£2 plant instantly stops moths or flies entering your house on hot summer nights
Moths are the bane of summer nights when you're trying to sleep with the window open but there's a cheap way to stop them
It’s been hot hot hot this week as the heatwave keeps us sweating in the sheets overnight, struggling to catch 40 winks in 30C heat.
But as soon as you open the window, disaster. The room slowly fills with moths, daddy long legs, mosquitoes and general night crawlers and winged things. The next thing you know you're battling hordes of winged invaders flapping round your light bulbs and hurling themselves at your face.
Moths are everywhere over the summer weeks especially if you have a garden or live near grass or parkland. And while their presence is very healthy for the world (they get eaten by birds and are a key part of the food chain), it's not always totally appreciated when they flap onto your TV, your phone, or start eating your clothes when you're just trying to sleep.
But there's a quick and easy way to keep both moths AND flies out of your house at night and again it involves a cheap and readily accessible plant.
Lavender is absolutely despised by moths. They will not want to come in if it's on your windowsill. They won't like coming into a room with it in, nor want to fly into a house with lavender just outside.
Lavender, which can be bought for as little as £2 a plant, is also hated by flies and beetles, so it has the double bonus of keeping both flies and moths out of your house at night time.
Lavender does moths absolutely no harm and it won't kill anything, they simply hate the smell.
And that means that you can also probably get away with dried scented lavender bags as well, dotted along windowsills during summer, to help keep your insect problem at bay.
There are a few alternatives you can try, too. Moths don't like cedar either, while bay leaves, cloves, rosemary and thyme are all herbs you can buy to help keep the night butterflies at bay as they don't love the smell of any of those either, but cedar and lavender are the best options.
And as we know, flies don't like basil or mint, so if you aren't bothered about moths but still want to keep flies out, basil and mint are the best way to go.
