Goodbye Spiders & Flies
Say Goodbye to those annoying Spiders & Flies! Here are some easy ways to have less encounters with those scary spiders🕷 and annoying flies🪰!
Spring is finally here (PTL because I’m so sick of the cold!).
Spring & Summer are for sure my favorite times of the year! I love being outside, working in the flower beds and garden, and lounging by the pool. BUT I DO NOT love all of the spiders and flies that come with it.
Last year was the worst for both!
Here are 2 easy hacks to help keep these pesky creatures away!
FLIES
I learned this trick last Summer after hearing a co-worker talk about it. She had used bars of Irish Spring soap to keep the flies away. What an easy and inexpensive trick.
Off I ran to our local Dollar General (because they are literally everywhere in the south) to buy a few bars.
Here are 3 different ways you can use the soap:
- Place the whole bars in different locations.
- Break up the bars and place the pieces in small bags or in different locations.
- Using shavings from the bars and again place in bags or in different locations.
Last year I went with the easiest of the 3 and left my bars whole. I hid the bars in various spots such as: behind the welcome sign, old milk jug, in the wooden tool box with my faux roses, and inside a small pot.
SPIDERS
Last year I set out to find a repellant for those pesky 8 legged creatures and so many of y’all told me about peppermint essential oil. Thankfully I love peppermint essential oil and I just so happened to have a new bottle of it.
After reading up on all the uses for peppermint oil, I figured out there are even more benefits to it!! They say it’s also great for keeping ants, mice, flies, and fruit flies away.
Ways to use it:
- Using a spray bottle place 15 drops of peppermint oil in 16 ounces of water. Spray the mixture around your porch in corners, crevices, and around your door jams. You can also use it inside your home, but I am working on porches right now.
- Or your can apply several drops to a cotton ball and place these in corners.
We started by cleaning the porches. Hubby pressure washed them and I decluttered and decorated for Spring.
I decorated first because I sprayed the mixture on the items I used to decorate with, such as the wooden tool box, wooden sign, and the pillow cushions.
After it was all cleaned and decorated I sprayed the mixture.
Now fingers crossed that it works.
Comments
Join the conversation
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I wonder what is New Zealand's equivalent soap to your Irish Spring, what essentials are in Irish Spring soap? I would dearly love to know. Thanx Myra from Down Under in New Zealand (look up a map if you're not sure) we're that independent, many islanded country to the right and down a bit or SSE from Australia.
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Hi Mira. I'm Julianne, an Advanced Master Gardener Volunteer in the Thumb of Michigan, USA.
It's the SMELL they object to, so find the cheapest, stinkiest ManBar of soap at your equivalent of a Dollar Store.
Chopped, because it disburses more scent (increased surfaces). The whole Ziplok baggy thing befuddles me a bit. Assuming it's to delay melting? I do mine this way: I chop into big chunks, poke holes thru, thread leftover fishing line or string thru holes and hang on study stems, branches of my targeted shrubs. I also chop into chunks and make a "moat" around precious perennials that're getting chomped.
Works pretty well (NOTHING is 100 percent effective) but... you must keep replenishing the soap chunks.
Hope this answers your questions. Good Luck, Fellow Gardener.
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Thanx, I'll keep a nose out for a stinky man's soap. Cheers M
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Why do I need to put the soap in baggies? Can it just be sprinkled around my yard or flower beds... If I use the baggie, do I leave it open or sealed?
Why would anyone get rid of spiders as they eat the flies and are very useful ecologically?
How do you get rid of snakes,lizards too?