This Kitchen Ingredient Could Be The Key To Keeping Those Pesky Spiders Out

As the seasons change and the weather cools, like other bugs, spiders start looking for a safe place to hide and can infest our homes. These eight-legged creatures seem to appear out of nowhere and can startle you and your family. However, one simple vegetable is all it takes to make them turn around in their tracks — surprisingly, onions can be used as a natural pesticide to repel spiders.

Spiders invade homes to fulfill their basic needs, such as food, shelter, and mating. Spiders are attracted to the warmth and comfort of our homes, which provide an ideal environment for them to thrive. They enter through small cracks and crevices and hide in areas like boxes, plants, or even on firewood. Once inside your home, they quickly adapt to their new surroundings, spinning webs to catch unsuspecting insects and begin their reproductive cycle. No one wants spiders crawling around in their living spaces, and that's where a basic onion can come in handy.

The strong, pungent smell of onions makes it difficult for the arachnoid to go about its day of foraging for food, which involves navigating and finding prey. Spiders are highly sensitized insects. Their legs contain sensors that not only help them smell potential food sources, as well as their surrounding environment but also taste them. In the presence of a foul-smelling onion that can be overwhelming. 

Spiders use their sense of smell to detect vibrations and chemical signals, and the strong scent of onions can flood their sensitive olfactory organs. The powerful scent of onions confuses and disorients insects, making it less likely for them to stick around. Onions can be a purely natural way to repel spiders without hurting them and without bringing harmful pesticides in proximity to you, your family, and your pets. Moreover, they are cost-effective because a couple of slices of onions amount to pennies in comparison to store-bought insecticides.

There are simple and effective ways to use onions to keep spiders at bay. You can place sliced onions in a bowl of water around entry points. Set down sliced onions around the perimeter of your home, particularly in areas where spiders are most active, near window sills, doorways, and other areas where spiders are likely to enter. You can also place onions in your garden or yard to keep spiders from entering your home.

Another option is to make an onion spray. Blend onions with water and spray the mixture around your home to repel spiders. Chop onions and steep them in water for several hours. Strain the liquid and mix it with water to create a spray that can be used on surfaces, carpets, and upholstery to repel spiders. This spray can be used on walls, ceilings, and floors to keep spiders away. You can also spray this mixture around doorways, windows, and corners to keep spiders away. While onions may not be as powerful a solution to eliminating spiders as pesticides, they can certainly help deter them from making themselves at home.