its all anecdotal. i expect what is really happening is massive dose of ‘confirmation bias’ combined with the improper recording of presence and absence of spiders in rooms before and during a test period. spider phobics are in desperate hope of a repellent working, and might well fall into the trap of attributing any slight difference in arachnid numbers to the conkers. but what they have forgotten is that spider numbers continually fluctuate anyway,for year to year, month to month and day to day. so unless they have recorded gaps in the presence of spiders when conkers were absent, the conclusion that conkers are effective is totally invalid. i expect people are discounting or ignoring when the the idea doesnt really work very well (which is confirmation bias) and also exaggerating how many spiders really were ‘infesting’ their house before littering their house with huge piles of conkers .

im also theoretically critical because its the exact opposite of what we should expect in nature. evolutionarily, it would be a huge disadvantage for plants to develop chemicals to deter the most important group of insect killers in nature from themselves! moreover, as spiders are not vegetarians, they do not require the chemical sensitivity to avoid certain plants, or distinguish between them. in any case, there are thousands of species of spiders. it would be highly unlikely they would all behave the same way to the conker threat!! logically, it would be of far greater benefit for plants to develop chemicals to ATTRACT spiders to their seeds or foliage. there is evidence that plants attacked by caterpillars attract wasps.

incidentally, i put a pile of fresh conkers next to hole where a big house spider is always in residence. it had NO EFFECT. its still there !

i suspect conkers are neutral to spiders; and treated as merely part of the environment.

you’ll never get rid of spiders. the only effective cure for culturally learnt fears like this (effecting women in western world) is to culturally unlearn it. pick up and study closely one of these 300 million year old beauties of evolution, and dont be so silly.

I’ve always hated spiders, especially the big hairy ones, so I will definitely be trying this conker trick. Everyone I know swears by it! I recently had a horrific experience when a spider the size of my palm decided to set up camp in my kitchen sink. I was hysterical. I had to actually call my mum. God love her, she talked me through getting rid of it really calmly (involving covering it with a tea towel and smacking the living daylights out of it with a shoe!)

But I don’t like killing them – they are good for our environment! And conkers can actually be quite aesthetically pleasing, when arranged nicely I will definitely give it a go! And Marcus is right – Raid nearly vaporises them!!

Conker season is almost here so I’m going to give it a go. Would it be more effective to grind/blend the conkers, or is it possible to make a liquid with them to paint onto window sills?

I’ve recently moved into a new flat and have, in the 3 months I’ve been here, already seen 3 LARGE spiders, and numerous smaller ones.

The tiny ones I don’t mind, Harvestmen (A.K.A Daddy Long Legs, in some parts of the world), I also don’t mind.

But the big, hairy, house-spiders leave me petrified – I spent a very distressing night sat, unable to move, in my hallway the other night thanks to two of said monsterous beasties, so, if there is anything that will keep them at bay, then I’d REALLY, SERIOUSLY like to know what it is!

Some sources seem to indicate that various essential oils, particularly citrus, will do the trick, but these same sources often also state that conkers will too.

So, is there any evidence that anything is at all effective in repelling spiders, and if so, what?