Summer is pretty much over, and as the cold nights come in, so do some unwelcome guests.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can keep out certain bugs and animals from entering your home, which a few folks will be very keen to know about, given that bugs are a common phobia.
Thankfully, we don't have to deal with the sort of animals you see on a regular basis in Australia, with the cow actually one of the main culprits for animal-related deaths in the UK.
The likes of mosquitoes and of course, XL bullies, have also caused a lot of issues in recent years, but despite their relative scarcity, it seems as if a huge amount of people in this country are scared of spiders.
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While you'll sometimes see spiders from other countries sneak across the border and give us quite a shock with their size, most house spiders are relatively small and shouldn't cause any real problems in they appear in your home.
Despite that, a lot of you will be keen to keep them out and kick them out as soon as possible, and it turns out that orange peels might a surprising saviour.
With Halloween approaching, some of you will be planning on buying your pumpkins but you might want to focus on another orange fruit on your next trip to the supermarket, particularly if you have arachnophobia.
Spiders are most common in September and October, and according to ecologist Professor Adam Hart, oranges are ideal for keeping them out.
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He said: “As summer ends and autumn begins, we tend to see large house spiders more and more, at least for a few weeks.
“Most of the spiders we see trotting across the carpets are males, out looking for females”, he added, and keeping the citrus smells at different entrances in your homes is a great way to stop any eight-legged creatures picking your carpet as the perfect place to mate.
Bugs and spiders typically hate all citrus scents, meaning lemon and limes will also do a decent job of ruining the mood of any spiders looking to come in.
However, if you do spot in your home, you shouldn't kill it, as 'spiders are incredibly important in the wider ecosystem', according to Professor Hart.
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He added: “We studied ‘spider season’ a few years ago by asking people to record their sightings, and by around mid-October sightings were unusual – so if you aren’t a spider fan don’t worry, ‘spider season’ doesn’t last forever."
So, you'll only need to rub your citrus peels on windowsills for a month or so but who knows, maybe you'll like the smell so much you make it a year round tradition?
James Moorhouse