What Smells Do Fleas Dislike? 6 Natural Scents That Repel Fleas
If you are looking for home remedies for fleas then we’ve got a list of natural scents that repel fleas. Fleas dislike the smell of natural essential oils like lavender, bergamot, grapefruit, rosemary and tea tree. Using these essential oils with diffusers, candles or generally for aromatherapy can help keep fleas away. It can potentially help get rid of those tiny but nasty flying creatures that subtly keep annoying you. Whether it is kitchen, bedroom, toilet or even office space, our list of smells that fleas dislike compliment every environment.
What Scent Do Fleas Hate?
Fleas hate scents that contain natural compounds like linalool, limonene, menthol, etc. Such compounds can overwhelm their sensory system and help keep fleas away. Think lavender, lime, orange, spearmint essential oils. Certain herbaceous and camphorous scents are also beneficial in keeping fleas away.
6 Smells That Fleas Dislike
Here are 6 smells that fleas dislike and can be used to keep them away naturally.
You can also refer to our A-Z guide on essential oils for fleas for a more detailed list of scents.
Lavender Essential Oil
As much as humans love the floral and comforting aroma of lavender essential oil, fleas are repelled by it. Its calming and skin soothing properties mean it can also be used on skin to create a protective shield against fleas - in a diluted form, of course.
How To Use:
Add witch hazel and a few drops of lavender essential oil in a dark spray bottle. Shake well and spray on mattress and bedding to keep fleas away.
Learn more about how to use lavender essential oil for fleas in this detailed resource.
Best Areas To Use: Bedroom, Kids room
Lavandin Essential Oil
Similar to lavender, lavandin essential oil also helps keep fleas away. If you are out of lavender essential oil (like that is even a scenario), then lavandin oil can be your savior.
How To Use:
Add 1-2 drops on top of wax melts in a wax warmer. Do not directly add to the warmer as it can damage it. Let the aroma spread.
Best Areas To Use: Bedroom, Living room
Lemongrass Essential Oil
Known for its powerful composition of citral, lemongrass essential oil refreshing and citrusy. But most importantly, it is an extremely cost effective scent that fleas dislike. If you are a hotel or spa owner and are looking for a budget friendly essential to keep fleas away, we recommend giving lemongrass essential oil a shot.
How To Use
Pour a few drops on a cotton ball and place it corners. Replace the cotton balls or add more oil to them every 3-4 days.
Best Areas To Use: Bathroom, Kitchen, Workspace
Citronella Essential Oil
Citronella essential oil has a reputation of being the holy grail scent to keep mosquitoes away. But did you know that fleas also hate its powerful scent and run miles away from it? The actives in citronella essential oil make it difficult for fleas to find their way and even get access to food.
Use citronella oil to keep mosquitoes and fleas away in gardens and parks.
How To Use
Use in an electric diffuser outdoors or use a citronella essential oil incense stick. You can aslo add a few drops to mop water.
Best Areas To Use: Outdoors
Rosemary Essential Oil
Apart from being a hair growth elixir, rosemary essential oil works as a flea repellent too. Fleas dislike its herbal and sharp smell and run away from it. That is also the reason why it is used in pet care products and is a great essential oil for fleas on dogs.
How To Use
Apply a few drops of rosemary essential oil on the cleaning pad and use it to clean kitchen counter.
Best Areas To Use: Kitchen, Living room, Dining area
Cinnamon Essential Oil
If we had to decide on the strongest smell that fleas dislike, it has to be cinnamon oil. The warm, spicy and almost autumn like scent of cinnamon essential oil makes fleas lose their senses. As strong as cinnamon oil is, always handle it with extra care. If you want a scent to keep fleas away in winters, cinnamon oil is a great bet. Out of numerous types of cinnamon oils available, we recommend choosing cinnamon bark essential oil for its more powerful active profile.
How To Use
Use in any aromatherapy diffuser but keep it away from pets and do not use on them.
Best Areas To Use: Kitchen, Outdoors.
DIY Natural Flea Repellent Recipe and Blends To Try
Looking to create your own natural flea repellent recipe or blend? Here’s one that you can create with easily available ingredients and scents that fleas dislike.
Things Needed
- Dark colored glass bottle or metal bottle
- Lavender essential oil
- Lavandin essential oil
- Citronella essential oil
- Cinnamon oil
- Rosemary essential oil
- Witch hazel
- Distilled water
Directions
- First check if all the essential oils you are using are 100% pure essential oils and not fragrance oils.
- In the bottle, mix together all the ingredients and shake well. You can adjust the quantity of essential oils as per your scent preference.
- Add more of lavender if you want the spray to smell floral and calming. On the other hand, if you would the spray to feel energizing and smell refreshing, use more of citronella and lemongrass essential oils.
- Let the mixture settle in for a day.
- Now use it to spray in corners, kitchen counters, or simply use as a room spray.
- While the recommended quantity of each essential oil per 100 ml of witch hazel is 2-3 drops, feel free to increase or decrease as per your scent needs.
Precautions To Keep While Using Flea Repellent Scents Around Pets
Pets can be highly sensitive to essential oils. Some essential oils could even cause toxicity in pets hence, it is important to follow certain safety guidelines.
- Check if the essential oils you are using are safe for your particular pet. Cats and dogs both respond to essential oils differently so check the one that aligns best for your pet needs.
- Avoid using essential oils in areas where pets can lick the oils.
- When using a diffuser, leave the doors and windows open for a while for optimum ventilation.
- Essential oils can be useful but tricky for pet usage hence always check with a vet first.
Concluding Thoughts
Natural scents are great tools to keep fleas away. If you are troubled by fleas in your space and looking for natural options to get rid of them, try using scents like lavender essential oil, citronella essential oil or lemongrass essential oil. Fleas dislike these scents and try to move farther away from them. They can be used in diverse ways to control fleas at home - the simplest being aromatherapy diffusion.
You can make a simple DIY flea repelling blend using potent essential oils. If you are looking to manufacture such blends at a large scale level then consider your ingredients from a wholesale essential oil supplier like Aromachology oils. This will help you source essential oils at a pocket friendly price with the certification of highest quality.
