If you’re anything like me and would rather pack up and move house than tackle a spider who has surreptitiously crept indoors, then this simple hack is going to be life-changing.
Sylvia Crawford has come up with her own solution for combating the creepy crawlies taking over her home and it won’t even break the bank.
As per Pretty52, she posted her mint leaf life hack in the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group detailing how she gets rid of spiders in her home using a solution which costs less than £2 to create.
It turns out that spiders aren’t fans of the smell of mint, and it can leave them scurrying for miles if they come within nose-shot of it.
So, Sylvia raided her fridge to find some leftover fresh mint that was soon to go off, which she added to a cheap bottle of antibacterial spray. She then added water to the mixture and sprayed it all over the house, including all the hot spots where spiders like to live in her home.
She wrote:
Had leftover packet of mint and small amount of cleaner left. Chopped mint and added to anti bac cleaner and filled with water.
Sprayed under window sill outside and around the door. I watched the spiders run as I sprayed. They hate mint right enough. Some people use essential oils but I just thought I would use up what I had.
That’s almost certainly cheaper than splashing out on a specific peppermint oil spray which is traditionally used to rid houses of spider guests.
The Essential Waitrose anti-bacterial spray seen in Sylvia’s picture costs just 77p, while the Asda Grower’s Selection mint costs just 50p, meaning it costs a grand total of just £1.27.
If you really want to shave off the pennies, you could even bag a bottle of spray for just 70p from Tesco, making it just £1.20.
However, while Sylvia’s mint leaf hack could leave spiders scuttling for the hills, it turns out there could be many more of the creatures living in our home than we ever realised.
According to ecological consultant, educator and spider expert Lawrence Bee, the majority of spiders living in our home have always been there, and have never even stepped foot outside.
He told UNILAD:
So people say, ‘oh we’re getting lots coming in from outside’. Well, they’re not. They’re there all the time. And if they put them outside, they just come back in again because that’s their habitat. That’s where they live.
The reason that we’re seeing them around at the moment is that mature males are now walking around. It’s their mating season so they’re walking around looking for females to be mating with.
In theory, Sylvia’s mint leaf hack is just sending them back to their hiding spaces.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.