsettling, but these creepy crawlies always seem to find their way into the house. Though they are harmless, and always avoid contact with humans, it doesn’t mean you should share your home with them. Here are tips we recommend to keep spiders at bay.
Tips to prevent spider infestation in your home
Clean up
Start by decluttering your home. Decluttering will reduce the hiding places used by these arachnids.
Next, make sure to clean and vacuum your home regularly.
The most effective way to kick out these little crawlies out of your home is by cleaning your house from top to bottom.
Spiders tend to lurk in corners and dark spaces with leftover food or general debris. From there they will wait to munch on any insect that gets close to the food remains.
Dusting can effectively remove food remains, webs and egg sacs making your home less attractive to spiders.
Then, move the bins away. Spiders love flies and will tend to hang around areas with flies such as bins and trash cans. You can wheel your bins away from your house and keep them closed to avoid having flies around.
Use peppermint oils and vinegar sprays
While some insects may enjoy the smell of Peppermint, eucalyptus, or vinegar, spiders don’t. So it’s easy to keep the arachnids away is by diluting some mint, eucalyptus or vinegar in water and spraying it around your home. You can spray your windows and doors or any other entry the arachnids use to get into your home.
Buying a ready-made diffuser or any other scented product is also an effective way to counter spiders in your home.
Get a pet
A cat can make a great choice when looking for a pet to help you ward off spiders in your home. Cats love to play around and catching anything they see crawling or sprinting across your house. They will, therefore, chase and fight off any spiders and other moving bugs before you even notice them.
While they won’t help you eliminate your spider problem completely, they can help you keep the population down.
However, it is important to take caution if the spiders are poisonous. A good example of this is the false widow. The false widow spider has more venom than other spider species and can be deadly if it bites your cat.
Lemons and oranges
Your recently adopted feline friend might not like this too, but oranges, limes, and grapefruits smell can work perfectly to keep spiders away. You only need to save the peels whenever you enjoy the fruit and place them along window sills, under the sink, skirting boards and at your back door.
It is important that you replace the peels as they dry out in order to keep them effective in producing the scent.
Entice ladybirds
Ladybirds have a great appetite for bugs. These little creatures can eat up to 50 bugs in a day!
When enticed in your house they can help you to get rid of spiders easily.
To attract ladybirds, plant fennel, marigold or dill or any other ladybird-attracting plant around your house. This will help you to naturally keep the critters at bay.
Limit lighting
Like many other bugs, spiders are attracted to light.
Limiting or turning off lights when leaving your house can help you curb your spider and bug infestation. It will also save electricity too.
Final word,
Squemishingly grabbing these invertebrates and throwing them out of the window might not help in your fight against the spiders. But a little effort coupled with the tips above can help you keep them from sneaking into your house and in turn keeping your spider infestation low this fall.