Beyond citronella and lavender, plants like wormwood and even tomato vines can naturally combat mosquitoes, hornets, and wasps on terraces. Flavio Pezzoli, President of the Rome Province Order of Agronomists and Forestry Doctors (Odaf), highlights nine readily available nursery plants that repel these insects without chemicals.
Wormwood, known for its fragrant foliage and culinary/liquor uses, excels as a repellent for creating insect-free gardens. Less common but effective, tomato plants emit an odor intolerable to wasps. Similarly, woodruff, which forms attractive white carpets under fruit trees and is used in small bouquets, deters them. Mint repels wasps, spiders, ants, and mosquitoes, much like citronella – though citronella requires warm climates and is frost-sensitive.
Lemon artemisia (aurone) is another excellent repellent. While intensely fragrant lavender attracts bees, it discourages wasps. Pelargoniums, resembling geraniums, produce citronellol, a molecule highly effective against wasps and mosquitoes. Geraniums themselves are not just decorative but practical: blooming from March to September – peak wasp season – they can provide years of effective natural barrier protection with proper care.
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