I’m not kidding.
If you’re an adult by now your mouth and your stomach have been rocked [on occasion] by none other than Cayenne Pepper. Chances are that you didn’t even know who or what the culprit was, well more often than not it was packing some kind of heat but oh so tasty – that’s Cayenne Pepper! It doesn’t take long to respect this spicy seasoning found today in many a Cajun recipe. That’s how I was first introduced to it. Cajun and Creole are by far my most coveted cuisines from the many Gumbos out there to Blackened Seafood and Shrimp Creole and beyond. This pepper with its origin from South and Central America is the bomb in many a tasty dish. Cayenne is certainly not the hottest pepper ever discovered as they keep breeding hotter ones but it has its place in pepper history, and let’s just say that by now I know it well. I’m talking to you today about the virtues of Cayenne Pepper because some of these uses might surprise you. Even though the over-consumption of this spice can bite and make you wish you were somewhere else [when you’re not], trust me, Cayenne is your friend, or “Frenne”! See Below –

Unusual Applications
I like to smoke meat using my barbecue pit on my patio. A couple years ago I began to see rat droppings around my deck close to the pit usually the day after I cooked outside. There’s no way to get inside that closed pit but these critters were visiting overnight because the smell must have enticed them? Plus just outside my neighborhood is a large convenience store that serves counter food so all the grounds keepers and laboring folks like to eat lunch on the grounds around that store and leave their wrappings hanging around so the smell of all those scraps were probably drawing varmints into the area. Some neighbors as well as that store still use bait boxes with rat poisoning and that has helped but surprisingly Cayenne Pepper has been way more effective [for me]. Once I began to sprinkle it along my fence line border just behind my barbecue pit I notice very little trace of activity from mice or rats on my patio deck anymore.

Unwanted Critters
What people don’t realize is how aggressive these varmints can be, they will tunnel underneath decked patios to shelter in for the Winter. They’ll even tunnel underneath stone and cement patios! Watch out during the Winter up here in North Texas because rats/mice will even make a home inside the shelter of your outside A/C exhaust fan unit. That’s a fan motor that will stay dormant for months over the Winter so no issue for those guys until maybe March-April of the year when you first turn that unit on. If you have pets never feed them outside! Leaving food on the porch or patio for a dog or cat and you’re going to attract all kinds of unwanted critters in North Texas. Opossums love cat food! Rats and mice will eat about anything, especially bird seed, they’ll be all over bird seed! The easiest part of not attracting unwanted visitors to your property at night is learning how to avoid being targeted. These animals survive on their smell acuity, they have extremely sensitive scent detectors. They can smell remnants of a meal miles away. This works for Cayenne Pepper as well. I began sprinkling this powder along a 2-3″ wide by 12 foot strip between my fence boundary and my stone patio. Sitting just behind my barbecue pit it’s a place where I had mulch just to keep weeds from coming up. Result? After a few applications of Cayenne Pepper any evidence of rats and mice have all but disappeared.

Warning Labels
If you choose to try this do re-apply after a moderate rain as it will dissolve down into the soil. Also, forget about buying Cayenne pepper in one of those shakers found at the neighborhood grocer because you’re going to have to go BIGGER than that for outdoor use. Buy it in pounds on Amazon.com or another site. When applying Cayenne pepper powder outside I recommend using one of those N-95 masks or similar and disposable gloves. Out in the open air this stuff can travel up your nose pretty quick and you’ll want to keep it out of your eyes, so best to avoid these unintentional hazards when possible.

Other Notable Mentions
Cayenne peppers are heart healthy and full of Vitamins A & C and anti-oxidants. Patients with digestive and circulatory problems, and even patients with certain skin ailments can benefit by applying ointments containing the capsaicin from Cayenne peppers. Plus, I heard if you hang a string of Cayenne peppers around your neck? It will protect you from evil spirits… Just Kidding. 🙂
Ciao! Ciao!