Question:
A friend is looking for information about plants that repel mosquitos.
Her back yard gets tons of them each summer. She bought a bat box,
knowing that bats like to eat mosquitos. However, there's no real
guarantee that the bats will find that box or that there are even bats
in her area. So, plants are a good next step. I remember seeing
something once in a greenhouse about mosquito-repelling plants, but I can't remember the name. Anyone know for sure?
Answer:
-I was told by my next door neighbors that the family that used to live here
grew "citronella" plant. It supposedly kept bugs away in the ground and if
you needed better protection they would tear off a leaf and rub it on their
skin. I don't know how true it is but I have heard that it is an annual
here in Zone 71 (Canadian)
-One of the question to ask is, why does she have so many mosquitos! They
breed in standing water, so, if she has a wild pond or swamp nearby, there
is not much she can do about that, but otherwise, i managed to control them
quite well by making sure there are no large permanent puddles, having a
screen over my rainwater collector, if you have a lilly pond, put some
goldfish in, they eat the mosquito larvae. I don't know of any plant that
will them on a large scale.
