Vampire Repellent
At the stroke of midnight, your bedroom window slowly cracks open. A mist slithers into the room and slowly materializes into a pale, cloaked man with gleaming eyes and sharp glistening fangs. He floats silently over to your bed, maw open wide, ready to chomp down, but at the last minute . . . thwarted again! The vampiric intruder spies the garlic strung around your neck, stumbles backward, trips over his cape, transforms into a bat in a puff of sulfuric smoke and, after several attempts, finds the opening to the window and disappears into the night.
For centuries, garlic has been prized for its medicinal properties. Ancient cultures far back as 2700 BC used garlic to treat everything from eye problems, respiratory complaints, blood diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, joint pain, animal bites, seizures, diarrhea, fatigue, insomnia, headaches and parasites. Why even during the bubonic plague, physicians and grave robbers alike packed their bird-like masks with garlic cloves to counteract dangerous miasmas. In Eastern Europe, garlic was also valued for its ability to ward off evil spirits, werewolves and vampires.
The belief in garlic’s ability to drive off supernatural ghouls may have grown from its use as a medicinal plant. After all, illnesses of the body were often linked to illnesses of the soul. And while there are, thank Heaven, no such things as vampires, it may surprise you to know that garlic can still drive away blood suckers.
As early as 1858, Louis Pasteur discovered that garlic could kill bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers. Sulfur-rich compounds in garlic have a lethal effect against several different microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi and parasites. Extracts of garlic can also kill mosquito larvae. In fact, you can buy gallons of garlic oil online to spray around your home. You ahead. Try it. Your neighbors will love you. While garlic oil doesn’t last as long as other more dangerous insecticides, it is safe, all natural and environmentally friendly.
This information might lead you to suspect that eating lots of garlic will protect you from mosquito bites. Sadly, a double-blind study published in 2005 suggests that merely consuming garlic will not protect you from these tiny vampires. However, the experiment only tested individuals 48 hours after swallowing two garlic caplets. Extended garlic consumption may produce different results. Go ahead. Try it. Your neighbors will love you.
And while garlic may afford some protection against mosquitoes, a Norwegian group found that leeches may actually prefer latching onto skin seasoned with garlic oil. But that’s completely understandable. Aside from Dracula and mosquitoes, who doesn’t love a little garlic dipping sauce?
Brian Rutter, PhD, is the cofounder of Hundredfold Video and plant biologist working for 2Blades at the University of Minnesota. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our “Things About Things – Odd Facts About Plants” and video production tips in your inbox every month!
Works Cited:
Amonkar, S. V., and E. L. Reeves. "Mosquito control with active principle of garlic, Allium sativum." Journal of economic entomology 63, no. 4 (1970): 1172-1175.
Ankri, Serge, and David Mirelman. "Antimicrobial properties of allicin from garlic." Microbes and infection 1, no. 2 (1999): 125-129.
Pan, Kelly, Anuva Goel, Liliana R. Akin, and Sutchin R. Patel. "Through plagues and pandemics: the evolution of medical face masks." Rhode Island Medical Journal 103, no. 10 (2020): 72-75.
Rajan, T. V., M. Hein, P. Porte, and S. Wikel. "A double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled trial of garlic as a mosquito repellant: a preliminary study." Medical and veterinary entomology 19, no. 1 (2005): 84-89.
Sandvik, H., and A. Baerheim. "Does garlic protect against vampires? An experimental study." Tidsskrift for den Norske Laegeforening: Tidsskrift for Praktisk Medicin, ny Raekke 114, no. 30 (1994): 3583-3586.
Suvarna, Y. A. S. H. A. S. V. I., and R. A. T. H. A. I. Rajagopalan. "Garlic: Nature’s panacea." Asian J Pharm Clin Res 8, no. 3 (2015): 8-13.