Many naturally occurring pesticidal chemicals are highly repellent.  Repellency is nature’s way of saying ‘Don’t eat me.’  Repellency is a natural defense mechanism.  Many edible plants, including fruits and vegetables, have some degree of these naturally occurring pesticidal repellents.

Many synthetic pesticides are also highly repellent – especially pyrethroids, the synthetic chemicals patterned after the naturally occurring pyrethrins found in chrysanthemums.

Repellency is not an indication of how toxic a chemical is.  Some repellent pesticides are much less toxic than caffeine.

Insects do not have noses.  They sense what we experience as odors or tastes via their antennae.  Some chemicals trigger a flight response in insects.  We call that response repellency.

Repellency can be advantageous when you are trying to keep a pest out of your home.  It creates a barrier around your home that makes pests think twice before crossing.

Once we have eliminated a pest from your home, we might very well recommend the use of a repellent material on the exterior to prevent re-infestation.

Take carpenter ants for instance.  It is uncommon for the main nest site of a carpenter ant colony to be located inside a structure.  A main nest site must be humid, never drying out and never freezing.  How do you prevent carpenter ants from the main nest site from re-infesting your home?  By having us periodically re-apply an ultra low toxicity repellent barrier around the exterior.

If you are not seeing pests and you have been on regular service, it is most likely due to the periodic reapplication of this barrier around your home.  In fact, that barrier may be the only reason you have not been re-infested. 

Repellency also works very well against spiders.

Repellency may not be a good idea if you already have a pest infestation.  It may trap them inside.

If you have cockroaches it may prevent them from leaving their cracks and crevices until the applied repellent materials break down. 

If you have thousands to hundreds of thousands of ants, as you can have with some infestations, it may keep them from getting outside and force them to search the inside of your structure for food and water sources. 

On an initial service we may suggest the application of a non-repellent for some pests.  It allows us to use less pesticide and get quicker control with fewer applications.  Once your initial infestation is eliminated we can work on prevention by using repellents.

There are non-repellent pesticides that are also very low in toxicity, with no odor, fume, or vapor.