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In addition to a clean home, fleas dislike oils made from plants that are naturally bug-resistant or poisonous to bugs. That includes myrtle, mint, eucalyptus, and especially cedar oil. Common household remedies like baking soda, garlic and apple vinegar don’t have any effect on fleas. Don’t spray essential oils directly on your own skin or your pets (and their bedding, because it can be a skin irritant. Stay away from tea tree oil. In pure form it can be very toxic to pets. Always ask your vet if you have any questions.

Bed bugs are most active when we are most inactive, typically from 2 a.m. until 5 a.m. They are cunning, and adjust their schedules according to their victims. If you work at night, for instance, your bed bugs will flip the script.

Stink bugs can start reproducing a couple of weeks after they leave the nymph stages, which gives them several months to mate and start laying eggs. A single stink bug can lay up to 400 eggs in a lifetime, which can worsen an infestation. Stink bugs lay significantly more eggs in warmer climates where they stay active longer and have several rounds of egg laying.

Skunks spray as a defense mechanism to ward off predators. The active ingredient in their sulfurous, oily musk is n-butyl mercaptan, which evaporates into a powerful and smelly gas. Once the spray hits the skunk’s target, the stench can linger for days, and water and common cleaning kits aren’t enough to wash it away.

If you happen upon a skunk in your yard, try to back away slowly to reduce the chance of them aiming at you. Encouragingly, they don’t use their weapon casually, as it can take up to 10 days for their life-saving weaponry to refill. Paw stamping, hissing, lifting their tail, and arching their back are early signs they feel trapped or under threat and that it’s time to make a careful retreat.