Bees

Do Geraniums Repel Bees and Wasps? Only One Kind Does

Scented pelargoniums deter wasps a little; bedding geraniums do nothing. What the citronella claim is worth, and what actually keeps wasps off a table.

By Zakaria November 3, 2026 2 min read Save to Pinterest

A wasp feeding on a pink umbellifer flower head — Photo: beasternchen, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay

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Scented-leaf pelargoniums have a mild effect at close range when the foliage is crushed. The bedding geraniums sold as wasp repellent do nothing at all.

The short answer

Mostly no. Scented-leaf pelargoniums, including the citronella-scented 'mosquito plant', release aromatic compounds that mildly deter wasps at very close range — but only when the leaves are crushed. An intact plant standing in a pot releases almost nothing, which is why the effect vanishes in practice. Ordinary bedding geraniums have no repellent effect at all; they are simply unattractive to bees because modern cultivars carry little accessible nectar, which is absence of attraction rather than repellence. Nothing a plant can emit clears a patio. Removing the food source — covered dishes, sealed bins, cleared windfalls — does far more.

Scented pelargoniums: mild, close range, crushed leaves only
Bedding geraniums: no effect
Intact leaves release almost nothing — that is the whole problem
No plant clears a patio of wasps
Remove the food source instead

What the claim rests on

form	deterrent effect
Extracted citronella oil, high concentration	measurable
Crushed scented-leaf foliage, held close	slight
Intact plant in a pot	negligible
Bedding geranium, any form	none

The gap between row one and row three is where the marketing lives. Laboratory results on concentrated oil are quoted to sell a plant that cannot produce anything like that concentration standing still in a pot.

Why wasps are there at all

season	what they want
Spring, early summer	protein — they are hunting insects for the brood
Midsummer onward	sugar — the colony stops rearing young
Late summer	sugar, and bolder about it

That shift is why wasps are no trouble in June and intolerable in August. It is a change in the colony’s needs, not in the number of wasps.

Bees at the table usually want water

A shallow dish with stones to stand on, set well away from where people sit, takes care of most bee visits without removing a pollinator from the garden. They are not after the food.

What actually works on wasps

Cover food and drinks — a can with a wasp inside is the real hazard
Seal bins, rinse recycling, and clear fallen fruit under trees
Site a baited trap well away from the table, so it draws them off rather than in
Check for a nest in the roof, shed or bank if numbers are high — that is a different job
Do not swat — a crushed wasp releases an alarm pheromone that recruits others

Wasps are worth tolerating for most of the year

A single colony takes a very large number of caterpillars, aphids and flies to feed its brood through spring and early summer. The conflict is genuinely confined to a few late weeks, and destroying a nest in May costs the garden a season of pest control.

Common questions

Do geraniums repel bees and wasps?

Barely, and only one group of them. Scented-leaf pelargoniums — the citronella-scented 'mosquito plant' and its relatives — release aromatic compounds when the leaves are crushed, and those have a mild deterrent effect in the immediate vicinity. Ordinary bedding geraniums do essentially nothing. No geranium clears a patio of wasps, and the plants sold on that promise are being oversold.

Why does the citronella claim not work in practice?

Because the oils have to be released to do anything, and an intact leaf on a plant releases almost none. The deterrent effect in trials comes from crushed foliage or extracted oil at concentrations far above what a pot of plants puts into the air. A plant standing undisturbed two feet away is, from a wasp's point of view, scenery.

Are geraniums bad for bees then?

Not harmful, just largely useless to them. Most modern bedding geraniums are bred for flower form and have little accessible nectar, so bees ignore them — which is why a bed full of them is quiet. That is an absence of attraction rather than repellence, and it is a reason to plant something else if you want pollinators.

What actually keeps wasps away from a table?

Removing what brought them. Wasps come for protein early in the season and sugar from midsummer, so covered food, sealed bins, rinsed recycling and cleared fallen fruit do more than any plant. Beyond that, a decoy nest exploits territorial behaviour with mixed results, and a baited trap sited well away from the table draws them off it rather than toward it.

Do any plants genuinely repel wasps?

Nothing reliably, at the strength a plant standing in a pot can deliver. Wormwood, mint, lemongrass, eucalyptus and thyme all contain compounds that deter insects in laboratory conditions, and none of them clear a patio. Treat any list of wasp-repelling plants as a list of pleasant things to grow rather than as pest control.

Should I be trying to repel bees at all?

Generally not. Bees at a table are usually looking for water rather than food, and a shallow dish of water with stones to land on, set away from where people sit, solves it without removing a pollinator. Wasps are the ones that persist around food, and they are also predators of garden pests for most of the season — the conflict is really only the last few weeks of summer.

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A common wasp, smooth and narrow-waisted, feeding on spilled honey on a plate

Backyard Animals · Sep 22, 2026

Do Geraniums Repel Bees and Wasps? Only One Kind Does

What the claim rests on

Why wasps are there at all

What actually works on wasps