Looking for natural ways to keep pests away? Discover 14 pest repelling plants you can easily grow at home to deter flies and mosquitoes, creating a more enjoyable environment.
Pest Repelling Plants to Keep Flies Away
It’s a bright hot but kind of quiet morning, so let’s discuss some plants that can be kept around doors or on a patio to help keep away flies.
The following provides a quick crash course on some of the pest repelling plants that are kept around the front door and back door that deter flies, mosquitoes, and pesky flying bugs. The focus is on plants that have certain aromatics; most of these are herbs, and most of them are very cheap. As a general rule, buying the seeds ends up being cheaper in the long run as opposed to buying an already established plant, but it takes more time. Therefore, the objective is to find plants that smell really good. Most of these have examples that can be shown. The goal is basically any plant that smells lemony or minty.
Mint Varieties
The easiest one is all kinds of mint. Some quick facts about each of these plants will help to figure out which one or ones might work best, where to put them, and some considerations. There are all different kinds of mint plants: chocolate mint, orange mint, peppermint, and winter mint, among others.
The benefits of a lot of these plants include the ability to pop off some of the younger, more tender leaves and put them in tea, cook with them, or put them in the house. The thing to know about mint is that it will Vine, so it will grow long, which is nice. It can drape over a hanging basket. However, mint is invasive, which means if you put mint in the ground, it will spread and kind of go insane and go out of control, so it is advisable to keep mint in pots unless you are fine with mint taking over the yard. All of the different kinds of mints is one that’s really good.
Aromatic Considerations
These plants that are aromatic, meaning that they smell like the leaves have a scent, will be especially effective in the warmer months because the heat makes the scent come off of their leaves even more, so just keep that in mind.
Mexican Mint
The next plant, also known as Mexican mint, grows like crazy. Mexican mint is a really soft plant. A lot of these plants are not going to have big prominent flowers or anything like that. These plants are not necessarily being acquired for their looks, but for what they can do. Mexican mint smells absolutely wonderful, and the way to tell if a leaf smells or what the aromatic is, is to put a leaf in between your fingers and rub it gently and then smell it. It smells like mint and lemon, almost like if you were trying to buy a minty lemon like a natural cleaner. This plant is great because it grows like crazy and is kind of goofy looking. The stems aren’t super strong, but Mexican mint is easy to propagate and make more. There’s no need to worry about that one spreading in the grass.
Most of these plants are not going to be very bushy and very thick; they are not going to provide a ton of shade or anything like that.
Lemony Pest Repelling Plants
Having covered all of the mints and Mexican mint, let’s proceed to more of the lemony things.
Lemongrass
The first one is lemongrass. Lemongrass can be cooked with and can be found in the kitchen. It will grow and can grow pretty tall and pretty prominently in its pot. Lemongrass will be kind of more sensitive to the heat, so it must be ensured that it stays watered and doesn’t get fried. If one of these or multiples of these are selected, have them within about six feet of the porch door or around the table where you sit to have dinner or drinks or when you’re out grilling. These will help deter the Flies and mosquitoes.
Other Herbs
You can certainly not go wrong with any other kinds of herbs, and it is beneficial to have plants that serve multiple functions. For example, the Mexican mint can be used to make free plants that can be given to friends. There’s oregano and a ton of Basil. There’s Rosemary. A lot of these also help towards keeping away flies and mosquitoes, and the benefit is being able to pop off a sprig of oregano and rosemary and basil and have that with pizza.
Citronella Plant (Mosquito Plant)
The last plant is a citronella plant, also known as a mosquito plant. This plant smells exactly like citronella. This is a favorite plant as far as what it looks like. This plant is also growing like crazy. This plant is considered the most heat tolerant. It will start to wilt and curl up when it’s thirsty, but this plant is gorgeous and has quadrupled in size since it was acquired a couple months ago.
Usually, anything that has any kind of mint scent to it or anything that has any kind of lemon scent is what to look for. Depending on where you live, remember to go to usda.gov, type in your zip code, and it tells you what USDA zone you are in, and then that way you can find plants that you know will thrive in your climate.
These are plants that are going to be outside, but the plan is to continue to propagate them and make more babies. The process involves cutting a chunk off and sticking it in water, and it grows roots. The plan is to have more of all of those plants: the lemongrass, the citronella plant (mosquito plant), all of the different kinds of mints, and the Mexican mint as they are propagated more and have a set up all around the back porch as well as on the front porch.
The idea of using plants to keep pests away is favored because it’s not harming the environment at all; it’s just a natural way to protect your family, but also to not be putting nasty stuff out into the environment.
