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4.5
I marked the scent as a 5. I don’t particularly like mint except in ice cream and Christmas cookies. Those are both fake mint. The peppermint oil works wonders for me in two situations, keeping paper wasps from making nests near my hummingbird feeders and keeping spider mites away from my tomato and cucumber plants. I actually like having paper wasps around. They are not aggressive, they pollinate plants, they eat caterpillars like leaf miners and tomato worms (the fat green creatures with what look like sharp horns on their heads and butts) Spider mites ( NOT a spider! Spiders are wonderful helpers in the garden. They eat many of the pests that can damage plants, they are shy and want to avoid us! I know there are some very dangerous spiders out there but not in places most of us live.{Australia, I don’t remember if you all have deadly spiders or very dangerous snakes. Three AFS siblings from that wonderful country and I’m drawing a blank. If I’ve left anyone else out, please comment on this review and educate me. Trying to avoid being any more of an insulated, ignorant, ugly American than I have to be. }A Brown Recluse packs a wallop. Black Widows are actually shy and just want to hangout somewhere cool, dark and not crawling with scary things like humans. The Brown Widow is said to be more aggressive than the Black Widow but the brown is aggressive to the black, attacking egg sacks to kill the Black Widow’s offspring as well as the adult female. I have been bitten by spiders and it is pretty much like a mosquito bite. I have never been chased down and bitten by a spider. But I don’t go walking through spirit plagued bogs, hang out with lots of other hobbits, wear rings that make me feel distrustful of my friends or try to sneak into lands watched over by huge eyeballs and an army of creatures that drool more than a pack of Saint Bernards taking their favorite tennis balls on a hike past a pork products cooking contest.)Anyway, the paper wasps were intent on making a nest less than 18 inches from a well used hummingbird feeder. I moved their nest to the opposite side of the house. I used a soft duster to remove all the stragglers who were trying to build a new nest. I captured the queen and moved her as far away from hungry hummers. Finally I googled things paper wasps will avoid. I put about an oz of peppermint oil, a cup of warm water and a drizzle of olive oil in a spray bottle, moved the wasps so I could spray the areas of my wooden porch with the oil mixture without spraying the wasps. They flew around for a while, looking, I guess, for a spot without peppermint oil. By dusk they had all disappeared. There were a number of them checking the area this morning but by noon they were in the wet coco coir plant saucer. Hunting for the perfect nest site is thirsty business.Oh, forgot to add, I put a dab of the peppermint oil mix on the underside of two or three leaves of any plant spider mites may want to suck the life from. I also sprayed a bit on the soil around the plants. Fingers crossed!
