Most spiders prefer to live outdoors, but you often encounter them indoors when they are looking for food or shelter. Getting rid of these bugs is easier if you keep them out of the house, but by the time they're inside, there are a variety of proven and unsubstantiated remedies you could use to keep them away. Here are some common remedies.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Keeping the Spiders Away
Step 1. Seal your home
Cover passages and holes leading to the outside to prevent spiders from getting into the house.
- Use putty to fill openings in closed windows and doors. Also use putty around wires, cables, taps, and electrical wires, as they will all have to reach outside.
- Replace or repair torn mosquito nets. Spiders can enter the house through even the smallest openings.
- Cover the vents and chimneys with tightly woven mosquito nets.
Step 2. Keep the exterior lights off
While the lights won't attract spiders, they may attract other insects they eat.
- Similarly prevent interior lights from coming outside by using curtains or blinds.
- Consider installing yellow sodium vapor lights. They will attract less insects than spiders might eat.
Step 3. Clear the greenery from the perimeter of your home
If you have a serious spider problem, transplant bushes, trees, ivy, and other plants away from the walls of your home.
- The vegetation attracts spiders because it offers an excellent hiding place. When spiders seek warmth or new food sources, they will come into the house from vegetation.
- You should also remove moss, stones, leaves and other debris from near your home.
Step 4. Keep the house tidy
Tidy houses will offer fewer hiding places for spiders, reducing the likelihood of them stopping if they manage to get inside.
- Don't leave leftovers lying around. The crumbs will attract insects such as ants, which in turn will attract spiders.
- Sweep and vacuum floors regularly. Scrub tables and counter surfaces, and avoid leaving dirty dishes to clean for more than a few hours.
- Remove as much junk as possible. Old newspapers and piles of dirty clothes are ideal hiding places for dark-seeking spiders.
- Use plastic containers. Spiders will hardly be able to get into sealed plastic containers, while they will be able to do so easily in cardboard boxes.
Part 2 of 3: Proven Remedies for Fighting Insects
Step 1. Vacuum spiders and cobwebs
One of the simplest methods is to use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of adult spiders, eggs, and cobwebs.
- This method works well if you are dealing with a few spiders. It may not be very effective if you have a large population of spiders in your home.
- You can also use a broom to sweep the cobwebs.
- Rather than killing them, you should find a way to carry them out. Spiders are beneficial insects to humans, and once you understand their beneficial function, you will realize that their existence is indeed essential.
- Spiders that build webs and spend most of their time on the ceiling probably won't fall prey to your traps, but they are very effective against ground-dwelling spiders, such as jumping spiders and house spiders.
- Lay out the trap flat so it doesn't roll up on itself.
- Eliminate the trap as soon as you have caught a few spiders.
- Note that this method will not help you fight eggs and cobwebs, so you will need to use this method in combination with others.
Step 2. Use a residual insecticide
Spray all corners and crevices with a commercial pesticide that contains some form of pyrethroids.
- Follow the label instructions carefully to avoid poisoning.
- Remember that only two species out of thousands (in North America) can be significantly dangerous (the black widow and the violin spider). Others can only bite when threatened and their bite is neither poisonous nor too painful.
- Having spiders in the house is the best kind of "infestation" one can hope for; they kill other parasites that are actually harmful to humans or capable of spreading disease. However, if your home is full of spiders, this is an important sign to look out for - you may have the house infested with other insects. Spiders would not enter if there was not so much food to find.
- Pyrethroids are chemicals made, in large part, by plants of the Asteraceae family. Chrysanthemum is part of this family. Most household insecticides contain pyrethroids, including bifentrin, cyfluthrin, permethrin, and tetramethrin.
- Mist insecticides are generally not effective against spiders.
- Understand the limitations of long-acting insecticides. These poisons will only work if the spiders come in contact with the chemical after it has been sprayed. If a spider manages to avoid the spray, the insecticide will have no effect on it.
Step 3. Hire a professional exterminator
If you are the victim of a large spider infestation and the measures you can take cannot solve the problem, a professional may resort to using a more powerful chemical pesticide.
- Remember that some professional pesticides are powerful enough to force you to leave your home for several days before it becomes habitable again.
- In general, the best options are repellents or carrying the spiders out (instead of crushing them). If you don't mind touching it, picking up a spider with a sheet of paper, or putting it in a jar to move it out, it will allow you to avoid encountering others.
Part 3 of 3: Folk Remedies
Step 1. Keep spiders away with horse chestnut
Put some horse chestnut fruit in every corner of the house and in all areas where you often encounter spiders.
- Chestnuts, walnuts, and the fruits of the Osage orange tree are also believed to have the same effect.
- There is no known reason why this method keeps spiders away, and there is no scientific evidence to support it.
- Some speculate that horse chestnut fruits contain chemicals that emit an odor that can repel spiders. For this reason you will have to drill a hole in the fruit or divide it in half to spread the smell.
Step 2. Spray peppermint oil around the house
Fill a spray bottle with a mix of water and 15-20 drops of peppermint. Spray it all over the crevices and corners of the house.
- The idea is that spiders cannot tolerate the smell of peppermint and will walk away when they spot it. As a result, this method will be most effective when applied at the spiders' entry points.
- For added effect, you can pour undiluted peppermint oil on a cotton ball, which you will slip into any openings or possible hiding places.
- Try eucalyptus or tea tree oil if you find the smell of peppermint unpleasant. In theory they should guarantee the same effects.
Step 3. Sprinkle some diatomaceous earth
Sprinkle a thin layer of this powder in openings, corners, under windows and in the basement. Sprinkle it wherever you think a spider might be hiding.
- This powder is made from a natural fossil of an aquatic creature known as a diatom. It will not harm people or animals.
- When a spider passes through this dust, it causes cuts that cause fluid loss and eventually death.
- You can protect your home and prevent spiders from entering by spreading diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of your home.
Step 4. Fight the spiders with vinegar
Mix equal parts of wine vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Apply it in spider hiding places and spray it directly on every spider you see.
- Vinegar contains acetic acid, which is believed to burn and kill spiders on contact.
- You can also place small vinegar dishes in dark corners to keep spiders away. The smell alone might be enough to fight them.
