Using peppermint oil as an insect repellent.

[Yvonne Smith]

I have been reading about this, and decided to try it, so I ordered a small bottle of peppermint oil that came with an eyedropper as well as a spray attachment. It just arrived today, and i put some on Poodle’s fur and massaged it into his coat. He was not impressed.
I sprayed a little into Rusty’s bed, so when he lies down, it should help protect him from fleas also.
We always have insects, and so I sprayed just a little in the kitchen, bathroom and on the bed (to repel spiders). It says it repels mosquitoes , so next time I am out in the yard, I may put on a little and see if it helps.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

My apartment building has a critter problem, and both my son and I are allergic to something in the sprays the exterminators here use (neither of us had that problem in Eureka), so I keep a spray bottle of Eucalyptus oil handy. I give the front door frame a good spraying and since the critters don't like the strong smell of it and they pretty much stay outside. Since the like to come though electrical outlets, I take the plastic covers off and spray the wall side of them about once a month, and that seems to help. It keeps them out of the bedrooms too. Plus, it gives the house a nice Eucalyptus forest smell.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

They also sell peppermint oil with water and an emulsifying agent (soap?) in large spray bottles. It is mainly sold to be used under the hood of your car if you have wiring that used soy-based insulation that mice and rats love to chew on.

Probably found in auto supply stores and that section of Amazon.

Might be cheaper and easier than working with essential oils directly, but I'd check the ingredients before spraying a dog.

Ok, ran and grabbed mine:

Pure Origin Products "Mighty Mint" Rodent Vehicle Protection​

Powerful Mint Repellent​

Active Ingredients: Pure Origin Peppermint Oil​

Other Ingredients: Water, non-toxic emulsifiers​

Made in USA with Northwest Peppermint​

Woodinville, WA​

Do not ingest​

I use it to keep some chipmunks from gnawing through some wood. A couple of weeks ago I saw that they had figured out how to get on a roof and hang down and chew on some high wood. Got on a ladder, misjudged the wind. Pheew! No fun. Head and face full but at least I had glasses on.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I paid $6 for a 6 ounce bottle, that says I can use it strait or add a few drops in a few ounces of water. I tried that and so far it's worked great. I bought an 8 ounce spray bottle at Walmart (that's supposedly for misting your charcoal when BBQing) for $1 and filled it nearly full of water in it along with about a quarter ounce of oil. And I thought if it's too weak, just add a little more to the water. So far, I've sprayed with it twice and I can't tell that any has been used by looking at the bottle. The results are great for a $7 investment. It says it's 100% safe for Kids and Pets, and that 6 ounce bottle of oil should last several years at the very least.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

After reading your post, @Jacob Petersheim ; we decided to order a gallon of the mint spray. There are fields around us and rats all over (which is partly why we feed all of the stray cats around the neighborhood), plus the insects that come inside the house.
Bobby will use the large sprayer for under the house and outside spraying, and I will put some in a regular sprayer to use inside. The little bottle I already have that is just pure peppermint oil will be for keeping fleas off of Poodle, since that is safe for him.
We will also spray the front porch area where we sit outside, to help with mosquito repellant.

This might work for @Marie Mallory for a tick repellant also ?

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

That sounds safe @Yvonne Smith and if it doesn't do what you need you don't have a big commitment to anything like special equipment. I hope it works outside of a confined space. To shoo the chipmunks I soak that wood pretty well, but there is only a total of maybe 12 square inches exposed. They are trying to gain access to the garage.

Ultimately I'll put some aluminum flashing over the wood and paint it. The adjacent siding is aluminum but this many decades since it was built I have no spare leftover parts hoarded.

I hope you got a good price.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

It was about $36 for the gallon, including the sprayer. Way cheaper per oz than buying the smaller size. It smells bad underneath the house where the rats were in the heater/AC ducts, which Bobby is removing, since none of them are any good anymore, and we can’t use the furnace.

We have gone the last few years just trying to get by with little electric heaters in the winter and window AC in the summer, but my daughter said it is fine if we wanted to put in a gas wall heater, so Bobby did that last winter, and it is the warmest this old house has been in AGES !
We are still using the window AC, but that works fine.
We use it in the front room in the day, and one in the bedroom at night.

Bobby needs to be able to get under the house and clean out the rest of the old ducting so there won’t be anything for the rats to get into, and hopefully, the mint will help deter them .
At the very least, the mint smells much better than rat droppings. Thanks for the tip about using the gallon size and spraying it !

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Here is a video about clove oil (for mosquitos) and mentions that vanillin can help keep oils from evaporating away too quickly. Interesting idea and another cheap area spray without chemicals one might try for the summer months.

The guy seems careful and very clear about his process.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Here is a video about clove oil (for mosquitos) and mentions that vanillin can help keep oils from evaporating away too quickly. Interesting idea and another cheap area spray without chemicals one might try for the summer months.

The guy seems careful and very clear about his process.

This is the coffee grounds idea, right ? I am pretty sure that @Bobby Cole tried doing that out in his Mancave on the front porch. He has gone back to the regular mosquito coils, so he will have to report his results for you.

 

[Bobby Cole]

Even though there’s a lot of oil in fresh coffee grounds, they don’t stay lit long enough to evaluate the idea.
I guess I’ll have to bow up and take the time to dry out some used ones and see if the results are better.

Why dry used grounds? Like the mind, fresh coffee grounds are a Terrible thing to waste.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

This is the coffee grounds idea, right ?

It looks like coffee grounds in the picture, but he is grinding whole cloves and boiling them to extract oil.

He combines that with vanilla paste, and then mixes it into an unscented lotion as a skin repellent, or he sprays the oils as an area mosquito repellent.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

There are fields around us and rats all over (which is partly why we feed all of the stray cats around the neighborhood)...

Don't feed the cats too much or they might be hungry enough to hunt. That would defeat the porpoise.