Do balcony plants attract mosquitoes in Dubai?

The link people notice is real but indirect. A balcony with plants usually has saucers, trays and forgotten buckets, and those are what mosquitoes breed in. The plants are incidental — bare balconies with a blocked drain have the same problem.

Dubai's peak is the humid stretch from roughly September into November, when overnight humidity stays high and standing water does not evaporate as fast as it does in June. Anything that holds water for a week is a site: saucers, the gap under a pot cover, self-watering reservoirs and a clogged balcony drain.

The fixes are small. Use shallow saucers and tip them out within a day of watering, or use pot feet and no saucer at all where your building allows the water to reach a drain. Top-dress pots with gravel so the surface dries fast. Check the balcony drain itself before the humid season. And avoid leaving a self-watering reservoir topped up through autumn.

Worth knowing: no plant repels mosquitoes in any meaningful way outdoors. Citronella, lemongrass and basil release aromatic compounds when crushed, but an intact plant on a balcony does not protect a space. Removing standing water does the entire job.