Incey Wincey…
If you're arachnophobic, or have tender feelings for all living creatures and that doesn't exclude 8-legged freaks, then this post is not for you.
All the "drought-what-drought?" rain we experienced over summer – which made everything green grow like it was on steroids, and insects breed like they were planning to overthrow the planet – meant that every day was like Christmas for spiders.
And they too bred like there was no tomorrow.
As fast as I could brush them away, my car would return to looking like this. Often by the very next day.
And this.
And our letterbox like this.
There's only one thing worse than reaching into your letterbox and putting your hand through a spider's web, and that's walking through one at head height.
Eeeeee!!
Before one of the conifers planted either side of our front door fell down in a massive storm, it wasn't uncommon to walk out the door face-first into a cunningly positioned web.
Mr K and I started to limbo out of the house each day, undoubtedly to the puzzlement and amusement of any observers.
***
I tried spraying our cars and letterbox with regular insect spray, with very limited success.
It was time to bring out the big guns.
Ordinarily, chemicals like this would never make it across my threshold. But our house was starting to look like the set of a horror movie and serious action needed to be taken.
The spider living behind my side mirror was first on my hit list.
I really hope that hasn't damaged my paint work. I think I'll take my car through the carwash tomorrow.
Luckily we haven't had any spiders invading our actual home. This may be because our place was newly renovated when we moved in just a couple of years ago, and they used some kind of insect-unfriendly paint throughout (I never knew there was such a thing, did you?), which seems to have kept them at bay.
Until now.
This corpulent little bugger was clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He met his maker right in the corner of our front door jamb.
I really, really don't want to have to use that insect napalm around our home. It was bad enough having to spray it outside my car, and still smell it inside the next day.
Exposing myself to chemicals designed to linger for months is something I'm really not comfortable with.
I've heard that you can use eucalyptus oil as a spider deterrent, so maybe that will be a better option for door frames and window sills. I just wouldn't want to damage the paint work though.
If you have any natural insect deterrent ideas to share, I'd love to hear them 
xx Kiki
Ooh, what a gruesome death! I’ve heard lemon essential oil is an effective repellent, though I haven’t tried it myself.
Andrea – Yes, very poor timing for that unfortunate spider. I have some lemon oil, so I will give it a go – thank you
I like the smell of lemon more than eucalyptus too.
your car mirror looks just like mine! except i’ve discovered that the spiders making the webs in my car are only wee ickly ones and have left them alone at the moment.
huntsmans on the other hand – destroy!
i try to remember that spiders keep away more pestery bugs which eat my flowers. doesn’t always work.
hollypop – I know, they’re so useful at keeping bugs away. But their webs freak me out!
Spiders in the side window are annoying as they are tricky to find and they never fail to rebuild their webs quickly. In WA we get redbacks which freak me out as they are very poisonous.
Sass – I’ve hardly ever seen redbacks but they scare me too. They are such evil looking spiders. Very bad ass.
Ohhhhh, so I’m not the only one??!! LOL, I am sooo gonna post a Pic on my blog of the MONSTER who inhabited my car door jam! Yuk x a million!
I had to stop off at target on my way home from work, to get some spray- I wanted some hardcore stuff, but all they had was the regular stuff… I killed her good! How do I know it was a ‘lady’ spider? Oh, I dunno, perhaps all the baby spiders she left roaming around my car!! YUK!
I had only recently acquired my car, so I thought the person I got it from was breeding spiders (unbeknownst to me!), and I still live in fear that the insides of my car doors are filled with spiders… living of the carcasses of one another. *shudder*
missy – Ewwwwww! Ok, having baby spiders roaming around my car would TOTALLY freak me out!! Maybe you could get a flea bomb or something and set it off in your car to make sure they’re all stone dead regardless of the tiny crevices they’re hiding out in. Scary stuff!