Ants are tiny terrors that can fit into the smallest of spaces to create a big mess. Ants can ruin landscapes with their large, mounded dirt homes. And if you’re unfortunate enough to step on one of their dirt homes they will attack your feet and legs with painful bites.
The ants enter homes and devour any food items left opened, they also feast on any part of your actual home that they happen to find tasty.
Sweet sap is sucked from trees and plants by ants leaving the plants to die, and the ants can wreak havoc in the garden. Loose garden soil and tender plants are an irresistible combination to ants. They will create hard mounds of soil to use as a home base while they suck the life out of your vegetable plants and flowers.
Fortunately, there are some plants that repel ants that will help you protect your garden, landscape, and home naturally. These plants also look good and some of them are fragrant, so they will enhance your landscape while repelling ants.
Table of Contents
Best Ant Repellent Plants
Garlic
Garlic is easy to grow in a home garden and you can start the ant-repelling plants with garlic cloves you have in your kitchen right now. Snap off the outside cloves from the garlic bulb and plant each clove 2-3 inches deep with the pointed tip of the clove facing upwards. Plant the cloves 3-5 inches apart in prepared soil.
This plant that repels ants can be planted throughout a vegetable garden or flower bed, just intersperse the cloves among other plants.
If you don’t want to grow garlic, place a peeled clove where you have seen ants. Replace the garlic clove once a week to keep ants away.
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Lavender
Lavender is a perennial plant that grows best in full sun and well-draining soil. It’s a fragrant, edible plant that is used in recipes, soap and lotion making, and it’s also used for medicinal purposes. The two best things about lavender are that its easy to grow and ants hate the fragrance.
The lavender plant produces fragrant spikes of purple flowers that could repel ants.
Mint
Mint can be grown outdoors in the garden or indoors a houseplant. There are multiple varieties of mint and all of them are plants that repel ants because of its strong fragrance.
Peppermint, spearmint and pennyroyal mint are some of the most popular mints varieties to grow in the home garden, plus the fragrant plant can be used in a wide array of recipes.
Marigolds
These easy to grow flowers are the workhorse of the garden. Tolerant of most soil conditions, drought-tolerant and thrives during the heat of summer, marigolds will keep ants away from tender garden plants and growing flowers.
Marigolds come in several sizes and colors, blooming prolifically all summer. Plant dwarf marigolds around the perimeter of a vegetable garden or as a border plant. Taller marigold varieties can reach up to 4 feet when mature and make ideal anchor plants.
Marigolds look good while they are working hard. Seeds are easy to save so this ant repellent plant can be re-planted year after year for free.
Rosemary
This is a fragrant herb that grows into a lovely plant. Ideal for planting and growing near the entrance of your home to deter ants from entering and grows well planted in containers or in-ground.
Plant sprigs of rosemary throughout your vegetable garden and flower beds to repel ants. The attractive plant also makes a great border plant along walkways and will release its’ fragrance when brushed against.
Thyme
Most cooks are familiar with the herb thyme and its many culinary uses. This plant that repels ants can work both indoors and outdoors.
Thyme can be grown indoors in a container on a kitchen windowsill or outdoors in a container or planted in-ground.
The Thyme plant is not too fragrant but it seems that ants don’t like the appearance and/or taste of the herb so they will turn around and go in the opposite direction when they see a thyme plant. The herb can grow in an herb garden, flower beds, in containers, sidewalk cracks, and as a border plant.
Thyme is a slow-growing perennial that does not need direct sunlight to thrive.
Tansy
This natural ant repellent plant is also known as Golden Buttons because of the small clusters of pungent yellow blossoms that bloom throughout summer. Dried tansy flowers are often used in floral arrangements.
Oils from Tansy deter many garden pests, including ants. The plant contains anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties and is used in home remedies.
Tansy is a perennial plant that will reach a mature size of 4 feet. The plant grows in a mound shape and it’s self-propagating via underground rhizomes.
Conclusion
Ants are a nuisance and can be controlled with organic methods both inside the home and outside in the garden. Use some of the plants that repel ants so you can have a pest-free environment.
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