Does cinnamon repel roaches or attract roaches has been a common topic among people tired of roach infestations in their homes. If you have been thinking the same, today you will find your answer.
Cinnamon effectively repels roaches from home. The strong scent of the cinnamon negatively affects the sense of roaches and scares them away. Cinnamon doesn’t attract any pests. Spread the cinnamon powder around your house to get rid of cockroaches.
However, you need to understand how to use cinnamon to repel roaches and how effective they are. Stay tuned till the end to find out everything. I will also share a tip regarding how to make the cinnamon powder more effective in repelling roaches.
Let’s start!
Contents
Do roaches like cinnamon?
Cinnamon has a strong scent that we seem to like. But roaches don’t like cinnamon. In fact, most bugs or pests don’t like the scent of cinnamon. That’s why cinnamon is often used as a pest repellent.
What does cinnamon do to roaches?
Roaches and cinnamon don’t have a favorable relationship. What cinnamon does to roaches is it deter roaches. When the strong scent of the cinnamon hits roaches, they feel uncomfortable and run away.
How does cinnamon repel roaches?
Cinnamon can effectively repel roaches. But only keeping the spice in a closed jar in your kitchen won’t help. Then how to use the cinnamon to repel roaches?
Some of the things you need to keep in mind while deterring roaches with cinnamon are:
Condition: pure cinnamon powder
You need pure cinnamon powder for the most effective results in repelling roaches. Most commercial cinnamon powders available in the market are processed and don’t have organic properties. As a result, they may not work well to repel roaches.
I prefer to purchase cinnamon sticks for repelling bugs. Get cinnamon sticks from any groceries and then grind them for use. You can buy the McCormick Gourmet Organic Saigon Cinnamon Sticks online. It is pure cinnamon, and you can grind and use it to repel roaches.
But if you don’t want to get into the hassle of grinding cinnamon, you may also purchase the Simply Organic Ground Ceylon Cinnamon. It’s certified organic and earlier also won an award for best organic cinnamon. Therefore you can use this cinnamon powder to repel roaches from your apartment.
Using process: spread around the entrance
After knowing what kind of cinnamon you need, now you have probably been thinking about how to use cinnamon powder to repel roaches?
Take a little bit of cinnamon powder and spread them around all entrances to your house. Sprinkle it around the doors and windows. It will prevent cockroaches from getting into your home.
Then also, spread the cinnamon powder around the infested areas in your home. They mostly live in dirty places. Spread the cinnamon in washroom holes, around the kitchen, in wall cracks, in cabinets, and wherever you may have seen them.
Tip: Dirty and messy places attract roaches. Try to keep your kitchen and other rooms clean to have effective results.
Weakness: Low reach
One of the key problems is that the strong scent of cinnamon has quite a small reach. Wherever you spread the cinnamon powder, it may keep roaches away only a few feet. But in the distance, they won’t have any effects. Hence, you will have to use a lot of cinnamon powder covering a lot of areas.
Tip: Mix with other spices/herbs
However, you can mix a few other spices, herbs, or essential oils with the cinnamon powder to make it stronger and more efficient. Some of the extra ingredients that you can mix with cinnamon to get rid of roaches are:
- Lavender
- Mint
- Eukalyptus
- Citrus
- Catnip
- Citronella
- Basil, etc.
Does cinnamon kill roaches?
Cinnamon has a pretty strong scent that can help you get rid of roaches, but it will not kill roaches. Roaches hate the smell of cinnamon, and that’s why they don’t get near to the spice. But the smell is not strong enough to kill cockroaches.
Is cinnamon good to keep roaches away?
Sprinkling cinnamon around the apartment works well to keep roaches away. You must also keep your house clean to prevent roaches from getting into your house.
But if there’s too much roach infestation, cinnamon might not help much. In such cases, I will recommend you use commercial cockroach repellents.
Best cockroach repellents
Now the obvious question is, what are the best cockroach repellents? I am not going to confuse you with a top ten list.
Here are the top 2 repellents to get rid of roaches:
[Note: If you have pets at home, check my article on best pet safe roach killers.]
- ZeroPest Ultrasonic Repellent for Roach
Ultrasonic pest repellents are quite popular nowadays, and the ZeroPest Ultrasonic Repellent for Roaches is pretty efficient. It’s for indoor use. The ultrasonic repellent also works against rats, mosquitos, geckos, etc.
How to use: Plug in the ultrasonic and touch once to activate the repellent. When you see the blue light is on, it means the machine is working. On the first touch, you will activate level one which has 25KHz to 65KHz of frequency, suitable for light pests. Touch twice to activate a level that has 10KHz to 15KHz of frequency, best for repelling heavy pests.
- Combat Max Defense System Brand, Small Roach Killing Bait, and Gel
Baits are the most common and effective ways to get rid of cockroaches. The Combat Mac Defense System Roach Killing Bait and Gel is one of the best products to kill roaches in-house. It has 12 bait stations and 1 syringe with 12gm of gel.
How to use: Place the black color bait stations in most common places in houses where roaches hang around. The roach will enter the station and ingest contagious bait. Then it will return to the nest and spread among other roaches to kill the whole nest.
For hard-to-reach areas, use the gel syringe. Lay some gel, and roaches will eat the gel. It will take some before the gel kills the roach.
If you have pets at home, you should use a pet safe roach killer.
What smells repel cockroaches?
Although cinnamon works well to repel roaches, there are some other smells that deter roaches. Some of the items may already be available in your kitchen. You use them for repelling roaches.
Scents that roaches hate include citronella, mint, basil, thyme, citrus, lavender, etc. If they are available in your home, spread them in areas with roach infestations to repel the pest. Mothballs also repel roaches efficiently.
What insects does cinnamon repel?
The strong scent of cinnamon not only deters roaches but also repels ants, wasps, fruit flies, mosquitos, bed bugs, etc. In short, cinnamon is quite efficient in keeping various insects away.
Final Words
I hope you have understood how does cinnamon repel roaches. The strong scent of the cinnamon efficiently scares away roaches from your home. But if there’s a large infestation, I would suggest you buy commercial repellents such as the ultrasonic pest repeller or the bait I mentioned earlier. Don’t forget to share your experience with cinnamon and roaches in the comments.