Greenhouse Spiders

Hi,

While we welcome spiders in the greenhouse as they eat all the bugs they can, we now have to deep clean the greenhouse this winter due to a build up of pests etc.

Expect its impossible, but is there any way we can lure the spiders out of the greenhouse before we start cleaning ?

 

Maybe add something they dislike the smell of, but which won't harm them, inside the greenhouse, a few days before you deep clean? A bowl of conkers is traditional if you don't want them inside a house, they are also said on the internet to hate peppermint, tea tree and citrus oils.

ETA: my hope is that they will then decamp before you clean, obviously!

 

Most spiders die in the winter after laying eggs. The egg sacs look like fluffy white balls about a cm across. If you put out some upturned clay pots they might lay them inside and then you can put them aside while you clean. Some like wolf spiders hiberate in cracks so you could provide something for them to go in. I usually just wash the greenhouse with soap and the spiders come back.

 

I used to use those smoke candles many years ago, I was alway skeptical as it never seemed to kill the spiders.