Brits urged to put Vapour Rub in gardens

One gardener tested a simple hack to keep pests away from her garden, and she has revealed that it worked. Vapour Rub is a common find in a medicine cabinet and comes in handy when we have a dry cough or the flu. It is designed to clear up our sinuses when we are unwell, but it seems as though it has another use entirely, and it has nothing to do with our health.

One TikTok user, @gardeningellen, heard about a certain hack and decided to test it. So, she took a pot of Vapour Rub and a cotton bud and spread it on the wood around her plants to try to deter slugs. "I have seen some people across the internet using Vapour Rub as a deterrent for slugs, so I thought I'd give it a go," she said. "You use a cotton bud or your finger to get some Vapour Rub, and then you rub it along the sides of your raised beds. Supposedly, it should keep the slugs away because they don't like the smell."

She continued: "I didn't want to do this entire bed as it's quite big, so instead I laid down a bamboo cane and covered that to see if it would work too." She then said she would update viewers in anoither video to see if her seedlings indeed survived.

Alas, the hack worked. "I am very pleased to report that my seedlings did survive the night," she revealed. "It was very damp last night, so there was a good chance that slugs would be out.

"But it seems that all the seedlings survived, and you can still see the Vapour Rub on the inside of the bed where I put it."

The experts at HomeTalk have recommended this very same technique for keeping pests away from plants, labelling it a "powerhouse in pest control". In fact, it can be uised to deter a lot more things than just slugs.

The experts also recommend trying it if you are having problems with mosquitoes, cats, squirrels and rats. The science behind it simple. Many pests do not like strong smells, and Vapour Rub is a pungent medicine that emits a strong scent that pests will hate.

Other handy tricks for keeping slugs away from your plants and seedlings include sheep's wool balls, creating beer traps and introducing garlic.