Nature and Gardening

7164 readers

6 users here now

All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

(It's not mandatory, but we also encourage providing a description of your image(s) for accessibility purposes! See here for a more detailed explanation and advice on how best to do this.)

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

NataliePortland@beehaw.org

LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org

alyaza@beehaw.org

remington@beehaw.org

Plants that repel mosquitos? (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 days ago by iii@mander.xyz to c/greenspace@beehaw.org

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've got a small off grid place near a pond. The pond is nice to ponder at, but also a lovely breeding ground for mosquitos.

Therefore, I keep the door to the cabin usually closed.

But, as temperature is rising, I'm wondering if a screen door + some naturally mosquito repelling plants near the entrance might do the trick as well. So I can get some air flow at night.

Are there any such plants you know of? Preferentially perennial.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] anotherandrew@lemmy.mixdown.ca 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Mint, lemongrass, lavender… nothing works as far as I’m concerned (Ontario, Canada). Same with ultrasonic repellants, burning coils, torches, TiO2 bulbs, taking vitamin B or garlic.

What does work for me are devices like the mosquito magnet: they burn propane to produce humidity and CO2 and use a fan to blow that through an optional chemical attractant like octanol while using the use the suction of the other side of the fan to draw the little bastards into a mesh basket where they are trapped until they desiccate.

These machines serve two purposes: they take care of the mosquitoes today and over time they break the reproductive cycle of the mosquitoes in the area which after ~6 weeks DRAMATICALLY reduces the problem for the rest of the season. A 20lb tank of propane lasts about a month. The downside is that these machines tend to be VERY finicky and you have to futz around with them after the first season to get them working again. Not great for a $500+ device.

Additionally, building bat houses and encouraging swallows to nest in the area also do wonders: both of these creatures are voracious mosquito hunters (and barn swallows are my favourite bird).

[–] iii@mander.xyz 6 points 6 days ago

I am lucky enough that there's a lot of bats already.

I worry about poison, because I fear it might kill other insects, too. The place is one of the only places I know of that still has fireflies for example.

Thanks for letting me know not to bother with the ultrasonic gadgets and other gizmos.