Does Peppermint Oil Repel Rats?

Can peppermint oil repel rats? Here is the fact, separated from myth.

Essential oils have been widely used for a whole lot of things including pest control. While these natural oils are known to repel certain pests, it’s unclear if they are effective against certain pest types.

For instance, tea tree oil has been known to mildly repel mice.

We aim to find out if peppermint oil has any repelling effect on rats.

Will Peppermint Oil Repel Rats?

Rats are not only destructive but also pose significant health risks as they could spread diseases to humans.

Once faced with an infestation, finding immediate relief takes the center stage. It’s necessary to find the most reliable way to take back control of your home.

However, how this is achieved depends on what you use.

This brings us back to the question of peppermint oil; does it repel rats? Read on to find out.

Why Peppermint Oil Is An Effective Pest Repellent

There are certain reasons why peppermint oil has been widely used for a variety of pest issues. The constituent compounds found in this oil such as menthol, terpene, and alcohol possess natural fumigant properties.

These give off a scent that is pleasant to humans but repulsive to pests. Such pests easily pick up or perceive the repulsive scent through their smell receptors. And stay away or retreat as far as possible from such locations.

Peppermint Oil For Rat Control

If you’ve heard the common myths about the repelling effect of peppermint oil on mice and rats, we’re sad to notify you that it doesn’t keep them out.

This piece of information may sound confusing and contradictory to what you’ve heard, but the truth remains that peppermint oil won’t give you any relief.

• Why Peppermint Oil Won’t Give You Results

There are good reasons why you won’t have any real success using peppermint oil as a rat repellent. Although certain temporary results may be observed, rats won’t readily leave your home due to peppermint oil application or its scent.

Rats have a very sensitive sense of smell and should easily find peppermint oil irritating right?

Well, that’s not entirely true. They indeed have a sensitive sense of smell but consider the fact that these rodents inhabit all sorts of areas including sewers.

Their capacity to put up with even stronger smell especially those from stinky sewers shows they can tolerate the unpleasant smell of peppermint.

One of the main reasons why peppermint oil will have little effect (if any at all) on rats is the fact that most fumes and gases diffuse by rising. This situation would have been more reliable if the rats weren’t small and close to the ground.

It means the fumes or gases released by peppermint oil hardly reach rats because they’re below their area of spread.

As such rats can thrive despite the peppermint oil applied. This can be frustrating if you wanted to hear anything contrary to this.

However, you should see this information as beneficial in your fight against rat infestation. You’re able to seek more effective and reliable rat-repelling alternatives of which several exist.

So, with peppermint out of the picture, what else works?

Other Options Besides Using Peppermint For Rats

This is the next focus; finding effective ways to repel rats from your home.

We’ll almost bet you that a little online search will show up with lots of search results relating to home remedies as well as professional pest management treatments.

While some of these are effective, others aren’t. However, you need to make certain considerations when trying out home remedies for rat control.

Time isn’t on your side, you need to know where to apply, and preventive treatment or control should be continued long after treatment.

• Time Is Of The Essence

When faced with an active rat infestation, you should know that time isn’t on your side.

Natural rat deterrents require trying each out. Now, some of these treatments or strategies may be partly effective, others may not give any results at all.

For every time wasted, rats are likely to overrun your property as they’re fast breeders and cause significant damage to your property. There’s also the risk of spreading diseases through contamination of food and water sources.

You don’t want any of this happening to you. As such, we recommend calling the pros.

Reliable pest management services provide a more comprehensive rodent treatment. They understand rat behavior and know just what to do and where to look in expelling and exterminating these rodents.

When you call in for treatment, it begins within a considerable time after your property must have been fully assessed to determine the scale of infestation. Pest technicians choose the most reliable strategy to apply to your pest problem.

You should see results within a few days starting from the very day of application. This is a much better alternative than using unreliable natural deterrents that may end up worsening the problems.

• Knowing Where and How to Apply the Right Treatment

Even with the natural rat deterrents that work, you’ll need to know where and how to apply. This depends on your understanding of rat behavior which is likely to be non-existent.

This significantly affects your quality of treatment and response.

• Preventive Control

Preventive rat treatments are the most effective of all other methods. It can be applied as a precautionary measure to discourage rats from coming into your home. If you’ve not been adopting this strategy and end up with a rat infestation, you can still apply it after successful treatment.

With preventive control, rats find your home less inviting and seek more welcoming conditions elsewhere.

So, what are these preventive control methods to adopt? There are several! They include good hygiene, maintenance repairs, keeping your surroundings clutter-free, and proper disposal of waste.

• Good Hygiene

By keeping your home clean and tidy, rats will find it unsuitable to hang around.

Good hygiene includes keeping everywhere sparkling clean, proper food storage, cleaning up after each meal, and cleaning up spills and food particles.

• Maintenance Repairs

Maintenance repairs include sealing up all possible entrances which allow rats access to your home. This includes tiny holes. You may use metal wool for this or similar materials that are difficult to chew through.

• Keeping your Surroundings Clutter-Free

Home surroundings with a lot of clutter are open invitations to rodents. You’ll want to get rid of these from your surroundings as soon as you can.

• Proper Waste Disposal

Waste must be properly disposed of. Waste must not be littered around but placed in a trash can with tight lids. That way, rodents don’t have access to the contents

So far, we’ve found out that peppermint oil does nothing to keep rats at bay. In the absence of this oil, several other control methods can be adopted. Some of these have been included above.