Landscaping Plants to Repel Mosquitoes

When landscaping your yard, you strive for beauty and manageable upkeep requirements. You also can add plants to your landscaping that serve functions such as repelling mosquitoes.

Plants

Rose geranium plants are used in South Africa as natural mosquito repellents. Eucalyptus trees repel insects, including mosquitoes. Keep mosquitoes away from your yard and garden by interspersing your landscaping and garden plants with herbs like lavender and pennyroyal.

Use

While the plants repel mosquitoes just by growing in your yard, you can increase their effectiveness while you are outside to better protect you and your family. Bruising the leaves of the rose geranium releases a pungent smell that deters mosquitoes. Pick sprigs of lavender and pennyroyal and place them in a glass on an outdoor table to keep dinners outside mosquito-free.

Considerations

You can rub crushed rose geranium leaves or lavender plants on your skin to create natural mosquito repellents. If ingested, the leaves of the pennyroyal plant can cause miscarriages in humans and pets.

References

• "Let's Get Natural with Herbs"; Debra J. Rayburn; 2007
• "Traditional Medicinal Plants and Malaria"; Merlin Willcox, et al., Eds.; 2004