Essential oils, the biggest craze since the 90s but no one is talking about the best use for them! Not to burn for its smell or to apply it to the skin to make it smell good. No, you see essential oils are potent chemicals extracted directly from a plant. This means clove oil is extracted from cloves and so on. Now, why is this important? Well, think about it. Have you ever smelled an oil that just made you recoil in disgust? Some oils like clove oil are so strong they can kill nerve endings. Now, this is what we need to go to get rid of cockroaches. Powerful oils that repel and kill them. Why use essential oils instead of poison or pesticides? Because essential oils are harmless to humans but deadly to pests so if you have pets or small children this is the safest way to get rid of them. And while some oils will kill them, some will humanely chase them away. But that is not all, you must also take action and remove the things they desire, the reason they came to your home.
Cockroaches can smell food from miles away and can also smell food through sewer drain pipes. The oriental cockroach is most famous for entering homes through drain pipes. They will infest your kitchen and basement in search of food which they will ruin by defecating and urinating on. Even their saliva can get you sick. So the important thing to do is to stop them in their tracks. Do not eat food or feed pets outside unless you are ready to clean the mess up fully. Any spec of food on the ground outside will draw pests and wildlife to your property including cockroaches. Cockroaches are most attracted to the water on your property as they need constant access to survive. A leaky faucet or a wet spot in the house is their perfect home. They love dishwashers because they are nice and hot and humid in the mechanics and when you unload the dishes they can enjoy the leftover food particles. They can eat almost anything, so you have to keep everything away from them. They can even eat the glue on cardboard boxes and survive for years on it. So get rid of everything you don’t need and store your food in sealed containers and keep your garbage safely stored in a locked can that cannot be penetrated even by cockroaches. One o the scary things about them is they can enter your home through a crack. They are capable of flattening out their bodies to the point of being flat. They can slip through cracks and hide under rugs and stepping on them rarely kills them. You would need to catch it off guard to make that effective.
Once you have gotten rid of everything they like you can start spraying essential oil mixtures. One of the best is mint oil which is not just a repellent it is toxic to cockroaches. You can mix this with vinegar and water to make a truly powerful spray that can kill cockroaches on contact and be used for residual treatments around the house. Spray along the baseboards to get them while they hunt for food and stuff mint oil-soaked cotton balls into any cracks or holes. This will kill them in short order. Peppermint oil is very effective but is not toxic. However, the smell is more effective than the mint so using them in conjunction would be effective.
