9 Plants that Repel Pests
6-minute read
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Garden season is here and that means here come the bugs!
Wait! Before you pick up that insecticide give these 9 pests repelling plants a try.
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Planting companion plants with your garden vegetables not only helps them to grow better, but also helps to prevent pests' infestations. As a bonus, many of these plants will also attract beneficial insects like bugs that eat the bad bugs and pollinators.
Growing each of these plants has its own uses and benefits. So let us get into it. Here are the 9 plants I highly recommend for pests' control in your garden and patio area this season.
Lavender
Rosemary
Basil
Mint
Sage
Thyme
Nasturtiums
Marigold
Citronella
Lavender
Lavender is a good pest control plant that attracts bees to pollinate your vegetable garden, smells lovely and has medicinal properties.
Lavender helps to get rid of houseflies, mosquitos, termites, snakes, spiders, silverfish, stink bugs, mealy bugs, crickets, and moths.
Lavender has medicinal uses. It is commonly used in shampoos, soaps, and cleaning products for its purifying properties and lovely scent.
Lavender can be made into essential oils that are used to calm and help reduce stress. It is good for those of us with anxiety and depression for its calm, sedative effects from the inhalation of its scent.
Growing lavender from seed is relatively easy. It grows in pots so do not forget to not only grow near your outdoor garden, also place a pot of lavender in a sunny spot (or under a grow light) in your bedroom to create a calm and soothing effect where you sleep.
I use lavender essential oils in my home to help keep my dogs calmer and to improve the overall scent in my house. My dogs also get bathed in an all-natural lavender scented dog shampoo that I have found makes giving them a bath a lot easier and calmer for us all.
Rosemary
Rosemary is good at pest control and is also a culinary herb used for cooking in many dishes. From keeping the mosquitos, flies, and ants off your garden vegetables to repelling fleas and ticks from the yard, Rosemary is an excellent choice for keeping the pests away.
Rosemary is a culinary herb used to enhance the flavor in dishes and has a beautiful aroma. Rosemary is aesthetically pleasing in your home and can commonly be found around the holiday season, because they can be shaped like Christmas trees and give that evergreen seasonal vibe to your home.
Medicinally rosemary can be used for pain relieve to treat a headache, it is commonly used for inflammation and can also be used as a preservative for food.
Basil
Basil, my favorite herb aroma. Omgosh! Basil smells so so good. Basil is used for culinary purposes, but also can be planted with your tomatoes to help encourage their growth and keep away pests such as mosquitos, whiteflies, tomato hornworms, thrips, and aphids.
Basil has medicinal properties, as well, it can be used as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant. Basil repels leaf and fruit eating bugs such as Japanese beetles, grasshoppers, slugs and snails and leaf miners too. Keep basil growing along with your tomatoes to increase your yield this season.
Mint
Mint has so many uses, if you are not growing mint, get some now! Mint is also commonly used as a culinary herb. Mint comes in so many varieties I want them all! They smell so lovely and enhance the flavors of your drinks such as teas, lemonades, and even cocktails.
Mint is commonly used as a garnishment in dishes and has medicinal properties as well. Drink a hot cup of peppermint tea in the wintertime and it has so many benefits such as soothing a sore throat and relieving common cold symptoms. Mint also aids in digestion and can help to elevate indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, and cramping.
Mint deters so many pests from the garden including all the ones that I have mentioned above and many more. I cannot express enough how useful mint is. Also did I mention mint attracts good bugs? Yes, it attracts all the pollinators to visit your garden.
What a win win plant! Mint is best planted in pots, yes, you want to contain it. Mint can be invasive, and it spreads and can take over quickly. Be sure to place it in a container so that it is confined.
Sage
Sage is another of my favorite herbs to use and grow. I love the feel of its leaves, they are slightly fuzzy and just so therapeutic to touch. It is my therapy. I enjoy growing sage to not only use for culinary purposes and as a bug repellent, but also sage is a very spiritual plant.
I do so burn sage and truly feel it cleans the air and uplifts my mediation space in my home, but also is believed to rid your home of any bad spirits. Not that I am a huge believer in bad spirits, but I do feel it cleans the air, it is to me more like cleansing the aura in your home and just brings a purity to the overall vibes in your home.
Sage has medicinal properties as well. It can be used as a preventative for inflammation and infection and healing to the skin. Sage is known also to help alleviate menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. This is becoming more important to me as I am starting to approach this era of my life. Yay!
Thyme
Thyme rids pests such as mosquitos, fleas, ticks, ants, moths, and flies. Thyme is a fantastic addition to your garden not only to repel pests, but also may be used as a culinary herb and is commonly used as a savory additive to stews, soups, and pasta dishes.
Thyme also has many medicinal uses and is commonly used as an herbal tea to treat cold symptoms and can reduce inflammation, soothe a sore throat, and aid in digestion as well.
Nasturtiums
Nasturtiums is a new one I have recently added to my garden this year to help not only attract pollinators, but also to repel garden pests such as whiteflies, aphids, caterpillars, and squash bugs.
Nasturtium has medicinal properties and is commonly used to treat fungal infections and as preventative for cold and bacterial infections. Nasturtiums can also be used to stimulate hair growth. This is for sure something I am interested in learning more about and hope to share my success with hair growth soon.
Nasturtiums are also just so visually pleasing with their vining growth habit and tropical looking blooms. I cannot wait to get this growing and explore all its glory!
Marigold
Marigold is the number one plant companion for your garden. You can place marigolds next to most all your garden vegetables and they help to repel lots of pests including whiteflies, thrips, aphids, beetles, tomato thorn worms, squash bugs, nematodes, and mosquitos.
Marigolds are also exceptionally beautiful, blooming plants that attract beneficial insects to your garden and their flowers are edible. Marigolds are known to be aiding in eye health. Pair their petals with a garden salad including carrots to boost the health of your eyes.
Citronella
Citronella has become one of my favorite herbs to grow. Mostly because it is incredibly easy to grow. I have struggled with growing many herbs, especially over wintertime. Bringing them indoors is hard for them to transition. However, citronella I have found to be extremely easy to move indoors overwinter and keep it thriving.
Citronella is known to repel flies, fleas and ticks, fungus gnats, and spiders. When you say citronella, many people automatically think of mosquito repellent. While citronella oil is known to keep mosquitos at bay, it is very controversial if citronella plant repels mosquitoes.
Whether it keeps the mosquitoes away or not, citronella is an excellent addition to your garden, and I absolutely love its scent. It is also noteworthy that citronella is a mood enhancer and fatigue fighter. What more could you want from a plant?
In conclusion, adding these herbs to your garden space is for sure a win win to repel pests and many other benefits for each of these. As a bonus all of these can be grown easily from seed which is easy on the garden budget. If you are ready to take your garden growing to the next level add these beneficial plants and have your best garden season ever.
