How can I prevent spiders from setting up home in my car's wing mirrors?

Question

I have spiders that like to spin large messy webs on my car's wing mirrors. They hide inside the body of the mirrors and only come out to collect their prey or spin their webs at night.

I've tried removing them with high pressure water and a leaf blower but neither was successful. The spiders were able to avoid both. What can I do to get them to move out on their own and stop other spiders from moving in? Is there some kind of long lasting spider repellent? I don't want to kill them if it can be avoided. I don't mind them living out their lives away from me and my car.

Answer 1

Spiders dislike strongly aromatic plants.

• Carefully pop out the wing mirror glass referring to a YouTube video for your model of car.

• Clean out the area behind now that it is accessible.

• Obtain some small scented wooden balls that will fit in some of the spaces (perhaps in a net bag). Or make something up yourself, perhaps small strips of wood impregnated with a pungent aromatic substance like lemon, mint, lavender, cedar, conkers (chestnuts) and possibly others like eucalyptus.

• Pop the mirror glass back in.

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I agree that spiders can be very tricky to remove by hand. If they are near the crack they'll see you coming and nip away before you can reach them.

The trick is to wait until there is one out in the open, fixing its web. Sneak up on the blind side of the mirror with a piece of stiff card that you can flick it away with, or a cloth that you can whip at it to likewise flick it away.

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One thing I do is to frequently clean off any amount of web to be seen – at least daily. If a spider can't catch much food, it should be enough of a survivalist to move to a better location.

Answer 2

For someone who doesn't want to kill spiders, a pressure washer and leaf blower seems to be more on the violent end of the interaction spectrum.

You might be interested in the Entrance CLOSED Hack:

First, use a pipe cleaner or popsicle stick to reach into the space around the mirror. Use it to pull webs and other debris free from the mirror housing. Good.

When you park, slip a shoe cover over the mirror opening to discourage squatters from moving in. The elastic rim will hold it in place.

When you leave, pull them off an toss them inside to put on at your destination.

Another less convenient possibility (no elastic) is a thin film bag used when you go grocery shopping for fruit and produce. Cover the wing mirror housing and use a granny knot with the handles to secure it temporarily.

Good luck.

Answer 3

I use lavender spray or drops in my home as a bug deterrent. Cheap, easy, effective, and all natural. Put some in a squirt gun and spray behind the glass. Let it drip down.

Answer 4

My wife's car had the same issue and this is what helped us deal with it.

Since spiders taste and smell through sensory organs on their feet, they tend to avoid areas with strong scents as it's too overpowering for them. Research/testing has shown that peppermint oil and chestnuts work effectively at repelling spiders and a variety of other insects (EntomologyToday and PubMed, for example).

So the easiest solution is to clean out the existing cobwebs and then apply some peppermint essential oil around/behind the mirror. You can apply it directly or partially diluted with water. Try to avoid getting it on the mirror glass, but if you do, just use some Dawn dish soap to clean the oil off. The benefit to this is that you won't be killing them, just repelling any of them from coming back.

It worked so well for us that I now keep a large spray bottle of peppermint oil/water solution in the garage and every 2 months or so, I take 5 minutes to walk around the perimeter of the garage and spray any possible entry points to keep spiders out.

Answer 5

Most of the people (at least, most of the people I know) do not have this kind of problem. So, one point of view is that you should make some analysis and find out the source of those spiders.

According to the picture, the car is parked in (on?) an area with vegetation. What else is around there? Maybe you can park the car somewhere else.

Or, (partially) remove the vegetation.

Also, spiders usually do not build dense nets overnight. So my assumption is that your car does not move for extended periods of time. Since the spiders can actually set home in any part of your car where they have access to, you might want to consider safeguarding your entire car against things (spiders included). (this is derived from the shoe-cover idea posted by Stan earlier)

To properly clean the inside of the mirrors, you should get the car to a specialist, to dis-assemble the mirrors and clean their insides. If you do not have the experience and the tools to do it yourself, you risk (as a minimum) to break the glass of the mirror.