Field guide

Spray or gel

The spray is the generalist. A fine mist covers a couch corner, a shoe rack or a row of seedlings in seconds, and the pump bottle reloads the defense after every cleaning. When the problem is broad — a puppy who samples everything at ankle height — mist wins on speed alone.

The gel is the specialist. Sprays obey gravity: on a vertical chair leg, a dangling charging cable or the underside of a banister, half the payload ends up on the floor. The 4.25 oz gel tube paints bitterness exactly where teeth land and stays put, drip-free, through the whole campaign.

Gel also shines at the medical bedside. On the edge of a bandage, around a stitched incision or beside a hot spot, you want precision and zero overspray near broken skin — a fingertip's worth of gel draws a bitter boundary a tongue-width wide.

Households with cord-chewing kittens report the same split: mist for the baseboards, gel for the cable forest behind the desk.

Same formula, same six species, same absent smell. If you are buying one bottle first, buy the spray; if the crime scene is vertical, narrow or bandaged, the tube earns its place in the drawer.