I'm planning my home design and I really like opening the indoors to outdoor spaces. I've wondered how well it would work to surround the house and especially doors with plants that are known to repel bugs. I could imagine cedar trees close to the corners and more further out, and plants like rosemary, peppermint, catnip, and lemongrass in planters, hanging pots, or even living walls right next to the exterior doors. I know it's the oils that insects don't like and since I wouldn't necessarily be rubbing these plants they wouldn't work as well as oils, but I envision packing as many as I can around the space and maybe it would reduce the amount of bugs entering the home by a decent percentage. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on something like this?
I know that insects despise peppermint oil, and that the peppermint plant will seemingly grow everywhere and anywhere...maybe research that as a groundcover near to the house?
Hi Mike,
I think it will also depend on what kind of bugs you are trying to repel. Planting that many plants nearby (particularly flowering plants) will inevitably attract pollinators. The dirt below the plants will be prime living space for slugs, beetles, ants, and the like. Living in Maine, I totally understand the desire to keep mosquitos and black flies out of the house. However, trying to plant a small garden and keep out ALL bugs, is a little like trying to plant a forest, but trying to keep out all squirrels, deer, racoons, birds, etc. Its not going to work very well. This planet was designed for all sorts of life to be mixed up together.
My suggestion would be to build some outdoor spaces with ceilings and arbors and the like. This way you get some of the "inside" outside, but you won't have to open your house up to bugs coming in.
Personally, when I was a young mother with one of my first jobs, a lady I worked with said she had never heard of screens on windows until she moved to Texas.
I couldn't believe this so, of course, I asked why?
I think she was from Minnesota and said they just never had problems with bugs, maybe flying bugs were not a problem.
Do people where you live use screens on windows?
I love butterflies, bees and hummingbirds though I am not sure I want to attract them to the inside of my house.
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