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?

Dirt dobbers. They kill them in record amounts. Don't kill, move, or crush thier nests. If you live in the middle of the city, then import some nests to your proberty in a shady area.

OK, I found this in an article on this site:

"Organic control: Physical removal of webs. Vacuum often and spray problem areas with orange oil products. Freeze boxes of infested papers for forty-eight hours. Use Soil Mender diatomaceous earth indoors and outdoors and boric acid products or plant oil products such as Eco-EXEMPT indoors."

If this is effective, can someone give me specifics on how much, how, and exactly what to apply to my compost pile and other leafy areas - and how it may affect other fauna?

If you really truely have an infestation of brown recluses, then I think I would call an exterminator ASAP. The safety of you and your family is more important at this point.

Mud dauber wasps (also called dirt daubers) are the most effective natural enemy of spiders there is. Every mud dauber wasp egg gets one paralyzed spider to munch on when the egg hatches. I leave my garage door open all the time to encourage the mud daubers to nest in there. Mud dauber wasps are possibly the most docile of all the stinging wasps. As long as you don't swat at them or fling your arms around when you see them, they will leave you alone.