Question
QUESTION: I live on south shore of LI, small yard, a few mosquitoes
can you recommend perennial plants for full sun (some areas) to partial late day sun to repel them?
I've read about a few, lavender, mints, marigolds etc but don't know what is best for this area

thank you!

ANSWER: Repelling Mosquitoes with plants makes great copy for a magazine article -- but it is not practical, unfortunately, and will not work.

I would love to tell you it did.  Believe me, I know the South Shore like the back of my hand, and I know how the man eating Flies and Mosquitoes can ruin your day, and your night, and your barbecue, and your visit to the beach.

But there are a lot of SUBURBAN MYTHS out there and this is one of them.  Want to know another one?  You know how they claim the color RED makes your heart beat faster, your blood pressure go up, you can't sleep in a room with Red walls etc?  Well, someone made that whole thing up, and they're still writing about it in the New York Times.  All of it, baloney.  I know this because I interviewed some NASA behavioral psychologists many years ago when they were trying to plan the interior of the Space Station.  You can see how they would care about that stuff.  I mean, if painting a wall Red is going to raise everyone's blood pressure, do they need to know that at NASA?  These astronauts are up there for 6 months at a time.  They need that like a hole in the head.

The NASA psychs discovered the truth.  It's all sheer myth.  Red does nothing to you or me.  Nothing.  We look at Red and our hearts beat the same as when we look at Black, or Gray, or Chartreuse.

All of this by way of telling you that no plant will repel Mosquitoes better than humans attracting them.  They just love our blood.  They'll ignore the smelly plants for the short time it takes to bite us.

With one exception.  Nepeta cataria.

Science Daily reported a few years ago that 'Catnip Repels Mosquitoes More Effectively Than DEET':

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010828075659.htm

'Researchers report that Nepetalactone, the essential oil in Catnip that gives the plant its characteristic odor, is about ten times more effective at repelling mosquitoes than DEET,' they wrote.

The researchers put 20 mosquitoes into a clear glass tube treated at one end with Nepetalactone.  10 minutes later, 16 Mosquitoes on the average had fled to the non-Nepetalactone end; only 4 were left on the Catnip side of the tube.   Repeating the experiment using DEET, they found that twice as many Mosquitoes stayed on the treated end of the tube.

It also works on Termites and Cockroaches, by the way.

You can also plant the ever popular Citronella (Cymbopogon nardus), source of the anti-Mosquito candle.

Gotcha!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you - I also read about catnip, but as there is also a large feral cat population in these parts and all my neighbors have cats, I'm afraid of starting a compound if I plant it.
would you agree?

Answer
Feral cats?  NO PROBLEM!  Just get a dog!  You can borrow mine.  They love to chase cats.

A few sprinklers strategically spaced around the perimeter of your yard will also make a Catnip collection not worth the trouble.

And I seem to recall a recent news bit that reported there's a big percentage of Cats that don't give a hoot about Catnip.  Sorry, I don't remember where I read that; it's not germaine to any problem of mine as I do not have a cat and I do not care for them -- too predatory for my lifestyle.

Give it a shot.  It's definitely worth a try.

L.I.G.