Freshen up your home and deter roaches
Natural smells that roaches hate include bay leaves, citrus peels, eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint, and garlic, which you can use to deter these pests effectively.
Expect to pay $100 to $600 per treatment for professional cockroach extermination, so addressing your roach problem early helps you avoid higher costs later.
You can repel cockroaches naturally by placing crushed bay leaves in cabinets, using citrus peels in corners, or spraying diluted peppermint oil around entry points.
Hiring a local bug company provides reliable help when natural repellents don't work, offering professional treatments that eliminate infestations and prevent roaches from returning.
Discovering a cockroach in your house is a less-than-pleasant experience for any homeowner. Luckily, you can keep your home cockroach-free naturally by repelling them with scent. To determine what smell roaches hate, read on for the scents you can filter throughout your home to repel these pests.
There are specific natural scents that deter roaches from encroaching on your home. Use these fragrances in multiple different ways as a natural roach repellent.
Bay leaves are known as one of the most reliable natural roach repellents, and it’s most often used for deterring roaches from the kitchen. Crush up bay leaves into tiny pieces and place them throughout your kitchen cabinets. Crushing the leaves helps better release the aroma that roaches hate, making it a stronger repellant.
Using a citrus scent in your home is a win-win option: It will provide a wonderful aroma that also wards off roaches. Plus, it's a great way to repurpose food scraps, as using a citrus peel is the best way to enable this scent. Whether it's from an orange, lemon, lime, or other citrus fruit, strategically place a peel in a location you may normally find roaches, like dark, damp corners of your home. You will want to stay on top of replacing it to keep the peel fresh.
One of the safety options for repelling roaches is by using coffee grounds. Similar to citrus peels, you're repurposing something you'd typically throw away. Using coffee grounds outside is your best option. Sprinkle it along the perimeter of your home or use coffee grounds to make compost in your garden.
However, there are varying thoughts on the effectiveness of using coffee grounds, particularly scented varieties. You can test this option out to see if it works for you, but you may need to use another scent to repel the pests more effectively.
Planting a eucalyptus bush or spraying your home with eucalyptus oil is an effective way to get rid of cockroaches since they find the smell unpleasant. Use eucalyptus scent by diluting essential oils with water and spraying it as a barrier or planting it in your yard or garden. You can also hang eucalyptus plants in rooms where you may find roaches, plus it also adds a relaxing fragrance to the area.
Another plant that can serve as a great barrier to roaches is lavender. Use lavender by spraying a mixture of lavender oil and water throughout areas of your home. Plant lavender in your garden or place pots of it throughout your home. You will enjoy a soothing scent while keeping cockroaches at a safe distance.
Mint is a fragrance that is consistently effective in repelling roaches. Grow fresh mint plants in your home or yard or mix peppermint, winter mint, or spearmint essential oils in a spray bottle with water and spraying around baseboards, windows, and doors. You can even leave peppermint candies throughout the house to deter bugs (and enjoy a little treat now and then) but don’t leave them out for too long.
While we use garlic in our food, its pungent scent repels roaches, as it can be quite overpowering. Sprinkling garlic powder in infested areas may drive cockroaches out, but it may overpower other more fragrant smells in your home, so use it sparingly. Garlic may not eliminate roaches entirely—it is most effective when used with other methods.
These essential oils may also keep cockroaches at bay. Dilute them with water and spray them in infested areas.
Citronella: This oil is normally used to repel mosquitoes, but cockroaches do not like its strong, lemony scent.
Lemongrass: The citrus aroma in lemongrass is said to confuse roaches’ ability to find food.
Rosemary: The herbal scent of rosemary is unpleasant to cockroaches—you can sprinkle dried rosemary or rosemary oil where roaches congregate.
Clove: Clove oil contains eugenol, a compound that is particularly effective at repelling cockroaches.
Tea-tree: Known for its anti-bacterial properties, tea tree has a very strong scent that repels cockroaches
These plants are also good cockroach repellents, due largely to their scent.
Catnip: Thanks to the chemical nepetalactonem, catnip repels roaches and other insects, but if you have a reactive cat, it may not be the best plant to have in your home.
Chrysanthemums: Chrysanthemum blooms contain pyrethrins, a chemical that acts as a natural insect repellent.
Osage Orange: This small tree or large shrub bears fruit that has a chemical that naturally repels pests, including cockroaches.
Thyme: Carvacrol is a chemical compound found in thyme that also repels cockroaches and other pests.
Cockroaches have a keen sense of smell and they use their strong sense to communicate with each other and locate safe food sources. Roaches use their two antennae to detect smells, creating images in their brains, which they use to navigate their environment in search of safety, warmth, food, and water.
Since their sense of smell is so strong, certain natural aromas are unappealing to roaches. When they smell these scents, they see the area as potentially dangerous and instinctively seek out what they deem safer locations. If homeowners know how to get rid of roaches by using deterring scents, roaches will move on to another area, leaving you free from a potential infestation.
Roaches are resilient, resourceful, and always on the lookout for their next meal or a safe place to hide. Unfortunately, even the cleanest homes can provide the right conditions to draw them in.
Here are a few of the most common culprits that attract roaches to your home:
Crumbs or food spills on floors and counters
Leaky faucets or standing water
Open trash cans or food containers
Pet food left out overnight
Cluttered areas
Cardboard boxes or paper piles
Unsealed entry points around doors, windows, and home perimeters
Follow these tried and true tips for keeping roaches at bay using scents they hate.
The best way to use fragrance to discourage roaches is by utilizing natural scents. Many products on the market, such as air fresheners or scented garbage bags, feature a smell roaches hate. However, these scents are artificially made and are not as effective as hiding the smell that roaches like.
The intensity of a roach's smell allows them to break through the artificial scent, meaning it can still smell whatever it is you're trying to hide. For example, with a scented garbage bag a roach can still smell the leftover food remnants inside. Instead of deterring roaches, you're attracting them. Aim to use scents that repel roaches naturally.
When you're using natural scents to deter roaches, you want to practice proper steps to be the most effective. Location will be incredibly important to choose an area where a roach would likely enter. Roaches flock to areas with narrow crevices and tend to find shelter in bathrooms, closets, inside cabinets, and behind the refrigerator.
It's important to take into account the safety of your family, children, and pets when dealing with cockroaches. The scents will create a strong aroma so keep in mind how your family will react to these smells.
Since roach prevention will become a routine practice, switch out the scents you use and test out different places for varying lengths of time. This practice will help you find the best solution that keeps roaches at bay but also provides a winning scent.
If you're experiencing a roach infestation or are still finding these irritating insects throughout your home, it's time to hire a local bug exterminator. Professional exterminators have the skills, tools, and knowledge to remove cockroaches quickly and prevent them from returning.
The average cockroach extermination cost per treatment is between $100 to $600, depending on the size and location of the infestation. Keep in mind that you may need several professional eradication treatments to remove large infestations from your home. It’s likely worth it to rid your home of roaches and then enlist these tips to help prevent them from returning.
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