Pests in the garden can wreak havoc on all your plants. Knowing how to keep them out of your garden without using chemicals that could also harm your plants is definitely something we need to know. Below we’ll discuss ways to repel those harmful pests in any garden.
Pests and critters can make life difficult for you and your family and, of course, for your garden. When you don’t take measures to protect your plants , you’re inviting pesky insects to wreak havoc on your thriving plants. And nobody wants that.
One way to prevent harmful insects from killing off your plants is insecticide treatments. But these can harm your crops and deter beneficial insects like pollinators from coming to your garden.
An alternative method for how to get rid of plant pests is to make organic bug sprays to prevent pests from coming to your garden. This is one of the most popular home remedies for plant pests. You can also plant certain herbs, flowers, and crops that can help repel pests in your garden.
7 Plants That Help Repel Pests
Generally, these plants emit scents that may be pleasant for humans but are intolerable for insects. Today, we’ll be talking about 7 plants that help repel pests.
1. Basil
Basil is an annual, or sometimes perennial, herb used for its leaves. This easy-to-grow herb is one of the best natural ways to get rid of pests in the garden since this herb can repel flies, mosquitoes, zucchini pests such as the squash vine borers, the carrot fly, asparagus beetles, and whiteflies thanks to its aromatic oils.
You can plant them as a companion to tomatoes in order to prevent flies, thrips, and hornworms from wreaking havoc in your garden patch.
USDA hardiness zone: 10–11
Sun Needs: Partial Sun
Soil Needs: Rich Moist, Well-Drained
Color Varieties: Green
Type: Annual Herb
You might also like: How To Get Rid Of Whiteflies Naturally
If you’re having friends over and dining on your porch, you can also scatter shredded pieces of basil leaves or place stalks of fresh basil in your floral centerpiece to repel mosquitoes.
Lime basil can also be burned as incense to repel insects in your home. Use a fire safe container—such as a metal container with holes in the lid designed for burning incense—and keep the container away from other flammable materials to reduce the risk of fire.
2. Citronella Grass
Citronella grass, is a perennial aromatic plant from the family Poaceae, originating in tropical Asia. Essential oils are extracted from the aerial parts and are applied topically as an insect repellent.
If you have cats who love to spend time in your garden, you can plant citronella to protect your garden bed from their curious paws.
USDA hardiness zone: 10-12
Sun Needs: Full Sun
Soil Needs: Moist, Loamy Soil
Color Varieties: Green
Type: Perennial Grass
3. Nasturtiums
Nasturtium is a genus of roughly 80 species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. They have showy, often intensely bright flowers and rounded, shield-shaped leaves with the petiole in the center. The flowers are bisexual and zygomorphic, with five petals and a funnel-shaped nectar spur at the back.
They are one of the best flowers to plant in vegetable garden to deter pests since They can repel squash bugs, aphids (though there is conflicting information with some sources stating it attracts aphids), many beetles, and the cabbage looper.
They are also used as companion plants for biological pest control, repelling some pests, acting as a trap crop for others, and attracting predatory insects.
USDA hardiness zone: 9-11
Sun Needs: Full Sun
Soil Needs: Well-Draining
Color Varieties: Orange, Pink, Red, White, Yellow
Type: Warm-Season Annual Flower
4. Petunia
Petunia is an annual plant from the family Solanaceae, subfamily Petunioideae. They can tolerate relatively harsh conditions and hot climates, but not frost. They need at least five hours of sunlight every day and flourish in moist soil and conditions of low atmospheric humidity.
Petunias are excellent when you need to know how to get rid of pests on plants since they can repel aphids, tomato hornworm, asparagus beetles, leafhoppers, and squash bugs thanks to their licorice-like scent.
USDA hardiness zone: 10-11
Sun Needs: Full Sun
Soil Needs: Slightly Acid Well Draining Soil
Color Varieties: White, Yellow, Pink, Purple, Red, and Blue
Type: Perennial Flower
You might also like: Flowers You Should Be Growing In Your Vegetable Garden
5. Rosemary
Rosemary is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers native to the Mediterranean region.
This herb is one of the most common plants that repel garden pests because it can repel cabbage pests such as cabbage loopers, the carrot fly, cockroaches, mosquitoes, slugs, leaf miner pests, and snails, as well as the Mexican bean beetle.
USDA hardiness zone: 8-9
Sun Needs: Full Sun
Soil Needs: Loamy, Slightly Acidic Soil
Color Varieties: Green
Type: Perennial Herb
6. Thyme
Thyme is a bushy, woody-based evergreen subshrub with small, highly aromatic, grey-green leaves and clusters of purple or pink flowers in early summer.
Thyme is excellent when you want to know how to get rid of pests organically since it repels cabbage loopers, cabbage maggots, corn earworms, whiteflies, and tomato hornworms.
In order to use it as an insect repellent, you need to bruise thyme leaves so they can release aromatic compounds and chemicals that pests hate.
USDA hardiness zone: 5-9
Sun Needs: Full sun
Soil Needs: Fertile, Well-Drained Soil
Color Varieties: Green
Type: Perennial Herb
7. Lavender
Lavender is a genus of annual or short-lived herbaceous perennial plants and shrub-like perennials, subshrubs, or small shrubs.
These dainty purple plants are one of the best flowers for garden pests since they repel moths, scorpions, water scorpions, fleas, flies, and mosquitoes. Their pleasant and sweet fragrance deters unwanted bugs due to their linalool content.
USDA hardiness zone: 5-9
Sun Needs: Full Sun
Soil Needs: Well-Drained, Slightly Alkaline Soil
Color Varieties: Lavender Gray, Lavender-Blue, and Old Lavender
Type: Perennial Herbaceous
You can grow beautiful flowers and herbs and plant them strategically to deter certain pests from certain places, and no one will even know your plan.
No need to purchase chemicals that could harm your family, pets, and the environment. Just use plants to combat the issues you’re facing in your garden.
Do you have tips for repelling pests in the garden? Please leave them in the comments below!
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