DIY Homemade Pesticide Spray

In case you are having pest problems and you’re thinking twice about inundating your surroundings with unsafe chemicals, you can try making your own bug spray. Making homemade pesticide spray is actually pretty effective in eradicating pests around the house and so much safer for pets and kids. Here is more pest control at home.

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How Do You Make Homemade Pesticide?

It’s so frustrating when you spend so much time on your garden, whether it’s weeding or pruning or planting flowers or herbs and vegetables, and you end up with bugs on your beautiful plants. Bugs are gross and having bugs outside on your plants is not fun. Because it’s only a matter of time before they end up inside your home. And nobody wants that! Have you ever dealt with pantry bugs in your cabinets?

The best method of pest control in the garden is to keep your plants healthy so they don’t attract bugs. Fertilize as needed and stay on top of weeds by pulling them as they appear or using weed killers.

Why Should We Use Homemade Pesticide?

Many store-bought pesticides can contain toxins that cause health issues that can last quite some time if not a lifetime. This is especially alarming for children as they are more vulnerable to pesticide exposure. Pesticides are stored in your colon, where they are allowed to poison your body and potentially damage your organs and develop into cancer. When you eat something like an apple or strawberries or another from the “dirty dozen list” you are also eating over 30 different pesticides that have been sprayed on the fruit or vegetable.

Onion and Garlic Insecticide

You probably use onion and garlic all the time when cooking healthy recipes. But did you know that you can also create a homemade pesticide spray using these items?

Directions

Finely chop a medium-sized onion and 5 cloves of garlic.
Boil 2½ cups of water and place the minced onion and garlic in the water.
Allow to boil for 5 minutes. Let cool and then put it through a sieve or mash it and put it through a strainer.
Then you can use the onion-garlic water as an insecticide spray.
Also, you can add 2 tablespoons of dish washing liquid if you prefer.
The mixture will keep its potency for a week.

garlic and hot pepper for homemade insecticide

Garlic and Hot Pepper Blend Insecticide

This creates a great spray that you can use against all sorts of pesky bugs.

Directions

Mince half a cup of both pepper and garlic and boil in 2 cups of water for about 5-10 minutes.
Once the mixture has cooled, strain out the water into a bowl.
Pour the water into a spray bottle and use where needed.

Here, you can use whatever type of pepper is handy. But you should use very hot peppers, like habanero, cayenne, Thai chili or bird pepper, or Scotch bonnet chili.

Citrus Spray for Bugs

Citrus sprays are wonderful options if you do not want your house or garden smelling like garlic and onions. But these sprays will only work on soft-bodies pests, like aphids and mealy bugs in the garden. Indoors you can use the spray on ants as they do not like the scent as well and your home will smell like oranges as an added bonus

Directions

Peel 2 large oranges and then boil peels in water for 5 minutes. Put the orange peels in a container or bottle, and pour the hot water over the peels. Allow this to steep for 24 hours. Strain the peels and use as insect spray.

{ Read More about How to Make Orange Peel Pesticide }

Flower-Based Pesticides

The dried flowers of chrysanthemums and tansies can also be used against a variety of insects.

Directions

To make your own spray, boil a liter of hot water. Then, put 100 grams of dried chrysanthemum flowers. Allow to cool and let it steep for an hour before straining.

Follow the same procedure when making a tansy pesticide spray. But remember that you should be very careful when using either flower because both contain very strong chemicals that could be harmful when ingested. Also, do not eat or cook with plants that have been sprayed with chrysanthemum or tansy-based pesticides.