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BuyCatnip / Uses

What is catnip used for?

Mostly for cats: to make a toy, a scratcher or a new bed interesting. Science has added a second use, and it is about mosquitoes.

For cats

  • Play: a catnip toy or a pinch on the floor gets many cats moving.
  • A new scratcher or bed: a little catnip rubbed on it can draw a cat to it; see our scratching post page for where to put it.
  • A calm moment: some cats lie down and relax instead of playing.

The mosquito story

A study published in 2021 found that the rubbing and rolling spread plant chemicals onto a cat's fur, and that mosquitoes landed less on fur treated that way. The authors suggest this may be why cats react to these plants at all. It is a finding about cats, measured on cats: we make no claim about people.

What we do not cover

Catnip is also sold as a tea for people. The evidence we found was too thin to write about, so this site stays with cats.

Good to know

  • A 2021 study suggests that rolling in catnip or silver vine coats a cat with plant chemicals that keep mosquitoes away.1,2
  • The active chemical in catnip is nepetalactone.3,4,5
  • Catnip makes some cats calm and others lively.6,7
  • Catnip is given fresh, dried, or inside toys stuffed with it.7,8

How we checked this page

Checked on October 20, 2026. We kept a fact only when two independent publishers agree, and each one is numbered to its sources below. Where sources give different numbers, we keep only what they share. We never write a price. This page was written with an AI assistant and checked against the sources below.

Sources

  1. The characteristic response of domestic cats to plant iridoids allows them to gain chemical defense against mosquitoes (Uenoyama et al., 2021), Science Advances
  2. Felines May Use Catnip for More Than Just Euphoria (2021), Smithsonian Magazine
  3. catnip, Encyclopaedia Britannica
  4. Catnip and Catmint (Jeff Schalau, 2017), University of Arizona Cooperative Extension
  5. Catmints and catnip: which is purrfect for your garden?, University of Minnesota Extension
  6. Toxic and Non-toxic Plants: Catnip, ASPCA
  7. Feline Fine: The Benefits of Catnip (2019), Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine
  8. What Is Catnip and What Does It Do to Cats? (Heather Hoffmann, DVM), PetMD
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