vegan spider repellents?
I have a huge phobia of spiders. It's ridiculous. If I see one I have a panic attack, break out into hives, and cry and basically just act crazy and embarrass myself. I live in Missouri, and during the spring and summer months, it's impossible to avoid spiders. In particular, brown recluses. *shudders*
I'm posting this today because I saw a huge brown recluse (actually I'm not sure if it's a brown recluse, but it's BIG and brown) in my living room about an hour ago. After calling my mom, brother, and several friends in tears to come over and put the spider outside and no one was able to, I had yet another panic attack. After I had calmed down a bit, I sprinkled baking soda all around where I saw the spider last (it's missing now and I am FREAKING OUT), and lit a lavender candle (apparently spiders don't like lavender?).
I have a cat but he is completely useless when it comes to spiders. I think he's also afraid of them. *facepalm* Obviously, being vegan, I don't want to kill the spider. It's not the spider's fault that I'm irrationally scared of it. My mom is on her way home from work and she said she's going to call Orkin (sp?). For those who haven't heard of Orkin, it's basically a company that has people you can hire to come to your house and spray a boatload of toxic chemicals everywhere that will kill the spiders and insects and whatever. I'm trying to convince her not to do that!
Anyway, my question is: Do you know of anything that repels spiders without killing them? Preferably some sort of natural oil or plant or anything that I can find at my local grocery store. Also, any websites with information about this would be appreciated. I googled it and couldn't find much. The recipes for natural spider repellents didn't specify whether or not they killed the spiders, and I want to be sure. Also something that won't harm my cat is preferred, but if worst comes to worst I can always put him in my bedroom or something.
I know there was an article about this in Vegetarian Times, but I cannot find that issue in my house for the life of me, which is frustrating because I was just reading it a few days ago!