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While at this time of year, peppermint may come to mind as an important ingredient in iconic holiday treats such as candy canes, this substance has a somewhat rather checkered past as an unexpected but nevertheless potent bug and rodent repellent.
Dating back to the Middle Ages, holy monks in European monasteries not only used peppermint to clean their teeth but also valued its potent menthol smell as a means to repel rodents from their cheese storerooms.
Even today, our pest-control and pest-management specialists at Pestco feature peppermint as a significant ingredient in our latest pest repellent products that are available via our Amazon store, which include our Vehicle Rodent Peppermint Spray, (available now) and our Rat and our Mouse Repellents for home’s and businesses (available soon).
Which Ingredients In Peppermint Repel Pests?
Chemically speaking, the major substances found in peppermint that serve as a repellent include: terpene, alcohol and menthol.
This mighty trinity of aromas are natural fumigants that repel insects, rats, mice and other rodents because the aromas are received but overwhelmed by their small receptors.
As a pesticide, peppermint’s primary active ingredient, menthol, has biocidal properties and is effective at controlling mites, mosquito larvae, and various other creepy crawlies.
How Is Peppermint Oil Used As A Repellent?
When used around entry points in the home and applied via sachets near doors and windows or diffusers or sprays, it can help repel ticks, spiders, roaches, moths, flies, fleas, beetles and ants.
Cotton balls fully saturated with peppermint oil can also be positioned near window sills, and doorways or into cracks and crevices where ants particularly seek ingress.
Our experts at Pestco advise that they should be monitored on a regular basis. If you don’t see ants congregating near an area, the method is working, and if not, the cotton balls need to be replaced.
Spiders are also deterred by the smell of peppermint oil because they “taste” with their legs.
Peppermint oil also repeals cockroaches and is much kinder to our planet than the harmful chemicals found in pesticides.
Flies are also repelled by peppermint oil and just a few drops added to the wick of a candle before it is lighted will go a long way in spreading the scent around a room. Generally speaking, peppermint oil as pest repellent is most effective when used against soft bodied insects.
Peppermint oil is the fifth most produced essential oil in the world and the plant itself is said to the most studied of all essential oils.
This is largely due to its vast versatility and applications in so many diverse fields including: medicine; aromatherapy; cooking; perfumery and as an ingredient in the pest repellent products developed by the pest-control and pest-management specialists at Pestco.
The many dermal, oral and anti-microbial properties make the world a better place by indirectly promoting the health and wellness of body and mind.
A Few Relevant Studies And Statistics
For decades, peppermint oil has served as a potent insect repellent and research has confirmed this fact. When used around entry points in the home and applied via sachets near doors and windows or diffuser or spray, it can help repel ticks, spiders, roaches, moths, flies, fleas, beetles and ants.
Both peppermint and peppermint oil have been studied as insecticides, acaricides (pesticides that kill ticks and mites) antimicrobials and fungicides.
A 2022 Chinese study published in The Journal of Plant Physiology examined the effects of insecticide applications on peppermint’s physiology, biochemistry, and secondary metabolites (compounds manufactured by the plant to help them compete in their own environment).
Results supported an improved understanding of the value and quality of peppermint for use in insecticides.
Peppermint oil can be also used as an effective mosquito larvicide.
According to a 2000 study conducted by Ansari, entitled: The Repellent Action of Peppermint Oil that was published in Bio Resource Technology, peppermint oil indicated powerful repellent action against adult mosquitoes when applied on human skin.
Our Rodent Repellent Spray For Cars and Automobiles
Our Car Rodent Repellent can be used to protect against rodents of all types including: squirrels; mice and rats and is easily available on Amazon!
This easy-to-use spray deters rodents from seeking shelter and gaining ingress in warm, safe areas like under the hood or in the enclosed spaces between car doors. Rodents can cause immense structural damage to a car.
Once inside the hood, they gnaw on wires, which help to maintain their sharp and ever-growing teeth.
This spray is a highly potent shield for garage edges, under the hood, along the floors of garages, inside engine bays and wheel wells. It is safe for both humans and pets. It is guaranteed to be long-lasting, even in challenging weather conditions
Check out our new line of peppermint-infused pest-control products, or if you’re in and around the Greater Pittsburgh area and in need of any pest control needs, call our service teams today!
We’re always here to help!