In Yugoslavia, Muslim Gypsies believed that watermelons could become vampires if they are kept for more then ten days after Christmas. However, as they have no teeth, they aren't feared and they can only roll around on the ground and make a nuisance of themselves.
In Romania, suspected vampires are buried with a bottle of Whiskey so that the vampire will get drunk and forget to climb out of his grave and feast on the living.
In China, a tiger's tail had a single hair in it's tail called a Soul-Recalling Hair. After it has killed a victim, the tiger would wave it's tail over it's meal so that it would come alive once more and he can enjoy killing his prey a second time. Later, the believe spread to household cats as well, and if a cat jumped over the body of a corpse, it would come alive once more.
Socks are actually used to combat vampires. The sock is removed from the left foot of a vampire, and filled with rocks, then tossed into running water. The vampire will search for the sock and will drown in the river when he tries to retrieve it.
In the 1950s, a tribe called the Mau-Mau, in opposition to British rule in Kenya, practiced dark arts that involved cannibalism, excrement consumption, bloodletting and drinking. They were a terror to the European interlopers, as well as enemy tribes who made up their victims, and were completely destroyed by 1956 by the British forces.
It is believed in Germany, that if a rope is knotted many times and placed by the grave of a suspected vampire, when it raises, it will have the uncontrollable urge to try and remove the knots, thus preventing him from terrorizing the living.
Horses are believed to be able to divine where vampires lay in the earth. When a vampire is suspected of having risen, a white horse is led into a graveyard, and will refuse to step over the spot where a vampire is lying. The horse legend varied, either in color or by the riding either being a virginal youth or maiden. Sometimes, there was also the risk of a horse becoming a vampire themselves and would be destroyed immediately after having found a vampire.
Red hair in many cultures, Grecians, Romans and Serbs, for example, is believed to be an indication of a probable vampire, many believed this because Judas was said to have red hair.
The Gypsies in the Balkan Mountains believe that pumpkins have the ability to become vampires if they are kept ten days after Christmas. They aren't very dangerous, much like the watermelon, since they can simply be killed by stepping on it.
Another defense against vampires are seeds. It is believed that if seeds are strewn on the grave or in the path of a vampire, it will immediately stop to count and collect each and every single seed, allowing the would-be-victim to escape. Sometimes, the vampire cannot leave the grave till each seed is consumed, and is only allowed to eat one per year.
In Bulgaria, a person who is suspected of maybe trying to raise as a vampire is wrapped tightly in a carpet to prevent escape from the grave.
In the Balkans and parts of Greece, it was believed that people with blue eyes would become vampires after death, or even are born as vampires. Blue eyes were a rarity in these countries, and strangers from Northern and Western Europe were viewed with suspicion.
The wood of an Aspen tree was believed to repel evil and frighten away vampires, because the wood the cross that Christ was crucified on supposedly came from the Aspen tree.
'Old Hag Syndrome,' is a frightening condition that occurs when a sleeper is jerked abruptly from REM sleep. The sleeper experiences pressure on the chest, difficulty breathing, and temporary paralysis, an attack which only lasts for a few moments and has no lasting damage. The name came from the old English superstition that an old hag, either a witch or vampire, was sitting on your chest and feeding from your life force when this anomaly occurred.
Lemons, it is believed in Germany, when placed in the mouth of a suspected vampire prevents it from being able to feed on the living.
In Wallachia (Dracula's homeland,) it was believed that a vampire would transform himself into a frog in order to feed from unsuspecting girls.
In India, chickens are used to cure a victim of vampirism by passing the fowl three times in front of the vampire's face and then rubbing his body with the blood.
Fishnets were used to protect Gypsy homes from vampires. When confronted with the fishnet hanging on a window or door, the vampire either was compelled to stop and count the knots, remove them, or would become helplessly tangled within the nets and would be forced to retreat before the coming day.
When a suspected vampire was exhumed from the grave, one of the main indicators that he was the undead was the length of his fingernails, usually long and pointed, and his hair would have grown in length as well. Later, it was found, that fingernails and hair continues to grow for an extended period of time after death.
In Jewish culture, there is the believe that Eve was not Adam's first wife, but Lilith was, created by God from the dirt on the ground. She rebelled against God and Adam, refusing to become subservient to the male creation of God, and left the Garden of Evil, where she consorted with demons from hell, and is believed to be the mother of all vampires.
Dirt plays a major part in most vampiric legends. Ofttimes, dirt is placed into the mouth of a suspected vampire, preventing him from being able to feed, or some vampires were believed to carry the dirt of their grave within their shoes so that they could travel freely about. If the vampire's shoes were stolen, he would be forced to return right away to his grave or perish.
It is believed by many Slavic cultures that when a person drowns, they have a good chance of becoming a vampire. Also, they believe that a vampire cannot cross running water.
Many European cultures, to prevent a suspected vampire from rising will either bury him standing up, or facing downwards, so that if they attempt to claw their way out of the grave, they will only encounter more dirt.