Natural spider repellent that works in any climate or location very effectively without any chemicals or traps to keep your family safe all year long.
My husband’s and my property overlooks a scenic and peaceful fishing lake. While we love the view and the calm of living in our semi-rural neighborhood, we don’t love the spiders such an environment naturally seems to attract.
Warm, moist surroundings with lots of trees are particularly inviting to spiders of all sizes. No matter what we did as a spider repellent tactic, these critters seemed to find a way to get into the house especially during the summer rainy season.
Nothing seems to work to eliminate them once they’re in the house either. This includes the old stand-by borax that works so well for getting rid of ants and roaches.
The news story about the couple who had to move out of their upscale, Missouri house due to a horrible infestation with venomous brown recluse spiders despite repeated treatment from conventional pest control companies is a testament to just how difficult spiders can be to deal with.
After 22 years of living in our home, I had long since resigned myself to being Chief Spider Catcher. I thought it was a title I was just going to have to accept. Fortunately, we didn’t have spider repellent problems with the brown recluse or other dangerous species.
At least I’m not afraid of spiders. Taking out the big, fast ones was annoying, but thankfully not a scary task.
When you have young children, however, spiders are much more than annoying. They can be dangerous and there are plenty of spiders that pack a nasty and even venomous bite. If a person is immuno-compromised, a spider bite is especially problematic.
In our neck of the woods, the wolf spider is the one that most concerns me. Those things are big, hairy, fast, and not shy about biting you if provoked.
I remember vividly the time my husband put his bare feet into his work shoes that had been left sitting on the front porch only to find an enormous wolf spider hiding inside that gave him the most painful bite he has ever experienced (it was the only time in our almost 24 years of marriage that I ever heard him swear over literally anything!).
Clearly, even if spiders don’t get loose in the home, they can be a danger outside if they are nesting on the porch, in the garage, or in trees close by.
Natural Spider Repellent – Guaranteed!
I recently noticed that for the past 6 months, not a single spider had gotten into the house. I hadn’t seen any spiders in the garage or on the porch either. In fact, I hadn’t seen a single spider anywhere.
This despite a particularly wet summer with rains that filled every single retention pond around our township to the very brim.
What had so dramatically changed?
I got my answer at the Wise Traditions Conference in Indianapolis. After one session, I had the privilege of talking with Pat Foreman, a well-known radio personality known as The Chicken Whisperer. Pat is the author of City Chicks: Keeping Micro-Flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-Recyclers, and Local Food Producers.
I was talking to Pat about a number of issues related to caring for backyard chickens. Our family acquired a mobile coop with 3 hens last spring.
As I was chatting with her, I realized that our chickens were our spider repellent secret weapon and the reason they’ve been a complete no show on our property for months!
Pat confirmed that chickens do indeed enjoy a meal that includes a nice juicy spider. They also like to eat any other insects they might find pecking and scratching around the property where they are allowed to free-range.
Chickens Love to Eat Spiders and Other Insects
At that moment, I realized that our chickens were also the reason why I hadn’t had to knock down any wasp nests in many months. Our kids even witnessed a down and dirty fight between two of our layers over a very large wasp.
Chickens are a natural insect repellent no matter what type of bugs enjoy hanging out and bothering you throughout the year! Â Yes, even including mosquitoes and ticks! I’ve seen my chickens eating mosquito larvae out of a bucket filled with water before!
Do you have a spider problem like we did for so many years? If so, a couple of chickens can provide your family with fresh, nutritious eggs and also keep your children safe and your property free from these pesky and dangerous creatures.
Concerned that keeping chickens in the city wouldn’t be allowed due to zoning ordinances? Check out City Chicks which has the inside scoop on how to effectively get laying hens permitted within your town or city. In my county, I was surprised to learn that any property owner is permitted to have laying hens (not roosters) no matter what the neighborhood!
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We also live in a rural area in Central Florida and have MANY spiders whose population fluctuates throughout the year. I, too, am not phobic about them. Poisonous spiders are actually very rare and rarely bite. They only do so in self-defense. Spiders are wonderful for eating insects as are the chickens. From Spring throughout the late Summer, they apparently reproduce and proliferate but then seem to practically hibernate in the Fall and Winter here. Outside, I try to let them be when they are not where we have to walk through a web. We always check our shoes or boots left outdoors for any kinds of critters. Inside, for a short while in the Spring, we have the larger, fast running spiders here and there and then they disappear before I can get to doing anything about them (only one or two of them anyway). Also inside, year round we have some very small spiders who live in the mini blinds and in the pantry food cupboards and they kill and eat tiny insects all the time. They stay right where they live, a small little territory for each one. I’m pretty sure I would not know we had these insects if it wasn’t for finding them dead in the webs (spiders drain what they eat, leaving the dry shells). I have lived with them as natural pest insect controllers in the house with the main annoyance being having to clean up the dead bugs using my hose vacc. or a duster. And we’ve had our totally free-range mini flock of 5 hens and a Roo for a year and a half who come up to the house area, too (but not much on the porches) and haven’t seen a difference–maybe in their range there are less and most of the property and house is out of their range (their choice, except for the house and porch which is our choice). We put small chicken wire portable fencing we made around garden areas we want them to stay out of, too or they will scratch in thin, or newly planted areas.
I am so stoked to read this! We just got three chickens a few days ago (PLUS I happen to have a 5kg bag of fine food grade DE I ordered last month). I’m set!!!!
Great article, I think more people should consider raising chickens! They’ve not helped us with keeping spiders down however; I think we’re too far out in the country and would need many more than the 20 – 40 that we keep to notice a difference in the house.
That sounds very promising. However, when we had chickens, we had chicken mites, and they infested the house and we’re far more annoying and difficult to deal with…
Diatomaceous earth sprinkled on the spot where they like to take a dust bath (which is very good for keeping mites off them) should quickly take care of that.
I LOVE seeing our chickens hunt spiders in the bushes and on our outdoor furniture!
I was really hoping for an answer here. We have a farm with both laying chickens , ducks, geese, and guineas. They all run free and we have more than a few of them and have had for 13 years now.
We have spiders and have removed more than 1 wasp and hornets nest since we have been here and they are running free even at this time of year and we live in the middle of Wisconsin on a small farm.
I would say they help but I wouldn’t bet my farm on a guarantee to work.
Do they free range up near the house? I think that is key. Sorry I didn’t mention that.
I tried chickens for a while but couldn’t take the poop all over the yard. How do you deal with this?
You might have too many chickens for the amount of free ranging space. We only have 3 chickens for 2 acres and the chicken poop is really not much of an issue.
Aw man, I couldn’t have clicked the link faster as we live on a lake and have a horrible spider population and have been looking for a natural remedy. But LO and behold, having chickens in our neighborhood, which is one of the largest homeowners associations in the country is expressly forbidden. We’ve been talking about getting a petition going and you reposting that link for city chick will help me get our group into high gear! Thanks for sharing anyway, even though it’s not necessarily attainable for a lot of people 😉
I just have to warn people that one or two chickens can devastate landscaping. I have a flock of various birds and if any chickens get out of the pasture and into my yard, they scratch everything until only the dirt is left. Wolf spiders aren’t venomous either, so nothing to worry about in my opinion. All of the venomous spiders where I live hide in dark, uninhabited corners where the kids don’t play. Only I have to be wary of where I put my hands. I say, save your landscaping and step on the spiders!
Chickens are great for eating spiders! Also, diatomaceous earth is effective against spiders, and is safe for humans. We recently moved into a new house and kept finding poisonous hobo spiders in the basement. I ordered a bag of DE (you have to make sure it is food grade), and sprinkled it all over downstairs. We haven’t seen any since then! It is really important to make sure it is food grade, not the type that is used to put in swimming pools. You can even put DE in your buckets of storage grains, etc. to make sure you don’t get weevils.
I’ve tried diatomaceous earth in the past and we still had many problems with spiders in and around the house. Our chickens are the only thing that has ever worked for us with regard to spiders.