I get a great deal of joy from being outside. One of my most fond memories of my late high school years was sitting outside on the porch swing, with my mother, rocking together and talking for hours, two to three evenings a week. Our time outside wasn’t often interrupted or hampered by mosquitos.
Where we live now, one of our neighbors has an unused below-ground pool which has been partially drained. Despite the fact that we have a porch swing now, I don’t like sitting outside on it even if I’m being chased by a single mosquito. So we are starting to put a plan in place to deal with the mosquitos so that I can once again enjoy our yard and our porch swing.
In my research for what we’re going to plant in our yard, I’ve come across ten plants that are mosquito repellents, either by just the presence of the plant or by crushing the leaves and rubbing them on exposed skin. Check these natural mosquito repellents out!
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1.) Lavender
Lavender is such a beautiful plant, but its benefits don’t stop there! It is also a natural mosquito repellent. Grow it in your yard or put it in pots around the areas that you gather outside. Lavender is also known to repel flies and moths – another bonus.
According to American Meadows, lavender grows best in full sun and well-drained soil. It doesn’t like rich soil, so don’t bother adding fertilizer to it.
Another upside to growing lavender is that you can steep the petals in hot water to create a tea that can be calming.
2.) Lemon Thyme 
There’s something about a lemon scent that mosquitos don’t like. While these plants will work to a degree in your yard, they work even better if you crush them and rub the crushed leaves on your skin.
Lemon thyme is a small, evergreen shrub with a lot of uses in the kitchen. When you need a bit of ‘twang’ in a savory meal, lemon thyme is often a great choice.
Lemon thyme grows well in zones 5-9. It prefers well-drained soil and full sun. Spring is a great time to plant this beauty, so If you’re reading this at the time of publication, your timing’s perfect!
3.) Bee Balm
Also known as horsemint and LEMON balm – see a trend here? What’s really excellent about this plant is that it’s stinkin’ hard to kill! The downside to it is that it can be rather invasive if you don’t keep it in check.
Bee balm is a wonderful food for bees and hummingbirds! It’s not wonderful just for them. Beebalm is wonderful for colds and flu. It’s soothing to the tummy and helps in cases of indigestion, bloating, and nausea. It can be fixed up in an herbal tea or infusion. There are so many more great uses for bee balm.
Bee balm can be planted in either the spring or fall. They need full sunshine and should be planted 18-24 inches apart. Make sure that the air can circulate around the plants well or the leaves can mildew.
4.) Citronella geranium 
The citronella geranium is a hybrid of citronella grass and African Geranium. It does best in US hardiness zones 9-11, so it is a warm loving plant. Again, it is most effective in repelling mosquitos when the leaves are crushed and rubbed on your skin.
These plants can be grown in pots and kept outdoors during the summer and brought inside during the winter. Whether summer or winter though, they need six hours of direct sunlight each day. They do best in well-draining soils.
5.) Citronella grass
There are two real types of citronella grass plants Cymbopogon nardus or Cymbopogon winterianus. Don’t accept any substitutes. These two are the real thing and the plant itself will help repel mosquitos.
It’s an annual in the northern climates, but it’s a perennial in southern climates. It has so many uses including that it aids in releasing tension, helping migraines, reducing fever, muscle relaxer and others!
Citronella plants prefer filtered, not direct sunlight. It likes moist ‘loamy’ soil and needs a lot of water!
6.) Peppermint 
Peppermint is a wonderfully, strong-smelling plant. It is very hard to kill – for those of us with black thumbs. It can be invasive and take over a growing bed unless you keep it in check. Peppermint loves full sun and moist soil. I kept my first peppermint plant in check by planting it in the shade of a tree. It would bloom and grow during the early to mid-spring before the leaves came out on the trees and then slowed down as the leaves came out on the tree.
Peppermint has other uses besides repelling mosquitos. It can be used to make peppermint tea which is soothing to the stomach and intestines. It’s also been tested to be helpful in lowering blood sugar and blood pressure.
7.) Catnip
According to an American Chemical Society article published in August of 2001, the essential oil in catnip is more effective in warding off mosquitos than DEET.
Catnip is a member of the mint family. It is best planted in the spring or fall, so this is an excellent time to get yours and plant it. It grows best in full sun and well-drained soil, but it can tolerate partial shade.
Besides being an effective mosquito deterrent, Catnip’s dried leaves or flowers can be made into a tea. This tea is known to help insomnia, anxiety, migraines, stomach issues and a host of other things.
8.) Lemon Basil 
Here goes the lemon again!
I bet you didn’t realize that so many edible foods were also mosquito repellents! Just grow yourself a bountiful herb garden and you’ll take care of two needs with one set of plants! Basil is another great example of a mosquito repelling herb.
If you’re planting a basil start, spring is the best time to plant it. It is a perennial if you plant it where it will get 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. They should be planted about a foot apart. Pinch off the flower heads if you want the leaves to continue growing. Basil will need to be watered regularly.
Besides tasting yummy in foods, basil has other uses such as acting as an anti-inflammatory, lowering blood pressure, maintaining the health of your bones, aiding in digestion and maintaining a healthy immune system.
9.) Garlic
Interestingly enough, eating garlic won’t keep away the bloodsuckers – either vampires or mosquitos, but planting garlic will at least deter the mosquitos. You can make garlic sprays (from garlic cloves) and teas (to be used as pest deterrents). So generously spread garlic throughout your flower beds and vegetable beds and around your outdoor entertainment areas.
Garlic can be started mid to late fall and left to overwinter or it can be planted in early spring. Garlic needs dry roots, so don’t plant it in water-logged soil or where soil tends to become water-logged. It also loves nitrogen-rich fertilizer once the greens start to peek their tops up above the soil.
Garlic has many medicinal uses besides just tasting good and repelling mosquitos. It is said to lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure and has been linked to getting significantly fewer colds and when someone taking a garlic supplement got a cold, it was significantly shorter! Garlic is an amazing vegetable for so much more than mosquito repellent.
10.) Tansy 
Tansy is a perennial which is known to prevent both mosquitos and fleas. Again, it’s going to be a more effective mosquito deterrent if you break or bruise the leaves and rub them on your exposed skin.
Tansy is a hardy perennial herb which prefers sun but can be slightly shade-tolerant. It likes well-drained, fertile soil. In some areas, tansy has been classified as an invasive plant, so if you’re going to plant tansy, planting it in a pot or in a contained portion of a garden is a good idea.
Tansy has many historical uses including the treatment of stomach issues, rheumatism, a fever, and intestinal worms.
What About You?
Do you struggle with mosquitos in your yard? How do you handle it? Do you have any of these plants around, and if you do, did you do it on purpose? Share your mosquito repellent tricks with us so that we can all be better prepared!
Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
There are links in this post. Some of the links may be affiliate links. Some of the links may not be. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family. You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.
Thanks for this list. I will definitely try to find a few of these at the garden center, especially the ones that handle some shade because full sun is hard to find in my tree-filled neighborhood. I’d also read years ago that rosemary is a natural repellent, both as a plant and as a spray. I have grown quite a bit of basil and peppermint plants on my back porch in pots for several years, and (to be honest) I have had big mosquito problems anyway. I would lean toward the applications that say to crush the herb’s leaves and apply it to the skin for a more active repellent benefit. I’ll certainly be trying that this year (because we already have lots of mosquitos).
We have always seemed to have horrible mosquito problems. We’ll see what it’s like this year as we move out to the farm – especially since we have a pond that doesn’t have water flowing in or out of it. I hope some of these work for your family, Cindy!
Beauty Bush (Callicarpa americana): The leaves of Beautyberry contain compounds that have antibacterial and pest-deterring properties. Fire ants, ticks, deer flies and mosquitoes are repelled by the plant compounds callicarpenal and intermedeol. Antibiotics, skin care products, and bug repellents are being developed from beautyberry plant extracts.
Credit: https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/osceolaco/2020/08/27/american-beauty-combats-mosquitoes/
Tansy is poisonous for some livestock (horses especially) and very, very invasive, along with being nearly impossible to kill. My dad is a veterinarian and it’s heartbreaking to see animals who get tansy poisoning. As a farmer with livestock, keeping my pastures free of tansy is almost impossible as even though I work hard to keep the tansy out, my neighbors don’t and it can spread into to mine.
Please don’t recommend plants that are so dangerous when there are others that work so well (like the other great options you suggested).