I have a lot of oak leaves and a compost pile that consists primarily of oak leaves on one side of my house. Having had brown recluse problems in the past (and having been bitten twice), I decided it was high time to rake the fallen, partially composted, leaves between my house and my neighbor's house and get rid of as many of the hiding places as possible. Today, while raking, I killed at least two dozen of them, and several of them were huge (for recluses anyway). If those are the ones I actually saw, I can only imagine how many there really are (I'm only 1/3 done, too). I am very certain they are recluses (I became something of an expert while recovering from my bites).
Try as I may, it's very hard for me to always keep the leaves out of that semi-wooded area. Is there any repellent or natural insecticide mix I could make up in bulk that would kill or repell them without harming the variety of lizards, geckos and other fauna that live there? If not, as much as I would hate too, what can I use that will get rid of them, even if it runs off my lizards, too?
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