Most spiders are harmless and do us all a favour by eating flies, mosquitoes and insects. But they are annoying when they keep building their webs outside our homes, and it’s perfectly normal to wish they could just go settle somewhere else.
You can do a few pest control techniques to help convince spiders to spin their webs away from your house. If you are tired of cleaning webs constantly, learn how to prevent spider webs outside your house with these simple tips.
1. Clean your yard and the outside of your house
Spiders love clutter, and they love areas where bugs feel comfortable. To prevent them from building webs on your walls, under the roof of your porch, on your patio furniture or near your outdoor lights, clean everything, and do it regularly.
Get rid of junk, piles of dead leaves, and anything that could attract insects and spiders.
By keeping your house clean, you’re also preventing spiders from laying their eggs and making your spider web problem even worse.
2. Keep garbage cans away from your house
You should also consider keeping your garbage cans at least a few feet away from the exterior walls of your house. Garbage and compost attract flies, and where there are flies, spiders will want to make themselves at home.
Ensure your garbage cans have tight lids that stay closed when you want them to. If the lids keep falling off, your garbage could attract more flies and spiders.
3. Turn off the lights to repel insects
Once again, anything that attracts flies will attract spiders. You can’t blame them for spinning their webs near your exterior lights since this is where their food likes to hang out when it gets dark outside.
Turning off your outdoor lights at night is a good idea to prevent spider webs outside your house.
However, keeping your lights turned off all night long could, unfortunately, attract people with bad intentions. Connect your outdoor lights to a motion sensor to make a compromise and keep your peace of mind.
They will stay turned off to keep insects and spiders away, but they will turn on whenever someone approaches your house.
4. Get rid of spider webs and eggs as soon as you notice them
It could take a moment for spiders to understand that building their webs around your house is not a good idea. Ensure you eliminate any spider webs you see to discourage them from building new ones.
You also need to get rid of spider eggs before they can hatch.
Did you know a spider’s egg sac could contain as many as 1,000 eggs, depending on the species? You don’t want them to become babies and invade your home. Since egg sacs are usually wrapped in a little spider silk pouch, clean out anything that looks like this as quickly as possible.
5. Spray a mixture of vinegar and water
If you have been thinking about using some sort of pesticide to repel spiders, you should try to make your repellant. All you need is a spray bottle, white vinegar, and water.
Pour equal parts of vinegar and water inside the bottle, and mix well. You can then spray the areas where spiders usually build their webs while avoiding varnished surfaces to be sure your mixture will not damage them.
The smell of vinegar should repel spiders and convince them to settle elsewhere.
6. Use cinnamon sticks or essential oil
Strong scents easily repulse spiders, so you could use cinnamon sticks to prevent them from building their webs outside your house.
Simply place cinnamon sticks wherever you tend to find spider webs.
You could also add a few drops of cinnamon essential oil inside a spray bottle full of water and spray this mixture around your house.
7. Mix mint essential oil with water
The mint essential oil can also be used to repel spiders. Add a few drops to a water spray bottle, and spray on areas where spiders like to build webs.
Alternatively, you could plant mint in some areas around your house to naturally repel spiders who don’t like this strong fragrance.
8. Use a cobweb eliminator
If spiders are being stubborn, you could buy a product called a cobweb eliminator. It makes it impossible for webs to adhere to surfaces, and the effect usually lasts about one full month.
Remove spider webs and spray the product on the area using a cobweb eliminator. Spiders will leave since they won’t be able to build their webs anymore.
