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How To Use Lemongrass To Repel These 11 Common Pests
By ASHLEY HANSON
Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes hate the smell of citronella oil in lemongrass. To use it as a repellent, mix a few drops of lemongrass essential oil with coconut oil and rub it on your skin.
Alternatively, put the oil in a diffuser or mix 3 drops of oil to every 2 ounces of water and spray it around your home. You can also plant lemongrass around your outdoor spaces.
Flies
Putting potted lemongrass around your home deters flies, as its citrus smell hampers their scent receptors, making it harder for them to find and land on any uncovered food.
Make a safe and eco-friendly fly spray by mixing a few drops of lemongrass oil with 2 cups of water in a spray bottle and spraying it around your doors, windows, and kitchen.
Spiders
Spiders avoid lemongrass, as its strong scent interferes with their ability to follow smells, so put potted lemongrass wherever they get in, like windowsills or doorways.
Put a few drops of lemongrass oil on cotton balls and place them wherever spiders lurk. Just remember that it can irritate kids’ skin and large quantities are toxic to animals.
Ants
Use lemongrass essential oil to disrupt the scent trails that ants use to communicate and find food, and you’ll notice the number of ants in your home start to dwindle.
Mix a few drops of lemongrass oil and water in a spray bottle. Spray windows, doors, or cracks, or soak cotton balls in the oil and put them wherever you’ve seen ant trails.
Roaches
To disrupt roaches’ ability to navigate and communicate, put cotton balls soaked in lemongrass oil behind appliances, in cabinets, near entry points, or wherever they hide.
If you're sensitive to the smell of pure lemongrass oil, use a diffuser or put a few drops of oil into your mop bucket. The scent will spread as you mop and deter the pests.