Plants that Repel Mosquitoes

Citronella

You’re probably familiar with citronella candles as mosquito repellant but did you know citronella is a plant? The plant’s aroma is much more concentrated than products that contain citronella in them so why bother with the artifical stuff when you can keep bugs away and have a pretty little plant to enjoy? Citronella is easy to grow in pots or in the ground and it’s the top of my list for banishing mosquitoes!

Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm is a member of the mint family and is another super easy to grow plant. It can be agressive in it’s spread so I prefer to keep Lemon Balm in a pot to keep it from taking over the yard! You can also use the leaves to make tea!

Catnip

Catnip can s of being an extremely effective bug repellant…in fact there was a study showing it to be 10 times more effective that DEET! Yay for mother nature! If you keep catnip and have a cat, be sure to separate it from your other plants in case your cat gets a crazy playing around-mine likes to roll all around and always knocked down any nearby small planters!

Marigolds

Marigolds have a scent that bug HATE and the added bonus of being easy to grow and lovely to look at.  Marigold plants contain pyrethrum, a commonly used insect repelling chemical found in many insect repellants.

Basil

I love making pesto and always plant plenty of basil.  Basil is yet another plant that deters those pesky mosquitos so that’s even more of a reason to plant plenty on myporch each year!

Lavender

Lavender is one of my favorite scents-and one of my favorite essential oils so knowing that lavender plants help repell mosquitos is an added bonus.

Peppermint

Peppermint is another plant I always like to have on hand, I love putting peppermint in my water or tea! Peppermint is widely used as a bug repellant-creepy crawlies hate the smell! Peppermint is super easy to grow…It’s another plant that likes to spread so keep it in a pot if you don’t want it to take over!