Hate Spiders But Love Your Pets? Make a Pet Safe Spider Repellant...

The great Northwest is a wonderful place to be a pet parent.  Natural adventures abound at your doorstep, tall trees, green grass, it's just breathtaking.  Unfortunately, part of our beautiful ecosystem are gazillions of spiders.  Small spiders, big spiders, garden spiders, house spiders, you name it!  The problem is most insecticides are very dangerous for your pets.

Now, I'm about as arachnophobic as you get, but I know that spiders play an important part in our natural world.  I don't want to kill them, I just want them to stay outside of my home (and sorry, but once they make and entrance they're fair game).  So how do you keep spiders out of your home while keeping your pets safe from dangerous toxic chemicals?  Well I've done a little research and I have a recipe for you.  It's a combination of a few others I found, so I've posted the source URL's to give credit where credit is due.  The smell is better than bug sprays, and so far so good at our house!

Get an empty spray bottle in the cleaning section at the drug store or grocery store.

Mix together:

Equal parts Distilled White Vinegar and Water
Add 10 drops each of essential oil of Lavender, and Lemon (the best prices are AuraCacia at Whole Foods)
Add 2-3 drops of natural dish soap (as an emulsifier)
Shake, and spray wherever you think spiders enter your home!  Consider window sills, corners, the fireplace, skylights, and doorways.  You should spray these areas a few times a week.

The idea is that Spiders avoid Lemon, Vinegar, and Lavender, and will avoid areas where these flavors are present (I say flavors because legend has it that spiders "taste" with their feet, and they will crawl away from flavors the despise, citrus being their least favorite).  Good luck on your spider prevention plan!

Sourced from:

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/spider-deterents

http://lilbitgabby.com/kitchen/2009/04/all-natural-spider-control/