How To Kill A Spider?

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How to kill a spider is a common question for people who hate these insects. No matter where you live, you’ve probably run into a few recently – after all, the United States is home to about 3,500 species of spiders. Unfortunately, these creepy-crawlies tend to incite more fear than any other insect around the house. While it’s true that the United States has some venomous spiders, most spiders aren’t dangerous to humans.

In fact, spiders are good to have around your home for trapping other potentially dangerous pests such as cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes. However, if you’d rather not have spiders around – and you’ve spotted some of these useful insects in or around your home (or are dealing with a spider infestation) – this post covers various methods to help you understand more about spiders and how to kill them.

Even though virtually all spiders are venomous, the venom is to subdue insects, not harm people. Thus, spider venom actually acts as an insecticide. Humans are mostly unaffected by spider venom.

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When you compare spiders to other insects such as bees and wasps, you can see that wasps and bees are much more dangerous. Bees, wasps and hornets cause about 60 deaths each year. Spiders kill only seven while dogs kill 28 in the same time span.

What kills spiders instantly?

Before you kill a spider, you should know that these insects do a lot of good for the environment. Spiders help control pests such as cockroaches, mosquitoes, ants, and even mice. Unless you are dealing with a venomous spider, it’s best to get rid of it without killing it.

If you need to kill a spider instantly, you have several options:

Kill a spider instantly with hairspray

Hairspray is not just for hair anymore. It can help you kill a spider instantly. When you spray hairspray on a spider, it will suffocate the insect. This is because hairspray coats the spider, blocking air from getting inside the body. After you spray hairspray on a spider, it will be dead in moments.

Take out a spider by drowning it

Spiders need water to survive. And because spiders don’t travel much, they need to stay close to a steady water source. That’s why spiders are attracted to kitchens and bathrooms. If the spider is close to a sink, bathtub or shower stall, you could try to brush it in and flush it with water from the faucet. But, if the spider is too far, you can use a piece of paper to relocate it in the toilet. The spider will drown by the time your toilet refills itself.

Kill a spider instantly with your shoe

This is one of the oldest and most reliable ways to kill a spider instantly. It’s low tech, but it’s instant. As long as you wear shoes, stepping on a spider will kill it instantly. Nothing beats this brute force spider control method. Crushing spiders is the most common method for killing these insects fast.

What’s more, using your shoe to get rid of spiders is also a natural pest control method. However, if you will use the same technique on a wall, it might be challenging to clean up. If you want to minimize clean-up after killing a spider, you might want to use a broom to crush the insect.

Kill the spider with essential oil

Essential oils make you feel good, and they naturally get rid of spiders. The fragrance of essential oils is great for repelling or killing spiders. When you combine Citronella (or Rosemary, Thyme, Peppermint, Cinnamon) oil with a Borax solution, you concoct a potent spider killer. Give this DIY repellent a try to get rid of spiders while giving your home a fresh scent.

Spider repellent recipe:

8 ounces of tap water
25 drops of (Thyme, Peppermint, Cinnamon, Rosemary, or Citronella) essential oil
2 tbsp of Borax
Fill a clean spray bottle with the spider repellent and spray all areas with spider activity. Then, respray your home once a week to keep spiders away.

What is the best spider killer?

Diatomaceous earth (DE) is one of the best spider killers. It kills a spider naturally by scratching its abdomen and legs. In essence, diatomaceous earth kills a spider by dehydrating it. DE is also used to kill other pests like fleas, bed bugs, and cockroaches. Unfortunately, diatomaceous earth doesn’t kill a spider instantly.

Can I kill a spider with a vacuum?

The body of a spider might look scary, but it’s more fragile than it looks. A vacuum cleaner is especially effective for killing small spiders and egg sacs. Some spiders are easier to suck up than to crush. It’s the best tool for getting rid of spiders that are too tiny to kill with your shoe.

How to use a vacuum to kill spiders?

Using a vacuum cleaner is also effective for hard-to-reach areas. With the vacuum cleaner, you can suck up spiders from crevices, gaps, baseboards, and other narrow spots where spiders love to hide.

Although the vacuum doesn’t always kill the spider instantly, it will remove it from your home. If the spider doesn’t die on impact with the vacuum’s suction power, it will die of thirst or suffocate inside the vacuum cleaner.

How to prevent spiders by vacuuming?

Vacuuming doesn’t just kill spiders that have invaded your home. It’s also a great preventative step for stopping future spider invasions.

There are many use cases for the household vacuum when it comes to protection against spiders, cockroaches, bed bugs, and other pests. Here are several ways vacuuming helps your home:

Cleans dead insects that may attract more spiders
Gets rid of foodstuff that might attract pests
Eliminates pest allergens
Makes insecticide treatments more effective with less debris and dust

Kill spiders with vinegar

Using soap and vinegar, you can make a simple yet effective spider-killing spray. Every household has these simple ingredients on the shelves. The soap and vinegar will keep your house spider-free. The vinegar’s acetic acid tears the spider to pieces, and the soap coats its exoskeleton.

Even after the spider is killed. Because spiders and sensitive to vinegar’s sour taste and odor, it also works as a spider repellent. Therefore, vinegar will help keep spiders and other insects away from the nooks and crannies of your house, shed or greenhouse for a long time.

Here is how to make your own spider repellent:

Mix a half and half solution of white vinegar and water.
Fill a spray bottle with the spider repellent.
Spray the areas where you regularly see spider activity, along with entrances where spiders may enter from outside.

If you don’t like the smell of vinegar, soak five pieces of orange peel in eight ounces or one cup of white vinegar overnight before mixing the solution for spraying. Or, you can dilute four ounces of white vinegar in one liter of water and mix in one ounce of hot chili powder or chili sauce. Use the mixture in the same way as an insect or spider repellent.

Kill a spider with glue traps

You don’t have to use dangerous chemicals to kill spiders if you use glue straps. It’s a wonderful way to kill spiders without having to use harmful, toxic chemicals that could pose threats to your family and pets.

Here is how to make glue traps to kill spiders:

Mix 32 ounces of water and the same amount of corn syrup. Cook the mixture until the water boils away and you are left with a thick glue-like substance.
Cut (craft, construction or cardboard) paper into ten by two-inch stripes.
Use a brush or a small paint roll to apply the glue to the paper.

Is it cruel to kill a spider?

If you consider that spiders are predators that rid your house of pests, then it’s cruel to kill a spider. Spiders eat flies and other disease-carrying insects like roaches. So when you have spiders in your home, you can rest assured that you will also have fewer pests. Spiders hunt for pests like moths, cockroaches, earwigs, and mosquitoes.

Does killing a spider attract more?

It’s a myth that killing a spider attracts more. But, a dead spider is an easy meal for spiders. So, if you kill a spider and you don’t clean it up, it might attract another hungry spider in your home.

Kill spiders by starving them

This is not an instant spider-killing technique, but it works. You can play the long game but first, get rid of the spiders’ food source. If your home doesn’t have plenty of food for spiders, they are less likely to stay alive. By cutting off their food supply, you essentially starve them. Spiders hunt flying insects like flies and mosquitoes. Get rid of those, and you will also kill the spiders in your house.