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Growing mint to deter spiders?

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  • msqingxiaomsqingxiao Posts: 482
    My mint plant hasn't arrived yet, so I've come up with a makeshift solution: I poured a small amount of a mint and teatree shower gel (https://www.boots.com/original-source-mint-and-tea-tree-shower-gel-500ml-10252577) into a small pot and left it by the side of my bed. So far so good. Haven't seen any more spider around for about a week. Or maybe it's just because the weather's been not so terrible outside...
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    BenCotto said:
    What’s a Tegie? I have never heard that word.

    My instinct is that mint will be about as effective as asking the spiders to go back outside. I’ll be interested in the OP’s feedback.
    Tegenaria? :shudders:
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • My cat eats them if she can get to them.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited August 2021
    I might try conkers inside. I like spiders but I'm getting a bit fed up with so many. I keep getting spider bites in bed (small, double puncture marks). The webs are good, though, for catching mozzies and also clothes moths, as noted. But frankly I'd rather have none of the above inside. I have found a handheld vacuum is oddly good at getting rid of clothes moths flitting about the place. I feel I have finally got on top of that problem (after eight years).
    # FamousLastWords
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    Our cat gets a lot of them. She goes around looking for them around this time each evening. 

    My mum always has conkers on her windowsill and swears by that method. 
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    I “drank” a spider a few months ago. That was pleasant! 

    I now put the extractor light on when I go down for water and always check the glass first…… 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I walked face first into a huge false widow spider's web today. Three webs crossed the path and I got caught knees, chest and nose. It was like something out of Indiana Jones. None of the webs broke, despite walking into them at speed.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    Huge black widow on our garage door yesterday morning, it had created a web between my car and the door.  So much for my theory that they prefer undisturbed places.  OP may be on to something, the local pest control comes to spray around the neighbors two or three times a year with some sort of pet and child friendly minty spray.  Neighbor says she'll find all the black widows dead around the sides of her house the next morning.  I think it's the mint oil that helps, rather than just a healthy growing mint plant.  Maybe rub and crush the fresh leaves into an area you frequently find spiders?  
    Utah, USA.
  • Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
    I used to be really afraid of spiders, couldn’t even look at them! Now I love them. In my case I just started watching them, observing their behaviour and seeing them close up and then gradually built up to handling them. Now I’m happy to have one in our dining room/sun room as it’s catching the flies and gnats from the potted plants growing in there. A great bonus of me doing this is that now both of my young boys also love spiders and are happy to handle them. Especially jumping spiders! They’re amazing and I’d go so far as to say I find them cute! With their big front facing eyes they look really characterful.

    Yesterday, I picked up my towel after getting out of the shower to find an enormous spider inside it. My reaction was a calm “Oh hello there” and I popped it down on the ground.

    I think my reaction a few years ago might have been somewhat more dramatic 😂
    East Yorkshire
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Ewww,hate them,! Found absolutely nothing works. We have a huge amount of false widows in our conservatory roof.daily they kill butterflies, hoverflies,moths,bees,the odd dragonfly, only very occasionally a fly,then I have to clean out the roof blinds and surfaces where they leave the carcasses. I don't mind them on the garden. I can see great beauty in the autumn's webs covered in dew. The widders don't even make a nice web
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