Engaging Introduction
When you live in an old house—mine was built in the 1880s and could double as the set for a creaky-doors-and-windows horror flick—there are certain things to which you adjust: floors that creak like the floorboards in a haunted house, windows that let in the draft, and—like an unwanted houseguest who will not leave—an occasional spider settling into some dark, unused corner.
But this fall, things went too far.
Each morning, it felt as if another had emerged, from a lampshade to the corner of a windowsill. I am no delicate flower, but even I have my limits. I’d been living in a Halloween exhibit for a week, I thought, and it was time to get to the bottom of this thing.
I tried everything. Essential oils (peppermint, tea tree, citrus—supposedly spiders hate them). Chestnuts in the corners (an old wives’ tale my grandmother swore by). Vacuuming every visible web. Sealing cracks. Nothing worked.
Then a friend who also lives in an ancient, spider-prone house mentioned something I’d never considered: Vicks VapoRub.
“Vicks?” I said. “The stuff you put on your chest when you have a cold?”
“That’s the one,” she said. “Spiders hate menthol. Try it.”
I was skeptical. Vicks smells like a cough drop exploded. Would that really deter spiders? And more importantly, would my house smell like a medicinal fog for the rest of eternity?
I tried it anyway. Because at that point, I would have tried almost anything.
And here’s what happened.
The Theory: Why Vicks VapoRub Might Repe
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