What's wrong with this picture ?

Apart from the wholly un-lifelike Christmas cracker spider beating a retreat ?
Well,that's it actually. For years I've believed that nice shiny conkers,like these I collected today,repel spiders. And it does seem to work, we have little piles of conkers by the windows, and seldom see spiders indoors.
Apparently though, it's been scientifically proven that spiders take absolutely no notice of conkers.