How to Keep Spiders Away While You’re Sleeping

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Plus, what to do when you see a spider in or around your bed
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If you’re trying to keep creepy crawlies out of your bed at night, we’ve got good news for you—spiders want nothing to do with you at night either! People move around while they sleep, and even the movement of your chest as you breathe can scare a spider on its way. However, if you’re trying to maximize the odds that spiders leave you alone while you get your beauty sleep, we’ve got a bunch of scientifically proven tips and tricks to keep spiders out of your room and away from your bed. We’ve even interviewed pest control experts Chris Parker and Hussam Bin for their tips on keeping spiders out of your home.

How to Get Rid of Spiders in the Bedroom

Clean your bedroom frequently and remove clutter under or around your bed. Spiders are drawn to hiding spots where they can hunt for food, so eliminating these spaces makes it more likely that spiders will stay away while you sleep. You can also place spider repellents like chestnuts and mint oil around your bed.

Section 1 of 5:

How to Keep Spiders Out of Your Room

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  1. Get your clothes off the floor, throw out any old stacks of newspapers, and deep clean your room by vacuuming, mopping, and dusting. Wash your sheets frequently, ideally about once every one to two weeks (or more often if you keep seeing spiders in your room). [1]
    • Make sure to clean away any cobwebs, spider webs, or dead insects that you see. Clearing a spider’s web makes it more likely that they’ll look to hide elsewhere where they feel safe, and cleaning out dead insects reduces the likelihood that a spider will see your bedroom as a place to hunt food.
    • Cleaning your room regularly is especially important if you ever eat in your room. Food scraps and crumbs will attract spiders (and other bugs that spiders hunt), so avoid eating in your room (especially in your bed) and clean up thoroughly when you do.
    • This isn’t to say that you should freak out about keeping your room perfectly immaculate. A single crumb or loose sock is unlikely to attract a bunch of spiders.
  2. Keep the area under your box spring totally open if you want to minimize the odds that spiders end up crawling around you while you sleep. If your room is clean but there are a bunch of shoeboxes under your bed, a spider is just going to hide under your bed. If you’re using this area for storage of any kind, it’s going to attract spiders. [2]
    • If you’re worried there are dozens of spiders hiding under your bed, remember that spiders are mainly motivated by finding bugs to eat. Unless you find tons of bugs around the skirt of your bed, there probably won’t be any spiders down there.
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  3. Some spiders will hide in houseplants to hunt mites and aphids that are attracted to houseplants, and many spiders will hide in houseplants just because they’re safe. Before you go to bed, pick up any potted plants in your room and move them to another part of your home. This action should minimize the number of arachnids you run into on any given night. [3]
    • The one exception would be any variety of mint. Mint is one of the few scents that spiders actively avoid, so growing a mint plant in your room should help. [4]
  4. Move things around so that there are as few connections between your bed and the floor or wall as possible. Pull your bed 8 inches (20 cm) away from the wall so the headboard isn’t touching anything. Lift bed skirts and excess blankets so that nothing is hanging over the side of the bed or touching the floor. Push side tables away from your bed so that the sides of your bed aren’t near them. [5]
    • If you’re really scared of spiders , rest assured that turning your bed into an island like this is going to be enough to deter the vast majority of spiders.
  5. Many spider species want it to be 70 °F (21 °C) or warmer, so a cool bedroom may deter them from poking around in the night. If it’s fall or winter, crack the window a bit and close your door to keep the room cool . Otherwise, turn the thermostat down so that it stays nice and chilly at night.
    • If your bedroom is the warmest part of your house, this may have the unintended effect of attracting spiders to your warm bed.
  6. While spiders themselves aren’t necessarily attracted to light, bugs and insects most definitely are. Since spiders feast on bugs and insects, they’ll come near any light sources in order to look for food. Keep your outside lights off so that fewer flies, moths, and other creepy crawlies come into your home and bring spiders along with them.
  7. Diatomaceous earth (DE) is a dust-like insecticide that doesn’t pose any danger to humans, but it does do damage to spiders. Before you go to bed, sprinkle a thin layer of DE around the perimeter of your bed. If any spiders wander near your bed, they’ll either crawl away in the opposite direction or become critically injured by the DE and die. [8]
    • Vacuum up the DE the morning after application.
    • DE is generally nontoxic to humans and animals, but it can still pose a health risk if ingested. Avoid using diatomaceous earth if you have kids or pets in the home.
    • To be completely safe, consider wearing a safety mask while applying the DE.
  8. Toss a chestnut or two into a few bowls and lay them out around your bed. For reasons that we still don’t entirely understand, some species of spiders don’t like chestnuts and are scared away by their scent. While this method won’t work for every spider species, it may help most spiders stay away from your bedroom area. [9]
  9. Pour a dash of mint oil into an essential oil diffuser and turn it on before you go to bed at night. If you don’t have a diffuser, soak a few cotton balls in mint essential oil and place them around your bed. Or, dilute a few drops of mint oil in a spray bottle filled with water and spritz it all over your box spring.
    • If you prefer, you could simply keep some mint plants in your room. The effect should be relatively identical.
    • Mint is often used as an insect repellent because it’s the only essential oil that definitively appears to repel spiders. [10]
    • However, some people have found anecdotal success with other scents like cinnamon , lavender , citrus , and cedar essential oils , but the effects of some of these products are not scientifically proven.
    • One downside of this method is that the scent of mint tends to keep most people awake at night. If you have trouble falling asleep, you may want to skip this approach or try a more calming oil like lavender or cedar.
  10. Vinegar has an extremely pungent smell that could repel sensitive spiders away from your room. Mix 8 fluid ounces (240 mL) vinegar into an equal amount of water. Use the DIY spider repellent as a room spray and spritz it around your bed, or let it sit in an open container in your bedroom. [11]
    • Vinegar also repels fruit flies, mosquitoes, and ants. Not only will you see fewer of these critters in your home, but you’ll also be limiting a spider’s food supply and making them less likely to hang around.
  11. Cedar has been proven to be a very effective insect repellent, particularly against ants, ticks, and moths. [12] The smell of cedar is very pungent to arachnids, so consider buying cedar-lined side drawers and wardrobes, or even a bed made entirely out of cedar wood .
    • You can also try using cedar oil as a liquid product to repel spiders—dip a few cotton balls in cedar oil and place them around your bed before going to sleep.
    • “Some people use bags of cedar chips,” comments Parker, “as they’re a natural repellent. They’ll put them in canoes that they’ve stored over the winter and things like that.” [13]
  12. Purchase an ultrasonic pest repellent and plug it into an outlet in your bedroom. Although you won’t be able to hear it, the electronic device will begin to emit electromagnetic waves and make all insects (including spiders) flee the nearby area. [14]
    • This device is a great option for individuals who don’t want to kill spiders or use chemical insecticides but also don’t want them in their homes. Plus, this product is safe to use around kids and never needs a refill.
    • However, these insect repellers can sometimes distress pets with sensitive hearing. Most dogs, cats, and other household pets will be unbothered by the noise. However, keep an eye on your pet’s body language when you turn on the device. If they cry, avoid your bedroom, or put their ears down, they may be negatively affected by the noise.
  13. If you really want to keep spiders out for the night, set multiple glue traps out around each of the legs of your bed frame where it meets the floor. If you pull your bed away from the wall, this will be the only access point for nighttime creepy crawlies, and there’s no way a spider is outwitting a glue trap . [15]
    • Just don’t forget about the glue traps when you wake up in the morning! There’s nothing worse than stepping out of bed half-awake to discover a glue trap stuck to the bottom of your foot.
  14. Minimizing the number of entry points for spiders to enter your room (or home) will keep spiders away while you’re sleeping. If there are any cracks in your wall or along your baseboard, seal them up with caulk . Install weather stripping on your windows and a door sweep on your bedroom door. [16]
    • Put screens on your windows if you don’t already have them or if they have tears in them—especially if you sleep with the window open at night.
    • Keep in mind that spiders can crawl in through some very tiny holes. This method isn’t going to keep every spider out permanently, but it will definitely minimize the odds!
    • If you have a persistent spider issue, Parker recommends hiring “a pest control company…to do air gap sealing in your [attics or crawl spaces] in order to eliminate a lot of the spiders coming in from those areas.” [17]
  15. For a more long-term solution for dealing with spiders and other insects in the home, consider adopting a dog or cat. Many pets will take on the role of hunting insects around the house and getting rid of them for you—including flies and spiders. While a pet won’t prevent spiders from getting into the home , they may help reduce the amount of creepy crawlies wandering around your living space.
  16. If you have a persistent issue with spiders in your bedroom or identify a potentially venomous spider, call a professional for help. If you think you have an infestation, contact a trusted pest control service as soon as possible and explain the problem to them. If you spot a dangerous spider, call an exterminator immediately.
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Section 2 of 5:

What to Do If There’s a Spider in Your Bedroom

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  1. The spider is unlikely to do you harm, so if you think you’ll be able to sleep with a spider near your bed, you can just go to sleep as normal. However, you may want to identify the spider first to make sure it's not venomous or potentially harmful (which is rare). Here are the possible types of spiders you might see in your home: [18]
    • House Spider : Large and easy to spot with brown heads and tan abdomens with a herringbone pattern. Generally harmless.
    • False Widow Spider : Resemble Black Widows with dark bodies and light markings. May bite, but generally harmless.
    • Missing Sector Orb Web Spider : Have bodies and legs with silvery markings. Make asymmetrical webs with missing parts. Generally harmless.
    • Daddy Long Legs : Have tiny gray bodies with extremely thin and long legs. Generally harmless.
    • Zebra Jumping Spider : Small with black and white stripes, Zebra spiders move in a jerky, jumpy way. Generally harmless.
    • Lace Web Spider : Medium-sized with a brown body and yellowish markings. Weave lace-like webs. Generally harmless.
    • Wolf Spider : Large, long, brown or black bodies with stripes, or gray with various markings. Generally harmless .
    • Brown Recluse : Light brown with dark, violin-shaped marking on the back. Venomous—call an exterminator.
    • Black Widow : Black or dark brown, sometimes with a red or orange hourglass-shaped marking on their underside. Venomous—call an exterminator. .
  2. To get the spider out of your house without killing it , trap it under a glass or cup and slide a piece of paper or cardboard under the mouth of the cup. Take the cup (and spider) outside and release it. Alternatively, you can kill the spider by sucking it up with a vacuum cleaner, spraying it with a chemical insecticide or household cleaning spray, or squishing it with a shoe or other heavy object.
    • Bin recommends using “over-the-counter [insecticides] like Raid, or something like that.”
    • However, Bin continues, “the problem with these over the counter products is that they don’t have any residual effects. It kills on contact…but it will not cause a residual effect” and keep spiders away. [19]
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Section 3 of 5:

What attracts spiders into your home?

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  1. Spiders seek out warm and dry places to build shelters and hunt for food. If it gets too warm, cold, or rainy outside, then spiders will be attracted to the dry, safe, and warm environment of your home. Other reasons that spiders may decide to enter your home include: [20]
    • Mating season: Spiders may look for a warm and dry home with good breeding conditions to lay their eggs, especially if your place has many hidden nooks and crannies.
    • Nourishment: If you have a lot of insects in your home (or food and water sources that are attracting insects), spiders are more likely to come in and seek out prey.
    • Accessible areas: Having a lot of small holes and cracks in your home makes it much easier for spiders and insects to crawl through and make a home for themselves.
    • You bring them in yourself: A spider’s egg sac can make its way into your home on anything from a piece of furniture to a thrifted jacket to a cardboard box.
Section 4 of 5:

Do spiders come near you when you sleep?

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  1. Spiders are actually much more likely to avoid you because they’re so sensitive to the vibrations you make when snoring or moving while asleep. While a spider may come near you while sleeping, it’s highly unlikely, especially since spiders don’t view humans as prey and are more afraid of them than anything else. [21]
    • So, that adage about eating spiders while you sleep? It’s not actually true (phew!). Aside from the fact that your moving or breathing would scare a spider away, you’d wake up if you felt a spider crawling on your face. [22]
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Section 5 of 5:

Frequently Asked Questions About House Spiders

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  1. It can be really unsettling to find a spider in your bed, but most are harmless. If you can, gently remove the spider with a container and piece of paper and place it outside. If you’re worried about a spider bite or a spider being dangerous, talk to a healthcare professional or pest control expert.
  2. It sounds simple, but spiders typically walk right into your room. They might come in through an open door, window, air vent, or crack in the walls of your room. However, spiders may also catch a ride into your bedroom on a box, piece of furniture, or other household item that they’ve found a home in.
  3. If you keep finding spiders in your bed, some of them may have built a web under or behind your bed or even in the gap between the box spring and bed frame. While you might see spiders crawling across your bed, it’s unlikely that they’re actually living in or hanging out on the mattress itself. [23]
  4. It may sound counterintuitive, but spiders hanging out in your bedroom is actually good news for you (as long as they’re not venomous). Common house spiders are going to leave you alone most of the time, and they’ll eat all the other bugs that actually will bite or bother you in your sleep. [24]
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Expert Q&A

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  • Question
    How can I prevent spiders from entering my house?
    Chris Parker
    Founder, Parker Eco Pest Control
    Chris Parker is the Founder of Parker Eco Pest Control, a sustainable pest control service in Seattle, Washington. Since 2016, Chris has been specializing in Integrated Pest Management and doesn’t use any chemicals for pest removal. He offers removal services for ants, rodents, fleas, spiders, wasps, and more. Chris is a certified Commercial Pesticide Applicator in Washington State and received his bachelor’s from the University of Washington.
    Chris Parker
    Founder, Parker Eco Pest Control
    Expert Answer
    Have all plants one foot away from the house. Put curtains on the windows so that insects are not attracted to the light. Seal all the crawl spaces and entry points from where the spiders can enter the house.
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    Not Helpful 11 Helpful 23
  • Question
    What can I do to keep spiders away from outdoor areas?
    Chris Parker
    Founder, Parker Eco Pest Control
    Chris Parker is the Founder of Parker Eco Pest Control, a sustainable pest control service in Seattle, Washington. Since 2016, Chris has been specializing in Integrated Pest Management and doesn’t use any chemicals for pest removal. He offers removal services for ants, rodents, fleas, spiders, wasps, and more. Chris is a certified Commercial Pesticide Applicator in Washington State and received his bachelor’s from the University of Washington.
    Chris Parker
    Founder, Parker Eco Pest Control
    Expert Answer
    Try switching to low-frequency light bulbs. Use bags of cedar chips, as they are a kind of natural repellent. You can use insecticides that make the surface infeasible for attaching spider webs.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
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    Not Helpful 6 Helpful 10
  • Question
    If I have holes in my drywall. Is that gonna be a problem, like right above my head when I'm sleeping and various other places in my room?
    Naava Brown-Pope
    Community Answer
    I used to have a few, but it depends on how much light there is in your room. I would recommend patching the holes, because while most spiders don't like a lot of light, this will attract other insects, and some spiders will come in, light or not.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://spiders.ucr.edu/how-avoid-bites
      2. ↑ https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef623
      3. ↑ https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/pests/spiders
      4. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29309619/
      5. ↑ https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/pests/spiders
      6. ↑ Chris Parker. Pest Control Specialist. Expert Interview. 21 April 2021.
      7. ↑ Chris Parker. Pest Control Specialist. Expert Interview. 21 April 2021.
      8. ↑ http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/degen.html
      9. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29309619/
      1. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29309619/
      2. ↑ https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/natural-pest-repellent-vinegar-257668
      3. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24690252/
      4. ↑ Chris Parker. Pest Control Specialist. Expert Interview. 21 April 2021.
      5. ↑ https://www.nachi.org/ultrasonic-pest-repellers.htm
      6. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/ipm/what-is-a-sticky-trap/
      7. ↑ https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef641
      8. ↑ Chris Parker. Pest Control Specialist. Expert Interview. 21 April 2021.
      9. ↑ https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/habitat/waspiders.aspx
      10. ↑ Hussam Bin Break. Pest Control Professional. Expert Interview. 28 June 2019.
      11. ↑ https://emoyer.com/blog/pest-control/top-five-things-that-attract-spiders-in-the-house/
      12. ↑ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-people-swallow-8-spiders-a-year-while-they-sleep1/
      13. ↑ https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/News-Events/The-Buzz/Myth-Buster-We-Don-t-Really-Swallow-Eight-Spiders
      14. ↑ https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biology/arachnology-and-entomology/spider-myths/myth-spiders-bite-sleeping
      15. ↑ https://theconversation.com/should-i-kill-spiders-in-my-home-an-entomologist-explains-why-not-to-95912

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