The Common Kitchen Scrap That Can Deter Pests From Your Yard & Garden

No matter how hard you try to protect your garden from critters, it's near impossible to completely shield it from, well, nature. Even after building proper fences and garden screens and applying your favorite organic pesticides, animals and insects alike will find a way to sneak into your garden, especially if you're growing edible herbs, plants, and produce. After months of grueling hours in your garden, nurturing and taking care of your various greenery, nothing is more disheartening than finding your first yield of produce already eaten or inedible due to an infestation of pests. Before you start looking into more potent and systemic pest control insecticides, you might want to consider holding onto this common kitchen scrap that can be used to help aid in warding off pests in your yard and garden: teabags. 

Used teabags can be planted in your garden plots where their strong scents and natural ingredients can repel and deter certain pests from infiltrating your gardens. Often composed of biodegradable materials, teabags are an environmentally friendly and non-chemical solution for warding off certain pests, such as slugs, aphids, and caterpillars. Alternatively, spraying brewed tea onto your plants and leafy greens can also serve as a natural deterrent.

The natural aroma of teabags is unappealing to pests ranging from cats and mice to bugs. When planted around or sprayed directly onto plants, the strong scents of your tea discourage critters from seeking refuge and snacks from your garden. More heavily caffeinated teas, such as black and green teas, are especially potent against insects. Just as caffeine helps keep humans awake and stimulated, it has a more severe reaction on insects, overstimulating their systems to the point of death.

Depending on your tea of choice, the effects on deterring pests from your yard and garden may vary. If your favorite tea is flavored with herbs and spices that are known to ward off pests, it will be a more potent pesticide. Teas that feature lemon, thyme, rosemary, mint, peppermint, and cinnamon can be used to deter household pests. If you're an avid black tea, green tea, and matcha tea drinker, be sure to repurpose your used teabags in your garden since these teas are heavily caffeinated compared to white and herbal teas.