What Plants Keep Gnats Away

There is a handful that can keep gnats at bay, including geraniums, lemon thyme, lavender, and Mexican marigold. The wonderful thing about using plants is that not only do they look nice in your garden, but they will also help keep more than just gnats away.

What do gnats hate the most?

Fruit flies and fungus gnats, both commonly referred to as ‘gnats,’ rely heavily on their strong sense of smell to navigate. You can take advantage of this trait and repel gnats by using scents they hate such as peppermint, lemon, eucalyptus, vanilla, lavender, citronella, and DEET.

Does putting plants outside kill gnats?

You often can prevent gnat infestations from getting out of control indoors by repotting your plants with new potting soil more frequently. Although fungus gnats live outdoors too, they generally don’t cause problems in such unenclosed spaces.