Natural Insect Repellent Archives

Mint to Repel Insects and Rodents Around the Chicken Coop

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Mint is one of my favorite scents and plants. It has such a crisp, clean, fresh aroma. We have a nice mint patch growing at our old house. Mint self propagates rapidly. This is a blessing as it is so easy to grow. However, you do want to give considerable thought to where you plant mint as it will spread and could become a nuisance if planted in the wrong location. Two months ago I dug up several of our spearmint and orange mint plants at the old house and put them in temporary pots. Those mint plants set for two months before I finally got around to transplanting them at our new home.

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Establishing a New Herb Garden

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Since moving to our new home we have been working hard to get our plants established. We were quite blessed at our last home and had accomplished a lot. So in some ways it depressed me to have to start over. However, we learned a lot during that time. We learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. We are able to apply what we have learned as we establish our plants at our new home. Our herb garden must be near the kitchen and easily accessible. We decided to start our herb garden around the well house which is to the side of the house close to the back door at the kitchen.

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Arborvitae Thuja plicata (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Arborvitae (Thuja plicata) Essential Oil

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Known as the “tree of life”, Arborvitae is majestic in size and abundant in unique benefits. Arborvitae essential oil is concentrated in tropolones, such as hinokitiol, which are a group of chemical compounds that protect against environmental and seasonal threats and have powerful purifying properties. These compounds also contribute to Arborvitae’s natural insect repellent properties. Thujic acid, another tropolone found in Arborvitae, has been studied for its ability to protect against common threats in the environment. Native to Canada, all parts of the Arborvitae tree were used extensively by Native Americans for health benefits and for building vessels, totem poles, baskets, and clothing. Because of its natural preserving properties, Arborvitae prevents wood from rotting, which makes it popular in woodcraft and for preserving natural wood surfaces.