The Downsides To Using Essential Oils To Repel Wasps (& A Better Alternative To Try)

Are you dealing with a backyard wasp problem? As you're searching for easy hacks that work to get rid of wasps, you might come across the suggestion of using essential oils. However, essential oils aren't the perfect solution for keeping wasps off of your property. While they can be effective at repelling wasps, they're not a long-lasting option, which can make this DIY remedy a difficult one to maintain. Despite being derived from natural sources, essential oils can also cause issues for people and pets. 

Wasps get a bad rap despite their help with pollination and keeping harmful insects under control in your garden. Still, there's something unsettling about the slender bodies and bright colors that make wasps distinct. When you spot them in your yard, it's natural to look for ways to get rid of wasps, especially if you have kids or are allergic to the stings. Plus, spending time outdoors is a lot less stressful if you don't have stinging insects buzzing by your head. If you're trying to avoid toxic wasp sprays, which are dangerous to people, pets and the environment, you might look into essential oils as a repellent. A study published in Pest Management Science showed that 17 of the 21 essential oils tested, including clove, ylang ylang, spearmint, rosemary, lavender, and citronella, repelled wasps significantly. Despite those repellent qualities, however, essential oils come up short in long-term effectiveness, so it's important to understand their use fully and consider alternatives. 

Essential oils repel wasps before they build nests. To do this, you mix your essential oil of choice with water and a few drops of dish soap to create a spray, which you apply to areas where wasps might build nests. The main problem with this solution is how long it lasts. Unfortunately, the oils break down quickly, sometimes within hours of being sprayed. At most, you get a few days out of your essential oil wasp repellent. If it rains or the area is exposed to direct sunlight, you'll need to reapply the essential oils more frequently. It's not a practical long-term solution, especially since wasps could build their nests in any number of sheltered areas. That's why you might see nests under the eaves of your home and sheds. However, they also commonly build nests in wall voids, attics, and trees. Applying essential oils to all of those areas is time-consuming if you have to reapply it every day to keep the essential oils effective.

While essential oils are naturally derived, they could still cause irritation in people and animals. Many of the essential oils that are recommended to repel wasps are on the list of dangerous oils for dogs. That includes clove, pennyroyal, peppermint, wintergreen, ylang ylang, and lemongrass. Many undiluted essential oils are also irritating to the skin with direct exposure. The essential oil sprays could cause stains where you apply them, which is a potential problem for exposed exterior areas of your home.

You could be attracting wasps to your home and garden without realizing it. Wasps are attracted to food sources, particularly sweet items. To minimize this issue, keep your trash cans covered tightly and clean up produce that falls on the ground in your garden. If you have hummingbird feeders, keep them clean and install guards to keep wasps away.

One of the biggest drawbacks of essential oils is how quickly they break down, but you can still use some of those plants as deterrents for wasps by planting them around your home. Peppermint, lavender, marigolds, lemongrass, and chrysanthemums are options that may keep wasps away from your home. You can incorporate them into existing landscaping or add pots containing wasp-repelling plants.

If you already have wasps around your home, using an aerosol wasp spray with a long spray range of at least 10 feet is often the most effective way to get rid of wasps. Early morning or after the sun sets are ideal times to spray a wasp nest. That's when they're least active and most likely to be in their nests, so you have a better chance of applying the spray safely and reaching a large number of wasps. It's also easier to get rid of a wasp problem early in the spring when nests are just forming and are still small. As soon as you're done applying the spray, leave the area in case some wasps swarm. You can try an organic or all-natural spray, such as the ecoSMART Organic Wasp and Hornet Killer, if you want to minimize chemicals.