I saw a real article from awhile back - again from England. The headline was “A series of unfortunate events” (my kids were reading the book of the same title at the time). The gal in the article tried to burn down a spider’s nest using the hairspray trick. I’m guessing it worked, as it burned down the detached garage, caught the hedge-row on fire, which burned up to the house - causing the entire house to go up in flames as well. (Hence the title!)