Peppermint. If you've ever been around peppermint, you know it has a strong scent. This plant is great at repelling bugs. Cockroaches as well as aphids, moths, fleas, and beetles avoid this plant.
You may love the smell of fresh citrus, but cockroaches hate the scent. That means you can use citrus scented cleaners in your kitchen and bathroom to chase any lingering roaches away. You can also keep a few citrus peels around your home in strategic places.
Cockroaches have an incredible sense of smell that they use to find food. You can take advantage of this fact by using scents they dislike such as thyme, citrus, basil, mint, and citronella to repel them from your home.
Cayenne, Garlic, and Onion Powder
Walk around your home and sprinkle all cockroach-prone areas with this spice mixture. Cockroaches can't stand the smell of these spices and will avoid all areas sprinkled with them.
Research has found that some essential oils—especially rosemary oil—are effective at repelling roaches. Rosemary oil was found to offer a 100% roach mortality rate at the concentration range of 2.5% to 30%. So mix it with water and spray away at your problem areas!
The researchers actually determined oregano oil to be the most effective oil tested. Oregano oil repelled cockroaches up to one week after application. A 2008 study also found oregano oil to be as effective as synthetic insecticides.
Does Cinnamon repel cockroaches? No, cinnamon doesn't repel cockroaches. But there're are other essential oils or spices that can work against cockroaches. You can use bay leaves, garlic, and catnip to reduce some amount of cockroach activity in your home.
The smell of lemons repels cockroaches to a great extent, keeping them away from areas that reek of the fruit. Hence, it is advisable to mop floors with water that has a few lemon drops in it.
Vinegar has a strong scent that roaches are not fond of. However, it's not the best cockroach deterrent. If used alone, roaches may ignore the smell of vinegar. If you mix vinegar with essential oils, you can boost the strength of your repellent spray.
It's a fact that cockroaches are afraid of humans and other mammals or animals that are bigger than them. They see us as predators and that fear triggers their instinct to scatter away. However, they dislike strong and distinctive scents such as citrus, peppermint, lavender and vinegar.
Mint: Mint, particularly peppermint, is another cockroach repeller with a potent smell. Planting a few sprigs of peppermint or using essential oil will keep cockroaches out of your garden and home.
In summary, the best plants that repel roaches and pesky insects are as follows: Basil plants, because they release a smell similar to the one created by cockroach repellent.
#3 Lemongrass and cedar oil
That's when a natural, home remedy can come in handy. Lemongrass and cedar oil are well known natural cockroach repellents but do they work? Wholesale Natural Pesticides says; "When applying cedar oil, beware that it can stir up roach activity and open a floodgate.
Garlic. Garlic is immensely effective against cockroaches. It is advisable to sprinkle garlic powder in and around infested areas. Cockroaches hate the smell of garlic.
Bay leaves are a natural remedy that can be used to repel or deter cockroaches. It is important to note that, Bay leaves will not kill the bugs but will produce a scent that the cockroaches least like or find irritating, that will force them to seek residence elsewhere.
Citrus Attack
It's been said through the decades that cockroaches detest citrus flavor. They don't. Cockroaches would find themselves perfectly at home inside anything from an orange peel to a citrus grove.
Roaches & Coffee
Roaches aren't particularly in love with coffee, but they're not known to be picky eaters either. They'll eat almost anything to get the energy and nutrients that they need to survive. So if they won't find anything else sweeter or more delectable in a cupboard, they'll definitely go for your coffee.
Cinnamon can repel bugs.
"You can use cinnamon on any indoor or outdoor space as protection against pest infestations." Cinnamon doesn't only scare away ants, but also cockroaches, spiders, fruit flies, rats, wasps, earwigs, silverfish, mosquitoes, and even bed bugs, according to Barrett.
The best essential oils to repel roaches are peppermint oil, oregano oil and catnip oil. Essential Oils for Killing Roaches. The best essential oils to get rid of roaches are rosemary oil, cedar oil and eucalyptus oil.
Cockroaches hate mint in any form. Put some leaves into boiling water and wait for at least 10 min to get a greenish color and minty aroma. After it cools, use it as a spray. Spray all the suspected areas you think roaches might hide or where you've seen their activity.
Lemongrass essential oil showed some effectiveness, as well as potential to eradicate German cockroaches. The experimentation suggested that it can be contact toxic and repellent against the German cockroaches, but not through the fumigation application.
Not only is peppermint oil a natural cockroach repellent—it's also toxic to roaches (and for the record, to bed bugs, too).