There are a lot of us who don’t like spiders, and in Queensland there are a lot of them.
Here’s a quick summary of one of my first weekends in Queensland. My husband went away for the weekend, leaving me alone in our flat. Everything was fine until I was joined by a huge (by my standards at least) spider late at night and as a serious arachnophobe I panicked. Several hours later and I’m still running away from it and Google-ing “how to kill a spider without going anywhere near it”. After letting it chase me out of every room in my flat I eventually settled for using my couch as a fort and arming myself with a vacuum cleaner. Several hours later, after bailing out of killing it on several occasions, the spider eventually left of it’s own accord.
So after a completely sleepless night, the spider won that battle.
And the moral of the story is: if you’re scared of spiders don’t let them get in your home.
Putting Plans Into Action
To make sure there weren’t any more I booked a Pest Treatment, but that wouldn’t help me with ones that could come in 6 months later after the warranty period is over.
So ever since this “incident” I have been researching ways to prevent spiders from getting into your home. A lot of them will seem like common sense, but there are some hidden gems that could help keep all manner of pests out.
- Keeping your home clean and tidy is a given, but it’s also important to keep your yard and the spaces around your home today too.
- If pests make the outside of your house their home then it won’t be long until they are making their way inside. So keeping these areas clean and tidy can help keep spiders and other pests away.
- Know where the gaps and cracks are in your home.
- Areas like doorways or cracks in the wall are easy places for pests to enter your home. By patching simple cracks, having screened and seals doors etc. you can make it a lot harder for spiders to get into your home.
- Avoid having piles of clutter both in and out of your house.
- Big piles of stuff creates a secluded and often dark space for spiders to make their homes.
- Turns out most pests hate the smell of peppermint oil and cedar wood, so if the opportunity arises to put either of these around your home then it may just help to keep out the pests.
- Spiders also hate citrus, so if you can incorporate this too then it might help.