Halloween: Spiders in Your Car and How to Get Rid of Them

Is there a better day than All Hallows’ Eve - aka Halloween - to talk about spiders that decide your car is their new home?

Even though these eight-legged visitors can look frightening enough to trigger irrational fears in some people, the reality is that they can be genuinely useful: they help keep other, more annoying crawling and flying pests in check - and some of those can be more harmful to our health.

Still, that doesn’t mean we want them living inside our cars.

Most of us have had the unpleasant surprise of discovering spiders in a vehicle. Often, the first clue is a few suspicious strands on the door mirrors…

Or, as happened to yours truly, leaving the car parked for a couple of days and then finding one of these creatures had been especially busy, “joining” one of the air vents to a stalk behind the steering wheel.

Why spiders choose your car

In truth, cars make excellent shelters not only for spiders but for many other creeping little creatures too. They provide cover from rain and cold - and from heat as well - while also offering the potential for easy hunting.

But… how can we get rid of them?

If you’d rather not wait days for spiders to leave once they “realise” your car isn’t the best place to catch their next meal, there are quicker options.

If you can spot the spider

When you can actually see them, the most straightforward approach is to catch them and release them outdoors so they can carry on doing their job controlling other pests. If you’re too nervous to use your hands, you can always gently encourage them into a small jar or box instead.

If all you can see are webs

On the other hand, when the only sign of spiders in your car is the webbing they’ve been spinning, you’ll need different tactics.

One place to start is with smells. Spiders generally dislike stronger scents, and fragrances such as citrus, eucalyptus, or mint are often effective as spider repellents. Next time you buy an air freshener for your car, choosing one of these scents could solve the issue - and help prevent it coming back.

Of course, there are also solutions that are less “spider-friendly” and more final in nature. Using purpose-made insecticides is one option, as is applying non-toxic repellents (some of which can be made using household ingredients) to deal with the “illegal squatter”.

How to stop spiders moving into your car

To stop spiders treating your car like their own place again, the best advice is to keep the interior clean - it reduces the chance of a spider seeing the inside of your vehicle as its next hunting ground.

If you regularly eat in your car, vacuuming it fairly often becomes even more important - and the vacuum cleaner can also double as a tool for removing a particularly “stubborn” spider. It’s worth cleaning and vacuuming all the awkward corners and the gaps between seats too, where debris like crumbs can easily build up.

It also helps to get rid of unnecessary clutter that’s doing nothing but adding weight. Items left forgotten in the boot or on the car floor create extra hiding places for spiders and other small bugs - in other words, a ready-made hunting territory.

If you have a garage, it’s also wise not to leave doors or windows open, even if the door is only on the latch or a window is open by less than a finger’s width. As you can imagine, a spider won’t find that much of a challenge to get through.