Why does garlic prevent vampire attacks?

Answer 1

The real answer

No-one knows. It is possible that Vampires are susceptible to things that smell badly, and they have been known to be susceptible to leeks and spring onions as well as garlic.

Update:

Garlic is a strong natural anti-biotic which kills most infections, with all but the exception of Russian vampire beliefs, vampires are created by an infection of the blood

Answer 2

Vampires Hate Garlic Because They Think They Will Get Bad Breath And They Wont Get The Vampire Girls Vampires don't necessarily hate garlic. Count Dracula really hated the stuff and because he's the best known vampire his traits get applied to all vampires. Certain Italian vampires were said to work the gardens around Florence where, undoubtedly, garlic was grown. Vampires don't hate garlic at all. It does nothing to them.

Answer 3

Vampires hate garlic for a simple reason: We made them up. Over the course of several centuries, we've decided that they hate sunlight, crosses, and garlic. Historians can't give a definitive answer as to why we developed that folklore, but by looking at vampire mythology, we can make a few educated guesses.

First, it's important to note that nearly every major culture has some sort of vampire myth, but descriptions of vampires vary greatly from one culture to the next. Our modern ideas of vampires are largely informed by Bram Stroker's 1897 novel Dracula and its film adaptations.

Stoker's novel was the first piece of literature to use garlic as a vampire deterrent, but it's unlikely that the author simply added that for effect; garlic has been used to ward off evil for centuries. For instance, Ancient Egyptians believed that the herb had powerful magical effects, and Romanians have been obsessed with garlic for centuries. As Stoker set his story in Transylvania (a region in Romania), he likely borrowed from local legends when building his idea of the vampire.

So, why garlic?

Well, some researchers believe that vampire legends come from real-life diseases. Rabies, for instance, causes victims to become violent and agitated; to an uneducated observer, a rabid person might seem possessed by an evil force. Rabies also causes an aversion to strong smells.

"Infected people display a hypersensitive response to any pronounced olfactory stimulation, which would naturally include the pungent smell of garlic," National Geographic historian Mark Jenkins wrote.

At some point in history, maybe someone noticed this effect--and started stringing cloves of garlic around their home to ward off the evil disease.

That's one possibility, but as writer Kelsey Kennedy notes for Atlas Obscura, vampire myths don't necessarily need these types of medical explanations. Sometimes, people just make up stories, and those stories gain new details as they're passed down from one generation to the next.

Kennedy believes that the simplest explanation is likely the most accurate: Someone came up with the idea that garlic wards off vampires, and they told the story in a compelling way. Other people repeated it, and that's how it ended up as a part of the vampire legend.

Of course, we don't know that vampires hate garlic, since we can't exactly interview one. Since garlic increases blood flow and improves circulation, you'd think that bloodsuckers would love it--but maybe they prefer their food bland.

Answer 4

It is said that vampires are allergic to garlic. However, I do not believe this.

Answer 5

They are allergic

Answer 6

they dont..