Peppermint. Peppermint essential oil might just be the holy grail of natural pest repellents to leave around your home's entry points, as it can help keep away ticks, spiders, roaches, moths, flies, fleas, beetles, and ants. Use sachets of this oil near your doors and windows or try making a diffuser or spray.
Essential Oils
Lemongrass, citrus, peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree, citronella, catnip, and lavender oils all possess properties that repel bugs. The oils can be used individually or combined to make a simple anti-bug potion. Mix about 1 cup of water with 25-30 total drops of oil into a small spray bottle.
Peppermint oil can also be extremely useful in pest control, especially at keeping mosquitoes away. Most pests cannot stand the smell of peppermint oil, even though a lot of humans love it. It's also toxic to many insects.
Many bugs are repelled by certain smells, such as peppermint, tea tree oil, and lavender. As such, it makes sense that bed bugs too, would be repelled by certain smells.
Everyone knows Eucalyptus Oil is great for relieving cold and flu symptoms, but it is also a very effective insect repellent. Research shows that this pungent oil is more effective against sand flies than any other natural product. As with the other oils, you can make your own spray by adding a few drops to water.
1. Lavender. A soothing favorite for centuries, lavender repels fleas, moths, mosquitoes, and many other insects. While oil extracted from the flowers makes an effective mosquito repellent, the plant itself can also ward off unwelcome insects.
Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
Made from crushed fossilized single-cell algae, diatomaceous earth won't hurt humans but it is deadly to insects with an exoskeleton, including bed bugs, flies, stink bugs, spiders, beetles and earwigs. Within 48 hours of coming in contact with DE, bugs will die of dehydration.
Acetic acid makes vinegar an excellent tool for pest control, repelling some of the most common backyard nuisances and even killing weaker insects. It's most effective against ants, spiders, and mosquitos.
Yellowish, pinkish, or orange (sodium vapor, halogen, dichroic yellow) are the least attractive to most insects.
Torches, in combination with citronella candles near your seating area, are a great way to keep bugs at bay while providing just the right ambiance for nights outdoors. If you do install torches, be sure to follow these guidelines for safe use: Position torches at least six feet away from the house.
Rosemary, thyme, basil, and mint have scents that bugs dislike. Mosquitoes, cockroaches, and stinging insects try to avoid these herbs.
The Perfume Expert advises scents that lean into the citrus end of the spectrum, with notes of lemon, lemon verbena, and grapefruit for repelling mosquitoes, bees, and wasps. These aromatic scents interfere with their respiratory systems, making it hard for them to breathe.
Cockroaches have an incredible sense of smell that they use to find food. You can take advantage of this fact by using scents they dislike such as thyme, citrus, basil, mint, and citronella to repel them from your home.
While peppermint is generally a bug repellent, there are some types of insects that are actually attracted to the smell of mint and/or mint plants. The really neat thing is that the insects mint attracts are actually beneficial!
As has been found in previous studies, more mosquitoes seemed to prefer people whose scent contained a blend of carboxylic acids, the oily secretions that hydrate and protect our skin. Two of those carboxylic acids are also found in Limburger cheese, McMeniman notes, a known lure for mosquitoes.
If you want to manage a pest infestation, you will want to use the household products that kill pests. Cornmeal or borax baits for ants, diatomaceous earth dusting for crawling pests, vinegar traps for flies, Windex for spiders, and other lethal solutions will give you the chance for getting rid of pests.
Insects are attracted to food and shelter, and piles of garbage provide both. By removing piles of garbage, you will have a cleaner home and eliminate an attractant for pests. You should immediately clean up trash, tie up and secure trash bags once filled, and promptly take them to outside bins.
Mint. Mint is yet another fragrant herb that has pest-fighting properties. According to the Cornell Cooperative Extension, menthol, the active insect-fighting ingredient in mint and peppermint oil, has biocidal properties that help repel and control mites, mosquitoes and various other pests.
However, some of the most effective plants to deter bugs include lavender, lemon balm, basil, mint, and marigolds. These plants release fragrances that mask the scent of people and food, making them less attractive to insects.
Lavender.
Lavender has a pleasant scent that comes from the essential oils in the leaves of the plant, but the bugs hate it.