You could tell the weather was going to start getting cooler. The spiders seemed to be moving closer. Close enough so they can just move right into the house and spend the winter.
I have nothing in particular against spiders. If they would pay their share, I would be happy to rent space to them. There would have to be some rules. Like maybe a limit on the number of children they could bring with them.
There are a number of ways that you can supposedly get rid of spiders. Some of them are just too extreme for my tastes.
Like cleaning. I’m not going to vacuum the house on a regular basis just to get a spider or two to move out. And if you really are sucking up spiders as you clean, you’re really just engaged in a relocation project. Not only that, but there will probably be people hanging fake spiders webs around the house next month. I just leave the real ones. I like my Halloween spider webs real.
There are also things like essential oils. Lavender will apparently work on spiders. But then your whole house smells like lavender. You can also try things like cedar, which is rather pleasant. Or cinnamon. Cinnamon tends to make me hungry. I start to crave cinnamon rolls. Another possible side effect to spiders. They can make you gain weight from eating too many cinnamon rolls.
They also tell you to check your fruit. Fruit can lead to fruit flies, which is pretty much like setting up a spider buffet. Fruit attracts flies which attract spiders. So skip the fruit.
Then there is vinegar. You mix a bit of vinegar with water and go around spraying pretty much everything, especially spiders. Vinegar can also be used to build a fruit fly trap, so there could be ways to get rid of a couple pests here.
Then there are citrus scents. Spiders apparently don’t like citrus. You may find a spider on your bananas, but they rarely hitch a ride on your lemons. The again, lemons don’t make much of a tasty snack.
There is also a recommendation that you turn off your lights. Spiders don’t really care if you turn off your lights. In fact, it makes it easier for them to sneak into your house. But the lights attract other flies which the spiders can feed on. So I guess the idea here is to not attract things for the spider to eat. Which will be handy. While you and the spider are sitting around in the dark at least you will be able to tell where they are from the rumbling in their little spider tummies.
Then there’s my favourite… conkers. You know. Horse chestnuts. There has long been a tale that simple sitting horse chestnuts around your house can keep spiders away. It might. If you tie a string to the conker and whack the spider in the head with it. Otherwise, they really have no effect on the spider. They could also be poisonous to some animals, so you have to watch for that. And if you’ve ever played conkers, you likely know those things hurt. And it’s really easy to hit yourself on the knuckles. So maybe just avoid the conkers.
There are a lot of ways to get rid of spiders. It seems very few of them actually work.
There will be spiders. Some of them will move inside. I think I’ll just learn to live with them. It seems easier.
