CHAPTRER I

BAY LEAVES AS RAT REPELLANT

Introduction

Rat infestation has always been one of the greatest issues of mankind when
it comes to having and maintaining a clean and healthy household. These feisty
and notorious little fellas are always the major problems of every dwelling: from
targeting and infesting our food supply up to bringing and contaminating our
surroundings with sickness, the most common of which is Leptospirosis. All
throughout the history, rats have caused several major problems to mankind mainly
because they bring viruses and other forms of sickness. They have caused several
medical crises such as plagues. Through time, people had invented and discovered
different ways and means to prevent infestation, from ancient mouse traps up to
modern day chemicals. The use of chemicals is far more effective for rat
extermination and control as compared to mouse traps. However, the usage of
chemicals also imposes a thread to us humans. This study is conducted to discover
another suitable means of preventing rat infestation without the harmful effect of
using chemicals by using the natural and aromatic effects of Bay Leaves.

Bay leaves are commonly used in cooking. It can be whole or ground dried
pieces of the plant. It comes from several aromatic plants such as: Bay laurel
(Laurus nobilis, Lauraceae), California bay leaf – the leaf of the California bay tree
(Umbellularia californica, Lauraceae), Indian bay leaf or malabathrum
(Cinnamomum tamala, Lauraceae), Indonesian bay leaf or Indonesian laurel (salam
leaf, Syzygium polyanthum, Myrtaceae), West Indian bay leaf, the leaf of the West
Indian bay tree (Pimenta racemosa, Myrtaceae), and Mexican bay leaf (Litsea
glaucescens, Lauraceae).1 In the Philippines, dried bay laurel leaves are used in
several Filipino dishes such as menudo, beef pares, and adobo, to name a few. It
has always been known that other than cooking, the aroma of the bay leaves can be
used to repel pests.

1
Bay Leaf-Wikipedia, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_leaf], last seen October 23, 2018.
(isingit mo ung ideas mo about sa effects ng bay leaf tapos ilagay mo yung
regulations sa paggamit ng bay leaf, then idugtong mo yung sa rat
countering/control/repellant/extermination. Paraphrase mo ung sentences mo, may
mga run-off sentences ka, gumamit ka ng symbols and improve mo ung grammar.
Kulang din sa facts. Sa mga examples, pag nag-enumerate ka sa paragraph, ilagay
mo sa parentheses ang definition/description ng sample mo)