The Ingredient To Keep Rats Out Of Your Garden Is Sitting In Your Kitchen

Gardening has long been a popular hobby among Americans, but it has grown dramatically more during the 2020s. In fact, gardening is at the pinnacle of its popularity in the United States, with over half of the households having a garden. Statistics show nearly 200 million Americans garden in some form or fashion. While gardeners and gardens vary tremendously throughout the country, they all share some common challenges. Among the top issues facing gardeners is the presence of rodents such as rats and mice.

Their presence is a bigger issue than just the loss of any plants and vegetables they may snack on. Rats and mice are known to carry a number of diseases that can affect both pets and humans. According to the Center for Disease Control, coming into contact with these rodents or their urine and droppings can contract a series of serious and even deadly viruses. Additionally, the presence of mice may attract snakes to your yard and make it difficult to keep cats away from your garden. However, the ingredient to keep rats out of your garden is sitting in your kitchen. If you have cinnamon spice, you can get rid of rats and mice.

Cinnamon has long been used in a variety of ways. Not only does it have a unique smell and spicy taste, it also has been proven to have health benefits for both plants and humans. But, while people tend to be attracted to cinnamon for the scent, flavor, and medicinal uses, pests, including rats and mice, tend to be repelled by it. The key to the power of cinnamon is a substance known as cinnamaldehyde, which provides flavor and smell to cinnamon. It also can be an irritant to nasal passages and eyes.

The combination of qualities presented by cinnamaldehyde combine to make cinnamon an effective deterrent for mice and rats in a couple of ways. For one, the smell can be too much for the olfactory senses of rodents, causing them to avoid areas where they detect it. Secondly, the scent can effectively cover the scent of vegetables and plants they intend to eat, essentially masking the fact the garden contains a food source for them.

There are a handful of ways gardeners can employ cinnamon to keep mice and rats away. The simplest is to sprinkle ground cinnamon around the perimeter of the garden as well as around the base of plants throughout the garden. The scent of the cinnamon will prevent rats from coming close. The next method involves doing the same thing with pure, undiluted 100 percent essential cinnamon oil. Sprinkle drops of the oil in and around the garden. Make sure you use enough to give the garden a noticeable scent.

The more complex method involves making a cinnamon spray. An easy way to do this is to mix cinnamon and water with a ratio of a half teaspoon of cinnamon per cup of water. Stir the mixture and allow it to sit overnight. Strain out any undiluted cinnamon so as to not clog the sprayer. Add a couple drops of rubbing alcohol as well as a few drops of liquid dish soap, which will help it adhere to the leaves of the plants. Place the concoction in a sprayer and mist the leaves of all the plants in your garden.

Regardless of which method you choose, be mindful you will need to reapply often — especially after any rainfall. So, as an added measure of protection, you may want to consider utilizing tricks such as the plastic forks for garden hack to keep rats away during periods between cinnamon applications.