Could Your Skincare Products Really Be Attracting Spiders To Your Home?

Spiders are a lot of people's worst nightmare, so it's not unheard of for those who suffer from arachnophobia to be obsessed with making sure they stay away. Constantly swiping walls, spraying pesticides to get rid of bugs, and checking for cobwebs are the norm if you want to keep your home spider-free. However, apparently, you could still end up around spiders by unknowingly attracting them with a specific type of product that mimics their sex pheromones. 

Bees can be attracted to sweet, floral scents that smell like the flowers that they like, but you don't usually have to worry about spiders. The skincare product in question is a body lotion by Sol de Janeiro called Drench Body Butter which took social media by storm thanks to a viral Sephora review from someone claiming that wolf spiders chased them around whenever they wore it. Soon after, other users began experimenting and coming up with the same verdict. 

However, before you toss out your body lotion because someone on TikTok or Reddit told you to, you may want to check the ingredients label.

The theory is that the male spiders are attracted to Sol de Janeiro's Delícia Drench™ Body Butter's scent because the female spider pheromones, farnesyl acetate and hexadecyl acetate, are among its ingredients. However, it's worth noting that this product doesn't actually contain either one of the acetate compounds, so it's safe to say that if these unverified instances are even true, they're simply coincidences. Furthermore, farnesyl and hexadecyl acetates are popular cosmetic ingredients so this would also mean that any skin care products that contain them would also attract spiders. 

That's not the case, as other products, including Dermalogica's Sebum Clearing Masque, for instance, which contain these compounds have not received similar reviews. The farnesyl acetate in body lotion is also derived from plants, not animals, and certainly not from spiders. According to board-certified dermatologist Dr. Geeta Yadav, the idea of spiders chasing after people due to scented lotions is simply preposterous. "The majority of ingredients purely derived from animals and animal sources [...] are no longer used," she clarified to People, urging consumers not to fall victim to silly online shams and false reviews. 

University of Cincinnati College of Arts and Sciences Professor George Uetz shares the same sentiment, informing the New York Post, "Someone putting a dab of body butter on a tissue and reporting in Reddit that it attracts spiders doesn't count as research." Thus, you may want to hold onto that expensive jar of lotion. It's not the reason why you have spiders lurking around.

Now that you've vindicated the innocent jar of sweet-smelling body cream from being the culprit luring spiders into your home, it's time to pinpoint the real reasons. You are likely to catch spiders inside during extreme weather conditions, such as in winter. They are cold-blooded animals and so naturally gravitate toward a warmer environment. Another reason spiders take refuge in your house is because you may have a robust food source. Arachnids are insectivores so if you have an influx of flies, roaches, and other small bugs, they will be attracted to their biological prey. 

This means that the cleaner your house, the less chance of spiders coming inside. The same for still water. Spiders need water to survive just like any of us so the presence of standing water is a green light for them. Still, even if a spider enters your home, you rarely have to worry about it coming near you because it's probably more scared of you than you are of it. 

Spiders tend to be shy creatures and they don't typically come near people. They only approach prey and, fortunately for us, we are just way too big for them to eat. Getting rid of spiders is as easy as swatting them with a swatter or spraying a mild pesticide on them. For more serious infestations, however, you may need to hire a pest control professional.