Cedar oil is excellent in exterminating pests, and here is how to mix cedar oil for pest control. Cedar oil or cedarwood oil is an essential oil with a woody scent and is adequate to keep your home smelling good.
However, making your house smell good is not just what cedar oil does. It can also exterminate pests inside your home.
In general, the essential oil has proven its use to exterminate pests inside your home while also making your home smell good. You can mix the cedar oil with water and use it as a pesticide, but using the essential oil can also be quite effective.
Why Are There Pests Inside Your Home?
Under optimal conditions, pests can shelter inside your home, which you should avoid as a homeowner because of the risks it possesses. If you have dark crevices inside your home, have a soured mop lingering inside, and a spilled drink that you have yet to clean, most probably that a pest will go inside your home.
Pests are attracted to warm air, light, food, and moisture. These are also conditions in the environment that pests can thrive on. If you ever wonder how problems get inside your house, these are the things you need to have a lookout for.
How To Prevent Pests Inside Your Home
The best preventive measure you can do is to integrate the prevention technique into your everyday life, such as:
- Get rid of any food source, shelter, or even water.
- Disposal of garbage daily with the lid tightly closed.
- Store all items in a sealed and enclosed container.
- Remove clutters where pests can crawl and live.
- Sealing cracks and holes so entry from the outside will be blocked.
- Having frequent cleaning and inspection of the house from roof to basement.
If you have different pest problems such as mold or mildew, how to pressure wash a house with mildew, and should you get mold inspection when buying a house as your guide.
How Do You Mix Cedar Oil For Pest Control
Here are three easy steps to mix cedar oil for pest control.
Step #1. Dilute a part of cedar oil into the water
- For small insects like flees, silverfish, flies, and gnats, dilute 1.3% cedar oil to 98.7% water.
- To get rid of fire bats dilute 3.1% of cedar oil to 96.9% water.
- To get rid of fruit flies, moths, beetles, and spiders, mix 5.5% cedar oil with 94.5% water.
- Dilute 6% cedar oil to 94% water to get rid of fire ants.
- Dilute 8.3% cedar oil with 91.7% water for you to get rid of grasshoppers and crickets.
Step #2. Calculate the amount
To calculate the amount of cedar oil needed to be added to the water using the given percentages in step 1.
The easiest to do so is by using ounces. Let us say that 1.3% cedar oil equals 0.13 oz and 98.7% water equals 9.87 oz.
To measure the ounce, you can use a small digital scale. Just move the decimal point one step to the left to convert the percentage to an ounce.
You can also multiply the ounce to 10 or more for a much larger area of coverage.
Step #3. Spray
Lastly, put the cedar oil and water mixture into a spray bottle and spray it to the affected area directly.
How Effective Is Cedar Oil On Pests?
Essential oils are highly potent chemicals in repelling bugs and insects, and one such is cedar oil.
Cedar oil is proven to be an effective pest control rather than a bug repellant, unlike its other essential oil counterpart.
Cedar oil works to dehydrate the pests, which can ultimately dry out and get killed. The fragrance that cedar oil emits disorients the insects by blocking the ability of the bug to locate the pheromones of a plant.
Cedar oil can also interfere with the insect’s bodily mechanism and chemistry, affecting its breathing ability. It also acts as a larvicide through dissolving the immature insects and the exoskeleton of an adult one.
Utilizing cedar oil as your pesticide is proven to be effective as all the other pesticides in the market, especially on bed bugs, slugs, moths, and fleas.
Is Cedar Oil Dangerous To Your Health?
Like any other essential oil, cedar oil is not suitable for your health when ingested. Aside from this danger, there is a rare scenario that it can irritate your skin.
Cedar oil has a low toxin and is relatively safe unless prolonged exposure. Although it is dangerous to insects, there are a lot of benefits mammals can get when using cedar oil.
Conclusion
Now that we have discussed how to mix cedar oil for pest control, just follow the three steps above, and you can get rid of those pests inside your home. Make sure to take proper precautionary measures on dealing with pests.