While I hate to break it to you, it is spider season in the UK, and if you’re looking for ways to stop these creepy crawlies entering your home, pest experts are recommending an all-natural, chemical-free method – that will also make your house smell gorgeous.

While spiders native to the UK won’t do you any danger, there’s no shame in admitting that many of us are afraid of them and therefore don’t want to share our homes with them. So, there’s no harm in looking for human ways to keep spiders out of a house.

One effective method is using a scent spiders hate. In particular, eucalyptus. Pest experts have revealed how you can use this to turn this relaxing scent into a powerful deterrent this autumn.

Why don’t spiders like eucalyptus?

While spiders don’t ‘smell’ in the same sense we do, they do rely on their sense of smell to help navigate, and the strong scent of eucalyptus interrupts this.

‘Spiders are highly sensitive to strong scents, and eucalyptus is one they tend to find overwhelming. Eucalyptus has a sharp, medicinal smell. Spiders effectively ‘taste’ and ‘smell’ their surroundings through receptors on their legs, so they rely heavily on chemical cues to navigate and find food. A powerful scent like eucalyptus can interfere with those senses and make an area feel unwelcoming, encouraging them to settle elsewhere,’ explains Dan Steward, Managing Director at Shield Pest Control.

If you want to harness the power of eucalyptus to keep spiders out of your home (and make it smell good in the process, your best bet is making a spray. To do this, you’ll need a spray bottle (£3.99, Amazon), water and of course, eucalyptus essential oil (£9.99, Amazon).

‘The most effective method is diluting 15 to 20 drops of eucalyptus essential oil in a spray bottle of water and applying it along skirting boards, window frames, door frames and any corners where spiders are regularly seen. Refresh every week or two as the scent fades,’ says Mosh Latifi, Co-Owner of EcoCare Pest Management.

‘Fresh eucalyptus branches placed in vases near entry points provide a gentler, longer-lasting ambient deterrent. Eucalyptus oil diffused in rooms where spiders are active is also effective and requires no direct application to surfaces.’

Is this a good method to deter spiders?

If you want to keep spiders out of your home, this is one of the most affordable methods you can use. Of course, you’ll also want to assess the things attracting spiders to your home, but experts say eucalyptus works as a great preventative method.

‘Eucalyptus can be a useful, low-cost and chemical-free deterrent, and it’s a good option for anyone wanting to avoid harsher products. That said, it’s best thought of as one part of a wider approach rather than a complete solution. Scent-based deterrents help make a home less inviting, but they won’t seal the gaps spiders are getting through, so they work best alongside practical steps such as sealing small gaps around windows and doors, reducing clutter and damp, and regularly removing webs and egg sacs,’ adds Dan.

You could also introduce a spider curfew, whereby you close all the windows and doors post 7 pm to help reduce the amount of spiders entering your home via these entrances. I must also point out that the main draw of using eucalyptus is its fresh scent.

‘Eucalyptus has a clean, fresh, spa-like quality that many people find genuinely pleasant at home. Unlike white vinegar, which is highly effective but pungent, eucalyptus is something people actively choose to diffuse for its own sake. Using it as a spider deterrent is essentially a free benefit on top of something that already improves the atmosphere in a room,’ concludes Mosh.

Deter spiders from your home

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I just scarified my lawn, and what I expected to be a long, tough task was staggeringly simple.

The Vonhaus Lawn Scarifier & Aerator 1500W has been on my wishlist for a while, and last weekend, after months of dry weather, I finally got to use it. I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to a manual scarifier now – it made the task so much easier (effortless, actually), and we managed to scarify our 38m² lawn in under 20 minutes. For £119.99, It’s a worthy investment if you’re wondering how to scarify your lawn for the first time.

Here’s why I loved the Vonhaus Lawn Scarifier & Aerator so much.

It’s the ideal time of year to scarify your lawn (it’ll remove dead thatch, moss and debris to encourage airflow and healthier grass), so I thought it was time to finally put the Vonhaus Lawn Scarifier & Aerator (which is also available at Amazon) to the test.

In a nutshell, the electric tool comes with a scarifying drum which drags thatch out of the grass. It requires significantly less elbow grease than a manual tool, though – and it really does make the job a lot faster.

Our lawn is around 28m², and my partner and I finished the task in just under 20 minutes (a new record!). It’s so easy to use, only requiring a light push to keep it moving, and you can also adjust the height of the handlebar, which makes a huge difference to the comfort of the tool.

I should mention that the Vonhaus Lawn Scarifier is corded, not cordless. Its 10m cable is perfectly fine for small gardens – but any larger than that, and you’ll need an outdoor extension lead like this Masterplug Outdoor Socket Extension Lead from B&Q.

The cord did restrict our range a little in our 38m² garden, which is probably the only drawback I could find with the tool. If you’d prefer a cordless model, the Einhell Cordless Lawn Scarifier and Aerator is highly rated on Amazon (but it’s almost double the price).

I was blown away by the sheer volume of dead grass, thatch and moss that the Vonhaus Scarifier removed from the lawn. Within just two or three lengths of the lawn, the 30L collector was full – so you’ll just need to remember to empty it at intervals. We also gave the scarifier a whirl without the collection bag attached to see the tool churn out dead grass, so there’s also that option, but you’ll then need to clean up the thatch and debris once you’ve finished scarifying (it’s a little bit different to leaving grass clippings on your lawn).

There are also four depth settings to choose from (-12 to +4mm), changed via a simple handle. As per Vonhaus’s advice, we started with the highest setting, and we actually found that the lower settings scalped parts of the lawn, since it’s already so dead from this summer’s heatwaves – but since we’re about to start afresh and reseed our lawn, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing!

If you’re looking to aerate your lawn, Vonhaus says the scarifying drum can do that at the same time, although we didn’t spot any deeper aeration taking place – it seems as though it simply loosens the surface of the soil rather than deeply penetrates the ground, so we’ll be using a separate tool to aerate the lawn properly.

The Vonhaus Lawn Scarifier actually comes with a raking drum, too, which you’re supposed to before the scarifying drum to clear moss and debris – but since our grass was already dead in patches, we found the raking drum actually scalped the lawn instead, and kicked up a huge amount of dust! In fact, Vonhaus advises wearing face protection when using the tool for that very reason. It’s pretty easy to swap out the drums – you just need an Allen key, which comes with the scarifier.

Other autumn lawn care essentials

If you want to scarify your lawn in a fraction of the time it would usually take, without the effort, the Vonhaus Lawn Scarifier & Aerator 1500W is well worth the investment.