No, Snake plants don’t attract snakes. They’re named “Snake plants” because of their long, snake-like leaves, but they won’t draw snakes to your home or garden.
However, you might be wondering if they attract bugs. Is there a way to protect these beautiful houseplants from insect pests?
I’ve provided more details on this subject in the following guide. Let’s take a look.
Jump To:
Do Snake Plants Attract Snakes?
Snakes are attracted to plants that provide food and habitat for the rodents and other animals they eat. They also like plants that provide deep cover, such as rosemary and jasmine plants.
Considering these two points, it’s very unlikely that snakes would be attracted to your Snake plants.
Snakes don’t like to be near these plants because the leaves have sharp edges.
If you observe snakes around these plants, it’s probably due to the plant’s location. When you have Snake plants in the garden, snakes might get attracted to other plants with a canopy.
Tip: To keep snakes away from your Snake plants, place them in pots and arrange them in less crowded areas of your garden.
Overall, you don’t need to worry too much because these plants won’t attract snakes or reptiles.
Do Snake Plants Attract Bugs?
No, the Snake plant doesn’t attract bugs or insects, either.
It doesn’t release any smell or substance that can make these creatures come toward the plant.
While Snake plants don’t draw bugs to them, they can get affected by pests like mealybugs, spider mites, whiteflies, scale, or aphids.
It happens due to several factors, including overwatering, lack of sunlight, and humid environment around the plant. So, it’s not the plant’s fault; it’s more about how it’s looked after.
If you see any such bugs on your Snake plant, address the problem immediately. Otherwise, it often does lead to permanent damage to the plant.
5 Things You Can Do To Keep Insects Away From Snake Plants
Here’s what you need to do –
1. Provide Sunlight To The Plant
Whether it’s an indoor or outdoor plant, it needs sunlight for its growth.
Without sunlight, the plant may experience stunted growth and become weaker over the period.
Now, this rule also applies to your Snake plant.
If you have been keeping this plant in a shaded or dark room, it won’t show the kind of results you’d expect from this plant.
When this situation arises, the plant will become an easy target for the common bugs in the garden.
Therefore, you should move this plant to a bright sunny location.
Even though the plant does well in direct sunlight, it’s quite alright to keep it in a place with indirect sunlight.
This will keep your plant fresh for a long time, as there won’t be much of a hindrance in its photosynthesis process.
2. Water Your Plant
Yes, water the plant!
Although the Snake plant is quite tolerant to underwatering, you shouldn’t let the plant remain underwater for 10-15 days.
It will do the same thing to the plant, as the lack of sunlight does.
The plant will become weak when it doesn’t get enough water supply.
The leaves will lose their shine and become thin during this period.
As you might have already guessed, this is the perfect time for pests and bugs to attack such plants.
So, maintain a schedule to water the plant.
Also, make sure you don’t overwater the plant, as it can also attract more issues.
3. Keep Your Snake Plant In Airy Place
The Snake plant is hardy, but it doesn’t need a lot of humidity.
To solve this problem, you can either place a dehumidifier in the room or move the plant to an airy place.
If you don’t have any of these options, you can also keep it on the windowsill.
The other important reason why you need an airy place is the growth of fungus. When you keep the plant dry for a long, the issues like fungal growth don’t spread rapidly.
In some cases, the dryness may also stop such growth entirely.
4. Use Neem Oil Spray
Neem oil works best for many plant issues, and you can use it on any of your garden plants.
If you want to use this oil, you should prepare a dilute solution of water and neem oil.
You can also mix some dish soap in this solution if you want.
Later, spray the solution on your plant, and see how it keeps these issues at bay.
As for the application, you don’t have to spray it too often.
You can simply spray it once a month, and that should be good for the plant.
Apart from the prevention, the same spray can also be used to stop the infestation.
Yes, it works both ways and is quite effective in solving problems like mealybugs infestation, spider mites infestation, etc.
5. Inspect The Plant Regularly
The last thing you can do to prevent the bugs on your plant is to inspect it regularly.
You can follow this simple activity while watering the plant or pruning the unwanted leaves from it.
You don’t have to check it daily, though!
The inspection practice has helped me a lot in preventing many issues in my indoor plants.
It is important to detect them as early as possible.
This is absolutely crucial for indoor plants, as the plants can easily succumb to the damage caused by unwanted pests.
FAQs
Snake plant doesn’t release anything from leaves to repel snakes. However, the sharp-edged leaves might keep them away from the plant.
No, the Snake plant does not attract ants.
But if you see mealybugs infestation on the plant, you may also see ants on its leaves. Since mealybugs feed on the juices released from the plant, the ants often take the opportunity to get their share as well.
No, it doesn’t attract mosquitos.
Yes, vinegar is effective in preventing snakes from your garden.
You can pour white vinegar around the plants or any other places where you don’t want the intrusion of these reptiles.
Leave a Reply