Yes, really. "For generations, housewives have placed horse chestnuts near doors and on window ledges in a bid to repel arachnids," reported the Daily Telegraph. But pupils from Roselyon School in Cornwall set out to test whether the theory was a myth with a series of experiments and earned a special £300 prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
"Pupils placed the eight-legged creatures in boxes with conkers and stones - and noted that most of them climbed over the conkers," reported the Telegraph. "Spiders were also placed in a water tank with a choice of escaping across a bridge made of wood or conkers and most chose the conker route."
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