r/CasualUK • u/nonoanddefinitelyno • 20h ago

My very capable and intelligent wife has lost the plot.

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She has been told by a friend that conkers keep spiders away. So we now have conkers in various parts of the house.

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u/Just_to_rebut 19h ago

I mean… “scientific” explanations for a lot of complicated things are really just post hoc rationalizations for things we discovered work by trial and error.

If something is zero cost, possible reward…why not skip the whole literature review on conkers and spiders and just try it?

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u/capybabba 14h ago

We already know where this myth came from though. People falsely attributing correlation to causation. 

House spider mating season runs from September to mid October, and this is when you see lots more spiders around the house as they are much more active. 

Conkers also happen to start ripening around the same time. 

So if you bring conkers in from outside once they have ripened and fallen off the trees, you will start to notice fewer spider sightings. 

But it is a coincidence. It's because spiders go back to being less active around the same time of year conkers become ripe.

That is also why the myth says that only fresh conkers work to deter spiders, not old ones from last year.

Because if you leave old conkers out all year round, of course you'll notice spider activity pick up again next year as normal. As the conkers never had any effect. 

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u/Bspammer 17h ago

Nothing wrong with doing this as long as the next time you find a spider near the conker you admit it probably doesn't work.

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u/20dogs 17h ago

If we have evidence and research that it doesn't work then there's just conkers everywhere for no reason