The Herb You'll Want To Use In Your Home To Keep Spiders Out

It's easy to freak out at the sight of spiders, despite the fact that they are predators helping to remove a lot of other annoying bugs from our lives. If, like many people, you'd rather live without them than with them, there are some natural herbal controls that may help you remove or at least lessen the presence of spiders in your home. One of them is menthol, or mint oil. Menthol is the main reason humans love the smell and taste of mint (Mentha spicata), and it's also the reason why spiders are likely to avoid it. Accordingly, you'll want to use mint in your home, as the oil can keep spiders out. The good news is that the strength of mint oil may also help to repel the pests that spiders feast on, so you are doing spiders' dirty work without needing spiders around. 

Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) is often the most recommended variety of mint to use as a pest repellent. Being a hybrid of different species, it contains the pesticide pulegone as well as menthol and other essential oils. A bevy of anecdotal evidence recommends peppermint oil for ant control, for getting rid of fleas, and for repelling other creeping, crawling, and flying nuisances. You may never fully rid your life of spiders, but you may rest a little easier knowing you've done your best to control them without resorting to harsh chemicals. And even if it doesn't work, you've practiced a little aromatherapy to help you cope the next time you see a spider.

You can extract the essential oil yourself from mint flowers and leaves, or you can purchase bottles of the oil from herb shops. Simply fill a 16-ounce spray bottle with water, a few drops of dish soap, and five or more drops of mint oil, shake well, then spray in areas where spiders may enter the house, such as doors and windows. Spray dark corners where they may hide or where you've seen them before. Spiders can enter your home from just about any small gap, so a general spray around the house also helps. 

While it's tempting to just grow some mint plants around the house to repel spiders, extracting the oil from live mint plants produces a more powerful repellent. Indeed, studies in the Journal of Pest Science and in Environmental Entomology found that mint grown among other plants actually increased the presence of insect predators, including spiders. By contrast, a study in the Journal of Economic Entomology found peppermint oil to be an effective repellent of spiders. Much non-scientific lore points to the benefits of using mint oil to combat aphids, spider mites, and other crawling pests, and may even help you get rid of bats, repel squirrels, or chase away chipmunks, but more scientific research needs to be done to demonstrate its effectiveness against spiders. But given the effectiveness of mint oil on a host of other pests, you're likely to have success on spiders as well.