Title image above is copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd

First published 24th May 2021

Plants produce many phytochemicals (literally ‘plant chemicals’) to defend themselves against everything from microscopic viruses, bacteria and fungi, to macroscopic insects, aphids, mites, birds and animals. Some plants are also believed to repel other plants, while still other plants are believed to repel the pests of other plants via phytochemicals.

Observations of this pest-repelling phenomenon, and over centuries, were all people had to rely on for pest control in their crops and around their houses until the development of the first synthetic pesticides from the 19th century on.

To this day, people who wish to minimise the use of artificial pesticides — whether on the food they grow or in and around the house in general — instinctively know to turn to plants, but get lost in the quagmire of information and misinformation out there.

This Plants For Pest Control section is an attempt to both record everything known, or claimed, in one spot, and to confirm or disprove with my own experiences!

And if I don’t have direct experience, I’ll do my best to work through the science to come to a best-guess conclusion.