Just doing some research. If a plant is said to have insect repelling properties, how would you go about testing this? And what would be the environmental issues related to this? Or perhaps I need to question a scientist… ?
Drought Smart Plants reply: In most cases, observation over the years has been where plants get their reputation of repelling insects, so that would be where I would start.
Without knowing more about the plant, and which insects you’re hoping to repel, it’s hard to give more than generalities.
For environmental issues, unless you’re making up huge quantities of some kind of tincture, this shouldn’t have an effect on the environment.
Simply observing which plants seem to protect their local area from certain bugs isn’t going to be problematic, as far as pollution goes, and with the sheer numbers of insects in the world, you couldn’t possibly eliminate them all anyway.
You say ‘repel’ which doesn’t indicate that you want to actually kill the insects, just make it uncomfortable for them so they stay away. There is a huge difference in these two approaches.
By all means ask a scientist or biologist exactly how to go about testing this.
Best of luck with your project!
Jacki
