Get Rid of Pests & Toxins With These Common Plants
Is that cockroach that just crawled out from behind the fridge making your stomach churn? There’s a chance it’s not your imagination—cockroaches carry bacteria that can cause gastric problems, including diarrhea. Flies are disease factories that can transmit diseases including hepatitis and tuberculosis. 
Some bugs put your home’s health in danger as well. Termites eat wood, and an infestation can cause serious damage to the structure of your home and often requires aggressive termite treatment to take care of the problem. While there are some woods such as cedar, redwood and eucalyptus that are toxic to these pests, this is no help unless you’ve already built your home out of these materials. Though plants can’t help much with termites, they can help control many other types of pests and toxins found around the home. Here are four examples of plants that help eliminate toxins and repel pests:
Bay Leaves
Bay leaves are most commonly used to add flavor to soups, stews and sauces, but few people realize they can help keep roaches under control. The leaves won’t necessarily hurt existing cockroaches, but they find the scent unpleasant and are likely to head in another direction.
Lemongrass
According to Hortmag.com, the best thing to plant to keep away mosquitoes is lemongrass. Lemongrass is the plant where citronella is found, which is widely used to control these pests. Bees are also not fond of the plant, making it even more beneficial. Although lemongrass is bad for bugs, it’s good for you. For many years it has been used to treat headaches and aid digestion, and recent research at Ben Gurion University in Israel suggests that it can even cause cancer cells to self-destruct.
Basil
It turns out a roach’s bay leaf is a housefly’s basil. When you’re making that homemade pizza or spaghetti sauce, save some basil to help control flies. The spice may be deliciously aromatic to you, but flies can’t stand it. Bugs aren’t the only things that clear out when basil’s around. According to Health.com, basil can also help get rid of skin blemishes and detoxify the liver.
Pyrethrum Chrysanthemums
Chances are you are more familiar with this flower’s common name, mums. There are many mum varieties that contain a natural insect repellant, pyrithrin, but pyrethrum mums are the most potent. These flowers resemble daisies and come in a variety of colors. Mums can keep away a lot of different insects, such as silverfish, roaches, fleas, lice, ants and bedbugs—and they won’t bother your pets.
Plants to Control Toxins
Besides insect control, these and many other plants also help improve the quality of the air in your home. Carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, radon, nitrogen oxide and other airborne pollutants can invade the air in homes and cause a wide range of problems including headaches, nervous system problems and cancer. Scientists at NASA have discovered that many plants help neutralize these chemicals.