A woman has shared a simple hack to help deter spiders from entering your home this autumn.
As the weather takes a turn for the worse, spiders that are usually content living outside experience a change of heart and start trying to shack up in people’s homes.
Coupled with the worsening weather in the UK, we’re also heading into spider mating season and it seems that when it comes to getting down to business our eight-legged friends would rather do it somewhere cosy and dry - I can’t say I blame them, to be fair.
Now, for some people, the odd spider - no matter how sex crazed - is no big deal and they can harmoniously live with the arachnids.
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But for others a spider in the home is a nightmare situation made real - and if this is you then you may be interested to know there’s a simple and cheap hack that folks swear helps to banish spiders.
Kamana Bhaskaran, who has more than 190,000 followers on TikTok was asked: "Anything for spiders please? My two-year-old got terrorised the other day by seeing one on the curtains."
And she sure did - in a clip, she explained: “Let me show you how to keep them away with this all-natural spider spray.
“Fill a spray bottle with water, add peppermint oil and swish.
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“Spray along the outside of the house, entryways and windows and in corners. The peppermint smell repels the spiders. No more spiders!”
Bhaskaran’s tip has been praised by arachnophobes on TikTok, with one person said: “Thanks so much for sharing, I even see them in my bedroom upstairs.”
Another commenter said: “I'll definitely try this, the pest control guy said the spiders are the worst to kill.”
A third wrote: “Thank you. I will definitely try this out!”
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And a fourth said: “Man, I hope this works though I may be too late. I think a big brown spider pod full of baby spiders hatched in my home.” You might want to consider burning your place down, mate.
While others insisted it worked, with someone else adding: “Omg I did this last year and I think it worked. I’ve just had my delivery of peppermint oil.”
For what it’s worth, the simple hack is backed by science, too - a study published in Journal of Economic Entomology back in 2018 found that two of the spider species tested (out of three) avoided entering areas that had been sprayed with peppermint oil 75 percent of the time.
Claire Reid