BS: Natural Insect Repellents

Subject: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 01 May 13 - 10:10 AM

I moved into my apartment in mid September and noticed a few spiders over the winter. However, now that Spring has sprung, they're freakin' everywhere! I came home last night to 5 of the little bastards in my livingroom. With this I cannot live. I've been doing some online research and have found that planting lavender or mint will naturally repel spiders. I also read that mixing peppermint oil with water and spraying the inside window/door frames and cracks and crevices will keep them out.
I sprayed the peppermint mixture this morning. Now my whole place smells like a candy cane and we'll see if there are any spiders when I get home.
Anyone else have any experience in this area? I have cats and am chemical-sensitive (plus I hate the idea of it) so the last resort for me will be to have an exterminator come. I'm sure my landlord will let me plant as an alternative to the expense of having the place sprayed, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Greg F.
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:00 AM

planting lavender or mint will naturally repel spiders.

Yup. And wolfsbane will repel Werewolves, too. Just as effectively.

Guess you've never seen spiders crawling on or weaving webs on Lavender &/or mint, eh? Suggest looking more closely.

peppermint oil with water ... will keep them out.

Sez who?

Of course, you could just squash 'em as you find 'em. Flyswatters work well.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Greg F.
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:01 AM

PS: Spiders aren't insects.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:05 AM

How many spiders are we talking about here? 5? 20? 250? It could be there has been a 'spring hatch' and that the population will soon go down.

What are they like? big or little? bold or shy? harmless or not?

Keep in mind that if there are spiders in your building, that they are preying on things that you want around even less - cockroaches, flies, and silverfish come to mind.


It may not be true that they are coming in from outside. They may be living their entire life cycle inside your building, and in that case lavender and mint planted outside would be a waste. By the way, did the people who said those plants would repel spiders give any proof?   


Mint: I have mint on the side of my house. It is invasive and hard to kill. Mine is surrounded by concrete and can't do too much damage, yet I wish I had never started it. Do not plant mint on somebody else's property.   

Your cats may chase and eat any spiders they find. That solves the problem, though you may prefer not to watch.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:11 AM

Greg F - get a life. How about helpful answers or just don't bother coming onto someone else's thread? I think my opening post stated I had done research online and wanted others to chime in IF THEY WORK.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:14 AM

While I've had only about 6 decades of experience with "natural repellants" I've also had access to my grand daddy's book on the subject with his handwritten comments on many he tried.

My personal conclusion, including his notes:

There are a few "natural things" that that can slightly reduce your ability to see the critters but almost none that have much effect on how many of them are around.

First recommendation: Spiders only appear where there's something to eat. Quit worrying about the spiders and try to get rid of the smaller insects they feed on, and the spiders will go away.

If you want to reduce visibility of the spiders and don't like spider guts when you stomp one, a small hand-held vacuum cleaner is a good way to snatch them out of sight. The problem is that the smallest and handiest "little suckers" seldom last long as an effective device, so you need a new one at least every year, and the more reliable ones require getting them out of where you keep them, and finding an outlet to plug them in, and by that time the spider usually is already out of sight.

For the smaller spiders, the insects they feed on are likely to be extremely tiny, and not easily seen. One thing that seems to help is to scrupulously remove every place that might be slightly damp including especially any little cracks and crevices. An ordinary circulating fan directed at cracks where there might be dampness deep down sometimes will dry dampness you can't see to a level where the food bugs (or at least more of them) will leave.

As there are very few natural predators that will eat spiders, the options there are limited to having bunches of little birdies of an appropriate kind flying around in your home (potentially somewhat messy, according to enthusiasts of aviculture) or inducing a family of common small snakes to take up residence (likely to be a hazard for family pets as most are only interested in spiders while they're young, and eventually move on to larger meals).

There actually are few "extreme measures" that are particularly helpful for spiders. One professional exterminater quite a while back informed a former spouse - on her third call to complain about seeing "a spider" -

"There is NO INSECTICIDE I can legally use inside an occupied residence that will kill spiders. The best I can do is hit 'em with a shot and get them drunk enough so they'll follow me out to the truck for another shot.

"I'll spray 'em if you want, but I can't kill 'em. And I'll have to bill you for additional time if I sit out in front to see if the follow me."

Get rid of all the other bugs (that you don't see) and the spiders (that you're seeing) will go away.

While I can applaud and encourage your aversion to "commercial insecticides" there are some, if you select them carefully, that may be effective on the "spider food" with minimal side effects. There are NONE that I've heard of, natural or commercial, that are very effective for use directly against the spiders themselves, with or without all the nastiness.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:19 AM

Leeneia,

I came home yesterday to 5 in the livingroom. That was just 1 day. I have only been in the apartment since Fall so I don't know what is normal, but I did find them regularly (1 or 2 at a time) all winter.
The size, shape and color vary (it's Maine so I don't suspect any of them are dangerous) and they mostly hang out in the corners, though once in awhile they get bolder.
My cats have no interest whatever in chasing or eating them. They are also up too high for me to reach to squash reasonably. I also have a fairly significant phobia. This is a house built in 1895 and split at some point into 3 apartments. As far as I'm concerned, they can go hang out with my neighbors, I just don't want them in my living space.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:52 AM

In our climate with cold winters, a few spiders, ladybugs and a few other bebeficial insects move in and occupy inconspicuous spots until warmer weather returns and they begin to move around.

Most of them I capture and release outside. Those that are active enough to elude me, I leave for another time of "catch me."

Now if you were beset with bedbugs or roaches, I would understand your concern.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Greg F.
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:56 AM

wanted others to chime in IF THEY WORK

No, Becca - you asked did " Anyone else have any experience in this area?"

And apparently you don't consider "they don't work" helpful. Gotcha.

So you keep on a-sprayin & a-plantin. Let me know how it works out for you, eh?

But then, you read it on the internet, so it must be true & they must work....

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:17 PM

There is at least one spider within four feet of wherever you are at this moment. It doesn't matter whether you're at home, in a car, in a store, at work or wherever else you may frequent. Outside of inhospitable environments like Antarctica or artificially sanitized ones like operating rooms or microprocessor manufacturing facilities, there's a spider nearby. You don't see any spiders? That's because the smart ones know how to hide.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:22 PM

Can't hit the right keystoday, the word is beneficial. Most spiders fall within this grouping.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:26 PM

They are also up too high for me to reach to squash reasonably.

As long as they're not bigger than the inlet, a hand vac should give you enough extension to reach an 8' ceiling (although a place as old as you've described might have them at 10 ft). If you can make 'em move, a good vac will probably unstick 'em from the wall and suck them up from a few inches away with the nozzle.

As you said, our cats chased them some at first, but soon learned that they're not very tasty.

The little snakes seemed to like them, and never lost their eagerness, but they're not good at climbing walls.

Maybe a pet iguana would like them? A friend had one that disappeared when it was about 6" long and they spotted it again three years later when it was close to 3 feet, so they must eat some kind of indoor critters.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:30 PM

Ok, so Bee-Dubya - how do I teach the spiders in my house to be better hiders? I'm OK with "out of sight out of mind".

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Jeri
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:31 PM

Need troll repellant. At least spiders are a useful predator and don't creep everywhere. I had a pretty strong phobia, but I grew out of it, or simply gave up. I tend to leave them alone if they're making an effort to hide.

That said, "they don't work". Here's a little video that is in the same vein as John in KS's post.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:41 PM

Thanks, Jeri. I don't have any visible webs, though, and almost never use my outside light.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 13 - 12:47 PM

I stayed with people in Tapachula, Chiapas. Their house had a band of open tiles just under the roof line. Little lizards lived in those tiles and chased insects, and each other, over the ceiling. Occasionally one would drop on the bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 May 13 - 01:52 PM

To actually address the natural insect repellent question, there are many plants which have insect repellent properties. The problem is that the repellent chemicals are bound up inside the leaf structures. To get the repellent chemicals out, you usually have to pulverize the leaves. Simply growing the plants won't often work.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: gnu
Date: 01 May 13 - 02:07 PM

BWL... I had that feeling that I was being watched. As long as they don't have cams of any sort, I am okay with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 May 13 - 02:16 PM

Oh Becca, I feel for you I really do. I have an enormously powerful spider phobia and become completely hysterical if I see one. So sorry for you having seen all these in your house, big hug! Now, chestnut oil is a great deterrent and perfectly natural. They hate the odour and are deterred. So if you can get some, paint it on windows and doors, round skirting boards and in corners. Also, make sure you don't have piles of clothes, boxes, and general stuff lying about on the floor. If the floor is relatively clear, there's nowhere for them to shelter. And vacuum a lot, in every nook and cranny. I get paranoid and pull out furniture, the bed, empty the wardrobe... I swear I can tell when one is in the room even if I can't see it. People who don't mind spiders have no idea how we feel.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 13 - 03:10 PM

Have you tried treatment by a registered psychiatric consultant?

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 May 13 - 03:19 PM

You could make friends with them. Spiders make loving and cuddly pets.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: jacqui.c
Date: 01 May 13 - 04:57 PM

My daughter-in-law, who has the same problem, collected horse chestnuts last year and spread them around the house. I'll have to ask her if they did the trick.

I also have a spider phobia - not logical as is the case with phobias in general - but can be very debilitating and very difficult to get rid of. Rap has the right idea - sometimes it is possible to lessen the fear by watching them and learning more about them, but not the easiest thing to do when just the look makes you want to run screaming. I've now got to the point where I can just about trap them under glass and then slide paper underneath and heave them out into the garden. Used to be that I couldn't even be in the room if I'd seen a spider there.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Songwronger
Date: 01 May 13 - 09:47 PM

Lemon grass and gecko lizards, though you're probably too far north for both. 40k spiders per acre where we live, but not in the areas with lemon grass and some other aromatics. Geckos run around the house at night and convert spiders to little brown pellets.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 May 13 - 11:44 PM

Learn to love the spiders. Embrace them. Try to understand their inner selves, what makes them what they are. See their inner beauty and accept them.

Then squash them.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 May 13 - 02:49 AM

Rap, LOL! I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Do NOT go to W Africa if you have arachnaphobia. You will die of terror. They are BIG, HAIRY and....UGH!!

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 May 13 - 03:36 AM

There is one natural predator that sometimes will very effectively remove the ones that are bothering you, although it does present a certain difficulty for people who just don't like spiders on principle.

The one predator that can go anywhere your problem spiders can, and will probably be quite happy to gobble them up until they're gone, is


        A BIGGER SPIDER


[Not quite true that just being bigger will do the trick, since only some kinds of big ones are particularly attracted to chomping (or maybe one should say "sucking") on the little ones.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 May 13 - 03:54 AM

I've had some feckin enormous spiders in my house for years, they don't bother me, so I don't bother them.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 May 13 - 04:48 AM

You could feed one up for Christmas. Just think, everybody could have a leg!

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 May 13 - 07:51 AM

Get the old lady who swallowed a spider. That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled insider her.

My best natural insect repellent, although I never tried it on spiders, was tobacco smoke. When I smoked, many years ago, I often used a pipe. Thin black twist tobacco seemed best. No flying insect would come within 6 feet of me. Mind you, neither would any cat, dog, child or sane person...

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 May 13 - 08:36 AM

That would leave seven spares John.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 02 May 13 - 09:07 AM

Thanks, Eliza for understanding. I often can't even get near enough to kill them; I just leave the room.
This morning my black cat Sheldon came screaming into the bedroom, eyes wide as saucers, tail 3 times it's normal poofyness, screeching at the top of his lungs. Yup - spider in the stairwell. He's a great alarm system, not so good at extermination.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Bobert
Date: 02 May 13 - 09:34 AM

Take a big glass and catch them by putting it over them... Then slide a stiff card under the glass and now you have the spider in the glass... Now take said spider out and release him or her...

For spiders that aren't on the floor where you can catch 'um they will usually get on the end of a yard stick if you hold it close to them and then you can take 'um outside to release...

Smaller spiders you can gently pick up with a Kleenex and take out...

Killing spiders is bad karma so try to relocate them...

BTW, spiders eat insects so if they are in your house they are there fro a purpose...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 02 May 13 - 09:38 AM

Bobert - what you are suggesting requires me to get close enough to the spiders to get them on a stick/paper/whatever. Highly unlikely. I don't want to kill them if I don't have to, but I'm not going to look at them hanging out on my ceiling, either.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: gnomad
Date: 02 May 13 - 10:23 AM

I am not fond of anything that scuttles, but am lucky that I don't have a true phobia, unlike a neighbour of ours in the early 70s. He managed to wreck his front room, including a £7500* harpsichord, when trapped by an unlocked door he couldn't open in his panic at meeting just one spider(harmless, no UK native spiders are dangerous). On her return from shopping his wife (about 90lb wet through) found her husband (about 280lb naked) near catatonic in the corner of a room full of trashed furniture, and no sign of the spider.

That is when I learned how scary a real phobia can be, though I am guessing you probably don't have it quite that badly, very few do. *£7500 was about the cost of 2 decent family homes at that time and place, the instrument was being kept at his home as being a safer place for a delicate antique than the university's music department.

You are unlikely to get rid of spiders entirely, so having a strategy in place to deal with them sounds like the best approach to me. You might try Googling "Spider Catcher" or a quick search at Amazon, I did so and found a variety of devices that might help. This struck me as the right sort of idea (but expensive) or there's a vacuum powered one which also looks pretty effective. Good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: gnomad
Date: 02 May 13 - 10:31 AM

On a lighter note I am sure someone used to make a commercial version of these, complete with "Spiders, this way" sign for the bottom, but I can't find a picture yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 May 13 - 10:56 AM

If you feed cats garlic, fleas and ticks will avoid them. Wonder if there is an amount of garlic a person could eat that would work for mosquitoes...

Pedant alert - spiders aren't insects.

Another W Africa warning - it wasn't the spiders, or the moths the size of bedsheets; it was the cockroaches the size of pillowcases with yard-long feelers. The ones in N Africa were normal-sized but transparent, you could see the floor right through them as they skittered away when you turned the lights on. Also in N Africa were armored, horned, green caterpillar things only about the size of a cigar, but you couldn't squish them, they just ignored you and kept right on going, unless you stepped on the horn which could go right through a sandal.

In our house here in the US we keep the spiders, they aren't that numerous and they eat mosquitoes.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Bobert
Date: 02 May 13 - 11:16 AM

Becca,

With your obvious charms I'm sure you can find someone who has no problems relocating your spiders... Maybe if you watch it a few times you'll go, "Hey, that's pretty easy" and do it yourself...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 May 13 - 11:43 AM

Why not get something with a long reach, like an aquarium net, and pop it over the spider. A few twirls of the wrist would get the spider into and holding onto the net and you could take it outside that way.

You probably don't want to hear about the tarantula colony in my yard. I have my neighbors trained to call me if they find a tarantula in their houses so I can catch it (in a plastic pint takeout food container) and release into the yard. These large spiders are beneficial - the tarantulas, snakes, Mediterranean house geckos, native lizards, are all are queued up around the outside of the house to eat many of the bugs that might otherwise come inside. They also will catch small things like mice.

I've used chipped up cedar (Western red cedar) in gardens around the doorways to repel the tarantulas so they don't come into the house. It generally works pretty well. Maybe you could get some of the closet cedar products to place strategically around the house and see if they help at all.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 02 May 13 - 01:22 PM

Diatomaeous Earth....

Swimming pool supply store.

OR

http://ag-organics.com/Food-Grade-Diatomaceous-Earth-10-lb./M/B003QJBVH8.htm?traffic_src=froogle&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=froogle

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

They have an exo-skeleton...The earth rubs off their waxy coating and the dry up

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 02 May 13 - 01:38 PM

Mrrzy,
I know that spiders aren't "insects", however the internet search I did was on "Natural INSECT repellents" and it included the tips I mentioned on spiders.

Bobert,
You're making me blush, now.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 May 13 - 03:12 PM

SRS, I remember driving in Limestone County, TX, years ago, and tarantulas seemed to be out in the millions.

At UT, I remember one that lived in a corner of one of the biology labs. Tap a pencil on the wall and it came running to be fed.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 May 13 - 03:21 PM

NO - NOT the swimming pool supply store stuff. Garg, that form of diatomaceous earth is not pure and is dangerous. There is feed-grade diatomaceous earth (it is fed to cows, horses, even people) available in feed stores that can be used for pest control. NEVER use the pool stuff, it has a lot of silica that can easily be airborne and cause serious problems.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 02 May 13 - 04:28 PM

Natural insects don't bother me much. I do worry about repelling the un-natural kind sometimes.

I found that in our area dirt dauber wasps are great spider predators; they paralyze them and stuff them in their nests for the little ones to live off after they hatch. Wonderful to think about if you are the sort who wishes revenge on the spider population.
But all in all I'd rather have the spiders than the wasps.

-Glenn

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: ranger1
Date: 02 May 13 - 07:56 PM

Becca, if I lived closer, I would come capture them for you. They don't bother me at all. Now winged ants, that's a different story. And don't get me started on centipedes or millipedes!

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 03 May 13 - 09:12 AM

Thanks, Tami. Just the thought is nice.

Now I need to get updating my dating profile per Bobert's suggestion..."single white female, seeks mate to deal with all creepy crawlies. I can open my own jars, though".

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Jeri
Date: 03 May 13 - 09:52 AM

Maybe a spider-hunting cat would be good, and cost less to feed than a mate, although it's un-nerving to see them (the cats, not the mates) walk around with their prey dangling from their mouths.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 03 May 13 - 09:54 AM

Jeri,
I'm full up on cats and they don't like bugs either...

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: pdq
Date: 03 May 13 - 11:07 AM

LOS ANGELES — Jeff Hanneman, a founding member of Slayer whose career was irrevocably changed after a spider bite, has died. He was 49.

Slayer spokeswoman Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald said Hanneman died Thursday morning of liver failure at a Los Angeles hospital with his wife, Kathy, by his side.

The guitarist had recently begun writing songs with the band in anticipation of recording a new album later this year. He had been slowly recovering from what was believed to be a spider bite that nearly cost him his arm after he failed to seek immediate treatment.

"The music industry has lost a true trailblazer, and our deepest sympathies go out to his family, his bandmates and fans around the world who mourn his untimely passing," said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy, in a statement.

Robinson-Fitzgerald said it's believed the spider bite contributed to the failure of Hanneman's liver, but it is unclear whether an autopsy will be scheduled. No funeral arrangements have been made.

"Jeff Hanneman will always be a metal god," rocker Andrew W.K. posted on Twitter.

Hanneman co-founded the thrash metal pioneers in Huntington Beach, Calif., in 1982.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 May 13 - 12:19 PM

No facts, only a guess about the cause.

To derterrents, add inquisitive children who collect bugs in bottles, etc. They cut down on insect and spider populations.

I remember a "plague" (read common) of black widow spiders. They seemed to like old woodpiles, garage corners, and the like. Along with my grade school mates, we caught a good many and displayed them in jars.

Our teachers (about grade five) taught us how to prepare and mount insects in collections. I know this and similar projects nurtured my interest in science and determined my life work.

Subject: RE: BS: Natural Insect Repellents
From: Becca72
Date: 03 May 13 - 12:31 PM

Q - no good. I'm more terrified of small children than I am of any spider! :-)