Monday, April 20, 2009

Keeping the Spiders Out!!

When we brought free soil for our garden and started to put it down, we noticed something. Actually, we noticed a lot of something's. There were lots of small wolf spiders in our dirt. Now, I have grown up in Florida and I am very familiar with this nasty little species. In fact, I found one in our current house about a year ago that was approximately the size of my hand (no exaggeration). I also grew up in a house that had a constant problem with these guys.

So, when we first saw the inch-sized spiders, I thought "Oh, these aren't that bad. They're tiny". Then, I remembered that I canceled our pest control service when Cory lost his job. The wheels started turning and realized how easy it would be for these small spiders to look for a new home in MY home and grow to become big spiders and make lots of baby spiders.

So, I started to research. I don't want to use a lot of chemical pesticides close to my organic garden. So, I was looking for some of those home remedies. Well, I found a consistent answer and I am going to give it a try. Apparently, spiders taste with their feet. And, they hate the taste of citrus and essential oils (lavender was the one I kept coming across). So, I headed to the store and bought 2 bottles of lavender, some lavender pouches and 1 32 ounce bottle of lemon juice. I am going to spray both of these around the outside of my house and hopefully keep my 8 legged friends in the garden.

Speaking of, I really don't mind having them in the garden. I have read that they are actually quite helpful. They eat many of the bugs that might harm your plants and they aerate the soil. But, as much as I read that they are also helpful to have in your home, I am NOT interested. I don't care if they eat bugs inside. Honestly, I wouldn't care if they cleaned my house. I don't want them inside.

We have already applied the lemon juice outside. Before I did that, I saw 2 small spiders INSIDE in the same day. Since I put the lemon juice down, I haven't seen another one. I will still add the lavender and see how things go. I hope this works. I love finding cheap, natural ways to treat things.

4 comments:

Kelly said...

I'm so excited to see how your garden progesses, but I HATE spiders...especially wolf spiders. Keep those out of the house...they're likely to eat one of the children.

Kari said...

I love you saying "I don't care if they cleaned my house" - I feel the same way. Graham keeps catching little spiders and watching them in little bowls-yuck is all I can say!

Anonymous said...

Hi Cassie, did you find that the lemon or lavender worked?? Thanks!

Cassie - Homeschooling Four said...

I actually used both and never had another problem. Not exactly sure which one worked, but they did :)