The Color Spiders Despise That Deters Them From Your House

While there are many types of bugs and pests you don't want living in your home, few cause as much emotional distress as spiders. Spiders give even full-grown adults the heebie-jeebies, and if they've been visiting your house a lot lately, you're probably eager to find a way to get rid of them. While there are various ways to get rid of spiders in your home and prevent their return in the future, a surprising hack is to deter them with color. 

There are a few different colors that spiders may prefer to stay away from. Some say that they're especially averse to bright colors, with arguably the most effective at deterrence being light blue. Light blue is thought to repel spiders for several reasons. One of the reasons may be that since blue is the color of the sky, it can make spiders feel like they're in an open space and more vulnerable. Spiders are most exploratory at night and prefer to stay in the dark as much as possible. Light blue is also thought to repel certain insects that spiders prey on, including wasps. As a result, spiders may be less likely to visit the area if light blue is present and some of their potential prey is missing.

There are many types of spiders, and many vary in color vision. Most can only see limited colors in ultraviolet and green color spectrums. However, jumping spiders and wolf spiders have more advanced vision. Most spiders fail to see red, orange, and yellow, however some jumping spiders can. While there are anecdotal claims that certain colors can repel spiders from an area, this isn't clear from the studies conducted so far. However, researchers have examined a spider's ability to see color when identifying food and potential mates.

According to University of Cincinnati research, a high contrast background led to increased activity for a wolf spider when looking at a video of a mate, with color videos eliciting more responses than grayscale. UC researchers even found that jumping spiders can be trained to associate specific colors with certain foods. These spiders were also more frenetic by a green laser dot as opposed to a red one. While it's clear that colors can affect spiders, current research hasn't explored whether a color can repel them from a particular area. Thus, at this point, you'll be relying on anecdotal evidence if you decide to add more light blue to your home.

While there isn't clear scientific evidence for this hack, you can consider painting some of your home's interior walls light blue if you want to pull out all the stops when trying to deter spiders from entering. Blue is a trending home interior color, with many light blue paint colors that are perfect for the home. However, this could end up becoming a pretty big project.

Painting your porch or porch ceiling blue is said to be particularly helpful for deterring spiders and preventing them from approaching your home in the first place. In addition to blue paint, incorporating light blue into your home in other ways may help to some extent, such as light blue curtains, which will help you bring a bit more of the color into your home. Keep in mind that even if blue repels spiders, it may not help deter spiders that are already present in your house. It will likely work best to prevent new ones from visiting. 

It's possible that spiders will react to other colors as well. Since they have limited color recognition, some colors bother their eyes due to their high reflectivity. This includes yellow, white, and other bright colors. However, these colors may also attract specific bugs, so adding them to your home can be a double-edged sword. On the flip side, green is said to attract spiders but repel bugs. Overall, if you want to try repelling spiders with color, light blue is likely the best option.