Apotropaic Objects

These particular objects called apotropaic turn away demons and evil monsters, including vampires. They can be ranged into four general categories:

‘appeasing' apotropaics, which stop the vampire and remove its urge to kill and spread disease.

Countering' apotropaics anhilate such harmful ability of the vampire by using a natural anti-substance with a more powerful counter-ability .'Constricting' apotropaics paralyze the vampire making him therefore unable to leave his grave and spread death and destruction. Destructive apotropaics keep vampires in chess by killing them.



Stakes
They were used in many ways to prevent and imprison vampires. In Eastern Serbia, small pegs made out of hawthorn wood are driven into the grave next to the cross, preventing the corpse from becoming a vampire. Stakes and other sharpened objects are also driven into the body. The wounds preventing vampirism by making it impossible for the Devil to 'inflate' the body so it can rise. Stakes can be simply driven over a corpse's grave, so if it becomes a vampire and tries to rise, it will impale itself. Most movies include in the now famous ritual scene of the killing in the coffin, the hammer and the wooden stake as mandatory means of destruction.



Sharp objects

Sickles have a very simple and effective use in stopping vampires. When the corpse is burried with the sickle over its neck, should the corpse become a vampire and try to rise from its grave, it will cut its own head off. Another way of using the sickle involved piercing the corpses heart with it, a custom probably inspired from the use of the stake. Thorns and other spiny objects were used in a similar way. They can also be inserted under a corpse's tongue to prevent it from sucking blood.




Crucifix

Anything that resemble to a christian cross and has been blessed will repell the vampire. Placed inside his empty coffin, it will prevent Dracula from returning to rest there. Putting a wooden cross on a household's door or smearing tar on it in the shape of a cross would keep vampires away.



Silver bullets

A consecrated bullet fired through the coffin at this time will kill him. Some vampire’s hunters used silver holly bullets to destroy the vampires they chased. A Serbian belief also states that a silver coin inscribed with a cross, cut into quarters, loaded into a shotgun shell, and then fired at a vampire will kill it.



Eucharistic wafers

Holy wafer placed in the vampire's coffin will prevent him from using it as a resting place.



Garlic or wolfsbane

The odor of the bulb causes Dracula to leave the room or immediate area. This mainly a tradition from Transylvania. During the early 1500 as the plague ravaged Europe, people turned to a concoction of vinegar and garlic called "Four Thieves' Vinegar." The name supposedly originated with four thieves who confessed that wearing a mask saturated with garlic vinegar protected them against catching the plague when they plundered dead bodies. What is known about garlic is that it contains an antibacterial substance, which might very well have afforded some protection. Wolfbane was mentioned in the Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and used in place of garlic. According to some beliefs, when put under a mattress or crib with a silver knife, wolfsbane keeps both vampires and werewolves away.



Wild roses

A branch of wild rose placed atop the vampire's coffin while he is within will imprison him. This flower has the same effect as garlic. It also immobilizes the vampire when placed on him.





Other repellants

Many substances can be strewn along a vampire's grave and the path to the graveyard to hinder it should it attempt to rise; these substances include millet, sea sand, mustard seeds, oats, linen seeds, carrot seeds, and poppy seeds. Poppy seeds are especially useful because their inherent narcotic nature causes a vampire to wish to rest in its grave instead of walk. Accounts exist of supposed vampires having their caskets filled with poppy seeds to keep them in their graves.