Are you hoping to rid your household of cockroaches? With an average of six cockroaches per home in the US alone, it’s no wonder that so many Americans have a constant battle with these pests. And with some species able to live for six or seven years, once you see one, you’re likely to have many more show up as well!
Fortunately, cockroaches have an extremely weak sense of smell; bad smells repel them far more than they attract them. By using bad-smelling products, you can put an end to this pest problem once and for all.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at what smells repel cockroaches can help you keep your home cockroach-free. Just keep reading!
Table of Contents
Garlic
Garlic is a commonly used option for repelling cockroaches. Studies have demonstrated that certain chemicals found in garlic work as an effective insecticide. Garlic is known to be able to break down the waxy protective coating on the exoskeleton of the cockroach, making it vulnerable to dehydration and other environmental stressors.
Additionally, the garlic provides an unpleasant smell which will often repel cockroaches and discourage them from entering your home. It can be used in a variety of ways from preserving food to creating a pest control barrier around your home. Simply put, garlic is a good choice when it comes to keeping your house free of pesky cockroaches.
Vinegar
Vinegar is a common household product that not only has a wide range of uses, but also can be used to repel or eliminate cockroaches. Vinegar’s pungent smell is displeasing to cockroaches, making it an effective non-toxic solution to eliminating pesky cockroaches from your home or garden.
To use vinegar as a cockroach repellant, simply fill a spray bottle with a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water. Spray the mixture around the baseboards, windowsills, and in corners of the kitchen and bathrooms-areas where cockroaches tend to congregate.
Additionally, you can also spray the mixture directly on cockroaches, effectively driving them away without using toxic chemicals. Vinegar is an effective, non-toxic solution to repelling pesky cockroaches from your home.
Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds are becoming an increasingly popular resource for repelling cockroaches. The smell of the grounds can discourage cockroaches because of the mixtures of coffee, oils, and anchors.
When mixed together, these ingredients create a unique and strong smell that cockroaches don’t like. It is thought that the strong smell of coffee grounds is so abhorrent to cockroaches that they attempt to avoid it, even if it means moving on to a different area.
Additionally, the grounds can create a barrier between the cockroaches and their food sources, which helps contain the infestation area. If you are looking for an eco-friendly and natural way to repel roaches, then coffee grounds may be the perfect solution. Make sure to spread the coffee grounds near any cracks or crevices that you notice and watch the cockroaches scurry away!
Bay Leaves
Bay leaves are an herb found mainly in the Mediterranean. It is known to have a strong flavor that many people enjoy in cooking and baking. However, it also has a unique ability to ward off cockroaches.
The strong odor from the bay leaves repels cockroaches and other insects from invading a home. Not only do these bugs find the smell offensive, but the physical shape of the leaves also makes them an irritant for crawling insects. This is why bay leaves are often placed around the home in areas where the bugs like to linger.
In addition to repelling cockroaches, bay leaves can help keep moths and other insects away as well. They also help to create a pleasant scent in the home. So, adding bay leaves to your home can not only keep cockroaches away, but it can also make your home smell great.
Cucumber
Cucumbers are known for having an odor that cockroaches find insect repellent. It is thought that the odors from cucumbers are strong enough to drive away cockroaches due to their concern about what they don’t recognize.
An excellent way to help protect your home and yard from a cockroach infestation is by incorporating cucumbers into your pest-deterrent arsenal, as a natural technique. This can be accomplished by slicing cucumber into thin slices and placing them in areas close to the cockroach-suspected areas, as well as other hidden walls, or corners that may be conducive to cockroaches.
The strong smell emitted by the cucumber is enough to drive away the pesky critters from your home. Cucumbers can also be used in the form of cucumber peelings. Place it around the area of the house you believe to be infested and it should force the cockroaches to flee.
Citrus
Citrus is a great natural alternative to chemical repellents when it comes to getting rid of cockroaches. Since most are repelled by strong smells, citrus oils, like lemon, orange, and eucalyptus, work well as natural insecticides.
Citrus oil vaporizers can be used to send a pleasant scent of citrus through a room and keep cockroaches away. Spray bottles filled with a mixture of essential oils and water can also be used to target problem areas.
Even just leaving small bowls of lemon peels out can help make an area unattractive to the intrusive pest. The scent of citrus is a natural and cost-effective way to repel cockroaches and other insects.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a strong essential oil with many uses, one of which is to repel cockroaches. The strong smell of eucalyptus is unpleasant to cockroaches, keeping them away from areas where it is used.
These can be used in a diffuser to keep cockroaches away, as well as applied directly to surfaces. It is a great alternative to chemical pesticides, which can be toxic to humans and pets. Eucalyptus can be combined with other natural repellents, such as tea tree oil, citronella, and lavender.
When used regularly, eucalyptus can help to keep cockroaches away from areas that may have been infested before. Its powerful smell and ingredients make it an effective deterrent for roaches. If these scents won’t work, consider hiring scorpion and other pest control to help you in preventing cockroaches.
So, What Smells Repel Cockroaches?
Cockroaches are detested for their presence in homes everywhere. In question to “What smells repel cockroaches?”. The good news is that certain smells repel them, such as those of cucumbers, coffee, citrus, cinnamon, peppermint, and garlic.
To keep cockroaches away from home, implement these smells as natural repellents. Try them today to make sure cockroaches are kept away!
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