UK households have been told to place basil at their windows from Monday, September 1, for a surprising reason. Basil is a common herb to grow at home, and it is relatively easy even for beginner gardeners. The leaves are super handy for cooking pasta dishes, pizzas, and salads. However, they also have other handy uses. When they are growing in the garden, for example, they can help deter pests from plants like tomatoes.
But in your home, they can help you keep out spiders, especially as they move inside as the weather gets cooler from September onwards. With the summer coming to an end, many Brits are noticing more spiders in their homes. Around this time of the year, male spiders search for female spiders to mate, so you will notice more of these pesky critters around your home. However, there are ways to keep them away.
The experts at PlantIn have revealed a number of ways to keep spiders away from your home, including the use of basil. First, you need to know where your entry points are.
Although you can do your best to seal these up, sometimes it’s near-impossible to prevent spiders from entering your home. So, how do we keep them away? One of the best ways is to use smells.
Basil is handy. By placing it near your windows and other entry points, you can help ward off spiders. This is because they will find the strong smell of it overwhelming.
If you don’t have basil, there are plenty of other scents that they hate. These include lavender, eucalyptus, mint, and lemon balm.
Speaking of Basil, the experts reveal: “Basil is one of the most popular herbs to add to dishes to give them a fresh, herbaceous flavour, and its strong smell is enough to turn away any spiders headed in its direction.
“This plant can be grown easily outdoors or inside on a sunny windowsill, and not only will you never run out of fresh basil, but you likely won’t encounter any spiders near it either.”
