Late one night, you walk out into the garage to retrieve an old stack of photos or the holiday decorations. With your hand still wrapped firmly around the box, the gentle tickling of eight tiny legs brushes over your fingertips. As the spider emerges from the box, you are confronted with one question: how to get rid of spiders in the garage?
While you may also scream and toss the box to the ground, this is the perfect opportunity to deal with something many of us avoid regularly. Nobody likes sharing their home with spiders, no matter how beneficial they are to the environment.
Yet, your garage is prime real estate for creatures looking for easy access to shelter and other food sources. As easy as it is for you to park your car and enter through the side door, it can be just as easy for those unwanted eight-legged creatures to enter your home as well. Try any of these inspiring ideas to keep spiders far, far away.
- How to Keep Spiders Out of Your Garage
- Make a Peppermint Oil Spider Repellent
- Remove All Clutter from Your Garage
- Clean Up Your Garage Regularly
- Use Sealable Plastic Bins over Cardboard Boxes
- How to Get Rid of Spiders in the Garage with a Fogger
- Limit the Amount of Lighting
- Remove the Food Source
- Patch Up Any Holes and Cracks
- Move Wood Piles Away from the House
- How to Keep Spiders Out of Your Garage with Essential Oils
- Scatter Horse Chestnuts Around the Garage
- Use a Vinegar Spider Repellent for Garage Areas
- Do these techniques work for all spiders?
- Can I use other essential oils to ward off spiders?
How to Keep Spiders Out of Your Garage
So how to keep spiders out of your garage in the first place? Luckily, there are many solutions available to keep spiders out of your garage and free and clear from your home’s interior. While many of the solutions require little more than a regular cleaning, there are also numerous options for a spider repellent for garage areas that cost exponentially less than an exterminator.
Make a Peppermint Oil Spider Repellent
Using peppermint essential oil is the best way to kill spiders and get rid of other creepy-crawly creatures in your home and around the perimeter. This remedy doesn’t stop with just spiders, however.
Peppermint essential oil is among some of the most effective methods for repelling ants, cockroaches and can even get rid of a yellow jacket nest. To repel spiders, use the peppermint spray formula below.
When making your spider repellent, pour the ingredients directly into a small spray bottle. Glass is best, as essential oils break down plastic over time.
Next, shake the bottle well before using it to ensure the ingredients are adequately blended. Spray the area of your garage where you suspect spiders are hiding.
Start with dark corners, crevices, and any crawl spaces. You also want to spray significant entry points, such as along baseboards and window sills. To make your job even easier, you don’t have to clean up the spray afterward. Spray and let it dry on its own.
This natural spider spray for in-house or use in the garage is highly effective at repelling not only spiders but also a variety of other insects, as well. Keep a bottle on hand for periodic use to ensure that spiders and creepy crawlies stay away.
Remove All Clutter from Your Garage
If you’re like most Americans, you use your garage as an additional storage space. While there is nothing wrong with this, allowing your storage space to become over-cluttered or disorganized attracts spiders. This instance is especially true in your garage, a place that is easily accessible to spiders and consists of numerous hiding spaces for them, too.
To limit the clutter in your garage, regularly go through the items you’re storing. If there are things you can get rid of, do it. Don’t hold onto anything that will make it more difficult for you to filter through later.
Keep all your storage bins in one designated area. Don’t leave any loose items lying from one corner to the next, and keep them organized. Doing this will make clearing cobwebs more accessible and allow you to maintain a clear view of the dark corners and crevices.
Clean Up Your Garage Regularly
One of the last things we may think about when organizing our garage is doing a thorough cleaning. Going through the clutter and boxes is enough to exhaust even the most diehard cleaning fanatics. But taking the extra step to sweep, mop, and vacuum can make a world of difference.
The same goes for how to get rid of spiders in your car. Use a vacuum cleaner to clear away food and debris in the cracks and crevices of your vehicle to keep spiders out of your car. Doing this is especially important if you park your car in the garage instead of the driveway.
A few things to look for when cleaning your garage are spider webs, egg sacs, and feces. Spiders don’t want to build a home in a place where humans and animals will constantly be tearing it down. Keeping cobwebs clear of our garage is a great way to get rid of spiders who don’t want to keep rebuilding their homes each day.
Equally, removing egg sacs before they hatch is a great way to prevent a spider infestation. Locating spider poop in your garage can be slightly more complicated since it tends to look like ink stains rather than what we see from larger animals. Clearing poop away prevents transmitting diseases to members of your family.
Use Sealable Plastic Bins over Cardboard Boxes
Another way to handle your spider problem is not to use cardboard boxes. While these may be a great way to store items, in your garage, they become the perfect habitats for spiders. Cardboard boxes leave too many openings where spiders can easily slip inside and tuck themselves away.
One way to avoid running into this problem is by using plastic bins with sealable tops. Not only will this keep your items clean and safe, but it also makes it much more difficult for spiders to get in through the tops. There are also no small holes on the sides of the bins for spiders to enter, which is often the case with cardboard boxes that breakdown over time.
How to Get Rid of Spiders in the Garage with a Fogger
If you have a spider infestation and there is no way you can take care of the problem yourself, sometimes your only option is to kill spiders. Many of us want to try natural spider repellents to usher these creatures from our home. However, if there are too many spiders to tackle, using homemade repellents won’t get rid of all of them or keep them away.
Using foggers or a bug bomb is the next best thing to calling an exterminator. This type of pest remover is excellent for garages since the room is just enough distance from your living areas to use safely. No matter which brand of fogger you decide to use, always check the manufacturer labels before using it.
Limit the Amount of Lighting
While the idea of having to enter a dark garage is the stuff of nightmares, it can help get rid of spiders. One of the main reasons spiders come into any household is for the food supply. Flying insects love light, with many of the spider’s favorite treats coming out at night.
The pull of these light sources in your garage, especially at night, lures in all kinds of tasty treats for spiders to snack on. And with a full buffet available to them each night, why would they want ever to leave?
This issue doesn’t mean you have to keep your garage perpetually in the dark, however. Instead, utilize windows during the day and keep the amount of lighting sparse and only in any necessary parts of the garage.
Remove the Food Source
Even if you aren’t attracting bugs into your garage via nightlights, they may still find their way into your home. Having insects like flies, bees, and ants is a common annoyance in households. But these are also significant contributors to a spider’s food source.
Getting rid of these types of bugs also means keeping those pesky spiders out of your home, as well. If there is nothing for them to eat, then they will be forced to find food elsewhere. While bug bombs and repellents will also work, glue traps are another get rid of the spider’s food supply.
Patch Up Any Holes and Cracks
Another excellent solution for how to keep spiders out of your garage is to seal up entry points. These could be cracks or holes in the wall, window screens, and even the garage door. Any access point that makes it easy for spiders, or their food supply, to come into your garage is a place you will want to patch up.
One easy way to do this is to seal holes and edges on windows with caulk. If your window doesn’t have a screen, or the screen is damaged, put in a new one for an added layer of defense against insects and arachnids.
Move Wood Piles Away from the House
During those cold winter months at home, there is nothing more satisfying than throwing a fresh new log of firewood onto the fire. However, wood piles are another excellent hiding spot for spiders and can quickly bring them into your home.
No matter where you store your wood piles, ensure they are kept free of spiders and away from the house. If you store your firewood in the garage, the best pest control is a sealed bin. Placing your logs in an airtight container will keep them safe from water damage and free of any spiders.
How to Keep Spiders Out of Your Garage with Essential Oils
If you are a fan of natural remedies, another marvelous spider repellent to use is one made with essential oils. Whether you need to learn how to get spiders out of your room, your garage, or your kitchen, this is a great eco-friendly way to do it. These oils work to dissolve cobwebs and deter new spiders from setting up their nests.
Add all of your ingredients into a small spray bottle. Shake well, and spray the area. If you are cleaning cobwebs, use a small cleaning cloth to wipe away any remaining webs from the walls and ceiling.
Scatter Horse Chestnuts Around the Garage
A unique spider repellent for garage areas is using horse chestnuts. Many often debate this as “old wives tales,” but others swear by the results of this remedy. One solution for why spiders might find horse chestnuts repulsive is the chemical saponin contained within them.
This chemical tastes bitter to insects and can even be toxic for them. One way to use this option is to place the horse chestnuts around the corners of the room or on window sills. If you have pets, ensure these are kept out of their reach, as it may also be toxic to them.
Use a Vinegar Spider Repellent for Garage Areas
Another excellent form of spider control is to use white vinegar. Creating a spider spray from this ingredient will even help with an infestation and is said to kill spiders on the spot.
One explanation for this is the acetic acid in vinegar, which is also a phenomenal disinfectant. The acetic acid burns the spider on contact, killing them.
One way to use this method is by spraying the areas where spiders frequent. Spray in crawl spaces, crevices, and even along window sills and doorways.
Another way to use this method is by placing dishes filled with vinegar in entry points and corners. This method is also a fantastic idea for how to repel gnats indoors.
Further Questions and Answers
Still unsure about which fragrances of essential oil to use? Are you unsure where to start and which technique is the most effective? These tips below should answer any other questions you have about how to get spiders out of your garage.
Do these techniques work for all spiders?
The good news is that most arachnids work the same. They don’t like strong smells that interfere with their ability to hunt for food, and they also don’t flourish in clean, tidy spaces.
The most significant difference is not all of the common spiders you’ll find in your home make webs. So even though keeping your home clear of cobwebs and checking for these signs of spiders regularly is still a wonderful practice to keep up, more may be needed to keep your home spider-free.
Many of the spiders on this list automatically come to mind when we think about spiders we may encounter in the home. While not all spiders are as potentially fatal as the Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders, their spider bites still pack a decent punch.
For best results, use more than one technique to keep spiders away. Doing this will give you multiple levels of defense in your home, no matter the type of spider you come across.
Can I use other essential oils to ward off spiders?
Not a big fan of peppermint? Not a problem. There are multiple scents associated with essential oils that work wonders when it comes to keeping spiders out of your garage. No matter what recipe from the article you want to use, the peppermint spray or lemon and lavender cleaner, swap out the essential oils for one of these listed below.
One thing you probably noticed already is that these are relatively strong smells. These scents mess with sensors in the spider’s legs that make it difficult for it to hunt for food. The best option is to try as many different combinations as possible.
That way, you will find the scent that works best for your home. You can also rotate the scents each month for a fantastic new fragrance to welcome you home.
Now that you have a few ideas to get you started, you are ready to develop the perfect strategy for keeping spiders out of your garage. Many of these tips work together and require just a little bit of time and energy to see through. Either way, we hope you found these tips and tricks for how to keep spiders out of your garage useful.
If you found the spider repellent for garage areas you were looking for, remember to share how to get rid of spiders in the garage with your friends and families on Facebook and Pinterest.