The Itsy-Bitsy Spider Crawled Up the Kitchen Wall

I have always adored autumn. The crisp days and the frosty nights, the brisk walks in the equally brisk air....

And after being outside, enjoying the crunchy leaves and the cool breeze, isn't it nice to walk into a toasty-warm house and know you are warm and safe for when winter arrives?

Guess what? Bugs like it too!

Around here at Casa de Bumblebee, when the chilly weather arrives, so do the indoor pests. Ants come inside looking for warmth, water and food. Spiders try to take up residence in the heating vents or the blinds, and many more random bugs I can't even name show up around the house.

I can't think of any homemaker who's willing to share her house with all sorts of creepy crawlies, and with that, I'd like to share a few ways you can minimize the yearly autumnal invasion.

The most important thing is to make sure that there is no food whatsoever on you floor. A good way to avoid having to clean incessantly is to keep all food in the kitchen of dining room. If you must have your nightly hot, salty, buttery popcorn while you watch reruns of Gilmore Girls (ummm...hypothetically, that is!) make sure that you don't drop anything on the floor, and if you do, pick it up right away. This is also the perfect time to deploy your vacuum hose. Really get into all the nooks and crannies, especially where the floor meets the wall. Also give a good cleaning to your window sills and the tracks that your windows and patio door slide along. After a good vacuuming, bring out your mop or Hoover Floormate (I love mine) and get everything nice and shiny.

Unfortunately, this isn't something that only needs to be done once at the beginning of the season; it's something you'll have to maintain by integrating it into your daily cleaning once or twice a week.

Next, make sure your house is tidy. Nothing looks more cozy to a scary spider than a pile of towels sitting on the ground and nothing is quite as tempting as a full-but-forgotten garbage can. Take away their hiding places, and your home will become less attractive to them.

Finally, a word about ants--the bugs that I find myself fighting against constantly in this old house. If you see half a dozen or so "scout" ants spread out over a small area, assess where they are. Sometimes they'll look for food in places where there isn't any, like a bathroom or laundry room. If you can possibly bear it, let the ants look around for a while. When they discover there's no food to be found, they'll return to their nest, but leave a chemical residue that informs other ants that the area isn't worth searching. Then, chances are you won't see ants in that location for quite some time.

That's it--that's all my tips on keeping the bugs at bay. As you can see, it's nothing complicated with lime-soaked rosemary stems or soap flakes and borax. It's nothing more than keeping your home clean, which robs bugs of their food source, and tidy, which robs them of hiding places.

May your home be cozy, and devoid of creepy-crawlies!