Mice are not awesome roommates. Cockroaches and silverfish are even worse. The good news is, instead of sitting them down in the living room and asking them to please stop using your towel and start doing their dishes, you can kick pests to the curb with little more than the basic ingredients of potpourri.
Mice
The first time you see a mouse in your apartment, head straight to the natural foods aisle of your grocery store and pick up some peppermint oil. (*Get oil, not extract – you want the stronger aroma.) In one of life’s more lovely oddities, while people are generally all about the fresh scent of mint, mice hate it. Soak a cotton ball or three in the stuff, place them by any possible entry points and say so long to your rodent roommates.
Ants
Making an anti-ant pest control potion is as simple as adding two tablespoons of dish soap to a spray bottle full of good ol’ H2O. Shake up the mix a bit to distribute the soap and then spritz along baseboards, windowsills, or any place you've seen a trail of ants, letting the solution dry by itself. The cleaner wipes out the ants’ scent trails, effectively washing away the paths they've made to lead other ants into your home.
Cockroaches
The best defense against roaches is a consistent offense. Keeping food in airtight containers and dirty dishes out of the sink should prevent most pest problems, but if you still see a roach or two, cotton balls soaked in essential oils (either cypress oil or peppermint oil should work) and strategically placed near doorways, cracks or other access points can help ward them off.
Silverfish
Don’t live in silverfish country? You lucky dog. These guys look like enormous centipedes and run like the dickens. If you’re all too familiar with these creepy crawlers though, you’ll be pleased to know that silverfish, like mice, hate something awesome: Cinnamon! Sprinkle ground cinnamon liberally in closets or hang sachets of cinnamon sticks and cloves in your bathroom cabinets or near drains where they commonly enter. While cinnamon won’t kill silverfish, it will annoy and repel them –like a constant car alarm you set off to ruin their day.
Fruit Flies
If you keep a bowl of fruit on the counter in summer or just weren't on your A-game with those dishes for a few days, chances are you've found a few fruit flies hanging out in the kitchen. They multiply fast, so the best way to stop them is to ruin their hatching grounds. Half a cup of baking soda down the drains followed by a quarter-to-half cup of vinegar will create a nice bubbly reaction to fizz those flies into oblivion.
When it comes to dealing with pests in your apartment, the most important thing to do is take swift, aggressive, cleaning-based action. Unless of course the pest is the person you live with, in which case maybe try a polite conversation over Junior Mints? Because c’mon – everybody loves those.
