Before bedbugs enter your residence, you may want to take steps to keep them away. Although this seems like an easy task, bedbugs are not easy to deter. These pests know that they have to consume blood to survive. Therefore, they’re going to do whatever it takes to sneak into your residence. Keeping them out will prove to be very difficult. Still, certain scents may help keep bedbugs away from your residence. Which products work and which ones do not?
First, you’ll find that many bedbug repellents contain baby bedbug pheromones. When baby bedbugs are born, they’re at risk. If they don’t keep male bedbugs away from them, the male bedbugs will attempt to mate with them. Ultimately, this could kill the bugs. To prevent this from happening, the baby bedbugs will release pheromones to keep the adult bedbugs away. The scent works great for deterring male bedbugs, but it doesn’t stop female bedbugs.
It is common to find this scent in over-the-counter bedbug repellents. The only downside is that it isn’t totally effective. Some people have started using essential oils in hopes of keeping bedbugs away from their homes. The US Department of Agriculture recently studied the potential toxicity of essential oils. The study produced interesting results. Bedbugs did not seem deterred by the scent of various essential oils.
However, the oils seemed to do something to the bedbug’s body. Therefore, it may be able to kill them. While these scents are not very reliable, the most effective was silicone oil, spearmint oil, paraffin oil, and blood orange oil.