Catnip is one plant that has a special ability to send some cats into a euphoric frenzy. But what exactly is catnip, and why does it have such a dramatic effect on our cats? The secret behind catnip's ...

Both catnip (Nepeta cataria) and silver vine (Actinidia polygama) produce chemicals from a group called iridoids that repel mosquitoes, flies, roaches and possibly other insects or mites. Most cats, ...

Anyone who has a cat or kitten knows how crazy their feline friend goes for catnip. What is catnip, though, and why does it drive cats crazy? According to PetMD, catnip is a herb closely related to ...

Cats enjoy simple pleasures like bird murder and sitting in squares, but nothing beats getting laced with catnip. The latter is the focus of a study published Monday in Nature Chemical Biology, which ...

The key ingredient in catnip, called nepetalactone, can now be brewed in genetically engineered yeast. The chemical is a highly effective insect repellent, but catnip plants (Nepeta cataria) don’t ...

16:30, Thu, Jun 5, 2025 Updated: 16:31, Thu, Jun 5, 2025 UK gardens are seeing an upsurge in tick populations due to increasingly warmer and wetter winters – a situation exacerbated by climate change.

When it’s cat versus houseplant, even the hardiest stems can fall prey to curious—and overly playful—felines. But plants can do plenty of harm, too. There is a long list of highly toxic plants to cats ...