Say Goodbye To Bugs: Transform Your Yard With These Powerful Pest-Repelling Scents
When spring comes along, so many regions in the world almost immediately become overrun by mosquitoes. Although they're not the only pest that can make warmer days less enjoyable, they're one of the most pervasive and annoying. In the past, people dealt with them with a blanket application of insecticides.
However, those chemicals don't distinguish between friend and foe, which catches some helpful bugs like bees in the net. As such, it's natural to want to see what natural alternatives exist that keep unwanted pests away without harming anything else. For that reason, these scents have been brought together as the opposite of aromatherapy.
Eucalyptus
Although eucalyptus oil is often added to products intended for humans for a soothing aroma, and the plant is clearly a favorite of koalas, that doesn't mean everyone likes it. As it turns out, mosquitoes loathe the smell of eucalyptus to a distracting degree.
In a 2017 study in the Journal of Insect Science, one of the most effective treatments against mosquitoes was a spray-on product called Cutter Lemon Eucalyptus. With 30% oil of lemon eucalyptus in it, this product reduced attraction rates to less than 30% within a three-foot radius.
Soybean Oil
Although a 2002 study in the New England Journal Of Medicine didn't see much evidence of efficacy for many herbal insect repellents, those with a soybean oil base seemed to provide a notable exception. And while DEET-based products boasted the longest protection times, soybean oil rivaled some of them.
Specifically, it was able to provide protection from mosquito bites for about an hour and a half at a time. Considering that the protection of some other herbal remedies could be measured in minutes, this was fairly promising.
Tea Tree Oil
Although a 2021 study in Molecules suggested that tea tree oil showed insecticidal properties, there has yet to be an effective way to harness that power. And as Scherzinger Pest Control noted, this is because there isn't a way to apply this oil efficiently.
Although the pest control firm agreed that tea tree oil can kill bed bugs and cockroaches, that's not the game-changer it sounds like. Both multiply far too quickly to be eradicated by tea tree oil applications, and cockroaches are fast enough to scurry away before most people can spray it at them.
Rosemary
According to Plunkett's Pest Control, only the oil in rosemary plants annoys insects like mosquitoes. So, while some people believe that growing rosemary in a garden will keep mosquitoes away, it's sadly not that simple.
That's because the plant has to be crushed or otherwise destroyed for the oil to be released. As such, they recommend bonfires where someone throws rosemary into the blaze, thus disseminating a scent that mosquitoes hate during backyard gatherings. Otherwise, they advised making a DIY bug spray from it.
Lemon Balm
According to Colorado Pest Management, lemon balm is a scent that's often pleasant to humans but despised by mosquitoes. They also describe it as an incredibly easy plant to grow, which makes it a repellent that most people won't have a hard time replenishing.
In fact, one of the common drawbacks of planting lemon balm is its tendency to spread quickly and dominate a garden. However, considering they advise rubbing lemon balm leaves on the skin or mixing its oil with water, it'll probably take a lot to repel any bugs anyway.
Garlic
According to ABC News, some people appear to be under the impression that eating garlic will make a person more repellent to mosquitoes. Yet, while mosquitoes don't like garlic, Joe Conlon of the American Mosquito Control Association said the link doesn't quite work that way.
In his words, "As in most myths though, there is an element of truth in them. If you take garlic and squeeze it on your skin, that portion of your skin will be repellent to mosquitoes for about 20-40 minutes." However, many humans wouldn't like that smell either.
Basil
According to Plunkett's Pest Control, basil's fairly subtle taste is much harsher on the scent receptors of mosquitoes than it is for humans. While using it as a bug repellent isn't as simple as growing the plant, it doesn't take much to activate its potential.
Although the pest control firm recommends burning it like incense or throwing it in a bonfire, they also said that shredding it and spreading it around the protected area can work as well. So can spreading a mixture of boiled water and the leaves on the skin.
Vinegar
In the early stages of an ant infestation, Yale Pest Control mentioned that a common line of defense is a mixture of water and white vinegar. Although it doesn't kill the ants, it introduces a smell that's not only unpleasant to them but also overpowers the pheromones that would otherwise allow them to coordinate their infestation.
However, Yale Pest Control noted that this effect only works for as long as the person who laid the vinegar down can smell it. It's also not recommended once infestations have firmly taken hold, as only pest control professionals can be helpful at that stage.
Peppermint
According to a 2011 study in the Asian Pacific Journal Of Tropical Biomedicine, peppermint was found to be both an effective mosquito repellent and an effective larvicide for them. Although it remained unclear whether the herb could kill adult mosquitoes, its oil proved effective against their larvae.
As for the repellent properties of peppermint, researchers found that any skin that had peppermint oil on it experienced complete protection from mosquito bites for about 150 minutes. For another half hour, the protection remained enough that people wearing it experienced one to two bites compared to the eight or nine that those without it experienced.
Coffee
According to a 2015 study in Parasites And Vectors, both coffee and its waste product demonstrated some effectiveness in repelling female mosquitoes, which also reduced the number of eggs they lay. And even those who could handle the smell found it wasn't ideal to lay them in coffee grounds.
That's because mosquitoes laid fewer viable eggs in spaces that had coffee in them than those wet with water. And considering that coffee plants are often insect-resistant, it's worth seeing how coffee affects other insects as well.
Lavender
According to a 2019 study in the Malaria Journal, lavender oil was shown to be effective for up to eight hours at repelling mosquitoes when it was introduced to a person's skin. Yet, while that sounds impressive, there were some limitations researchers acknowledged.
For one thing, researchers weren't working in the sweatiest environments, so it's unclear how much sweat affects the protection power of this essential oil. Since it's water-soluble, it seemed likely to researchers that sweat would significantly confound lavender's effectiveness here.
Grapefruit
According to NPR, those who plant grapefruits or spread them around a yard aren't likely to find it very effective at keeping mosquitoes away. That's because it's not the grapefruits themselves that mosquitoes hate, but rather a chemical in them called nootkatone.
However, the good news is that nootkatone is a natural waste product of grapefruit. When a hand is covered in it, mosquitoes stay away from it because nootkatone is lethal to them. It also works against ticks, though it's unclear what effect it has on other insects.
Marigolds
Marigolds have long been positioned as flowers that ward away all sorts of pests, but Piedmont Master Gardeners have noted that this reputation is quite overblown. As it turns out, specific varieties of marigolds are only effective at controlling specific plant-feeding worms called nematodes.
However, the most valuable effect that marigolds can have on a garden is secondary to killing or inhibiting the invasion of nematodes. They're good for attracting more beneficial bugs that pollinate plants and control unwanted bugs. Some examples of these helpers include hoverflies, ladybugs, and parasitic wasps.
Catnip
When cats chew or roll on catnip, they crush the plant's leaves, which then release chemicals that drive the cats into a frenzy. However, this isn't the only effect that these leaves have when this happens.
As it turns out, the same chemicals that cats are drawn to are also known to repel mosquitoes and other pests. However, just growing a catnip plant isn't going to have that effect. A cat (or human, presumably) has to break open the plant's leaves with its mouth or body first.
Pine Oil
In a 2005 study in the Journal Of Vector Borne Diseases, researchers discovered that the oil from pine trees showed some larvicidal properties. However, that effect was only present after a massive dose that most people wouldn't be able to apply in the real world practically.
However, they also found that when applied to the skin, pine oil also had a strong repellent effect against mosquitoes. So much so that it kept one mosquito species away for 11 hours and another species away for nine hours.
Chili Peppers
According to a 2020 study in the Biomedical Journal Of Scientific And Technical Research, the capsicum in chili peppers was shown to have a deadly effect on mosquito larvae. This required a large dose of the substance, which led researchers to suggest dumping chili powder in stagnant water sources to prevent mosquito breeding.
The study also cited previous research, which found that capsicum not only repelled mosquitoes but also a couple of specific beetle varieties. Bugs just can't handle that spice!
Ylang Ylang Oil
Although oil from a Ylang Ylang flower hasn't shown much effectiveness at repelling mosquitoes, Garfield Pest Control noted that this isn't as true for stink bugs. According to the pest control firm, this essential oil isn't the only one that stink bugs seem to have a distaste for.
As it turns out, spearmint oil, lemongrass oil, and clove oil are all potentially viable options to keep them away. As mentioned before, however, they might work better as a preventative measure than as something that fights them once they've already arrived.
Oranges
According to the government of Prince Edward Island, Canada, orange peels are great for composting and helping the soil become more fertile. However, it was also characterized as having a significant effect on various pests when orange peels are either spread out among soil or rubbed on the body.
When spread out on soil, orange peels have shown effectiveness at controlling slug infestations. A puree made from orange peels can also work against ants when it's dripped into an anthill. Finally, rubbing it on the skin is supposed to repel mosquitoes who hate the smell of citrus.
Silver Vine
Sometimes, catnip won't have much of an effect on certain cats. This usually leads experts to recommend an Asian plant called silver vine as an alternative since it's not unheard of for cats to get a more frenzied effect from this than standard catnip.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, this euphoric effect on cats isn't the only thing silver vine has in common with catnip. It turns out that when a cat rolls on silver vine or chews it, it releases chemicals that are irritating to mosquitoes. So, silver vine is an insect repellent, but only when it's crushed.
Citronella
Although citronella has historically shown some signs of releasing a scent that repels mosquitoes, its effect is apparently overblown. A 2017 study in the Journal of Insect Science found that citronella candles showed no effect in repelling mosquitoes.
Moreover, that study found that the higher the concentration of citronella in mosquito repellants, the less likely they were to work. While it still may have a little effectiveness, that only seems to be true when it works in concert with other bug-repelling scents.