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Article

How to Make Homemade Insect Pesticides

Learn how to make homemade pesticides with simple ingredients found in most home to get rid of ants, aphids, mealy bugs, mites, scales thrips and fungal disease on your plants.

Get rid of garden and lawn pest with this simple homemade insect solution made with two basic household ingredients. It's so easy to make homemade pesticides and it is great for handling the troublesome insect invasions that crops up during the warm months. Help your flowers, vegetables, fruits and fruit trees grow beautifully without the damage of insects. These easy to make recipes can be mixed up and used in a few minutes and save you hundreds of dollars each season as the ingredients are very inexpensive and items you most always have on hand. Plus they are safer without all the chemicals in commercial brands.

How to Get Rid of Ants

Ants are one of the most troublesome insect in any home, learn the easy steps to keep your home ant free.

Ants- The smallest bits of food attract ants. Pet food also attracts ants.  To prevent your pet’s food from attracting ants, set the food bowl into a pie pan filled with soapy water.   You will want to use a pet food dish about 1 inch smaller than the pie pan containing the soapy water so your pet is not distracted by it.  You pet quickly loses interest becoming comfortable with the soapy water and ignores it.  Ants won’t be attracted to the food as they cannot  make contact thus they will not attract other ants nor return to it.

Boric Acid Powder

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Keep Ant Colonies Away

Follow this simple homemade remedy to keep ant colonies from invading your home.

To destroy invading ant colonies, mix three cups of water with one cup of sugar and four teaspoons boric acid.  You may find boric acid on Amazon; I’ve included a secure product link to it here.  Loosely fill several small screw top jars half way with cotton balls, saturated with the mixture.  

Avoid Ant Envasions

Eliminate the frustration of ants in your kitchen, pets food and anything else you forget to leave out.

Pierce jar lids with two to three small holes large enough for the ants to enter.  Place jars in areas where ants are active but out of the reach of children and pets. You may use short jelly jars as this works well for attracting ants given the shorter size. Plus these are more easily hidden out of sight.  Take precautions listed on all ingredients used to secure your home for small children.

How to Get Rid of Aphids

Aphids love attacking our most beautiful flowers and plants learn how to keep them off your plants once and for all.

Aphids, mealybugs, mites, scales, and thrips

Safe Soapy Spray – Mix one tablespoon dishwashing liquid, such as Ivory, Joy or Dawn (not antibacterial) in one gallon of water.  Shake contents well mixing the ingredients, pour into spray bottle, shaking each time before applying. 

Test spray a few leaves of the affected plant; if no damage occurs in a 24 hour period spray the entire plant.  I use this all the time and have never damaged a plant, tree, bush or flower.

Ammonia Spray – To make this bug control combine one parts household ammonia with seven parts water into a spray bottle. 

Practice the same test spray method as mentioned above.  After a good result shake mixing the solution well and spray on the affected plant.

Oil spray – Stir one tablespoon of liquid dish washing liquid into one cup vegetable oil (peanut, safflower, corn, soybean or sunflower). 

Mix 1 to 2 teaspoons of the soap and oil blend with one cup water pour into a spray bottle, shake before use to mix ingredients as they separate on standing, apply to affected plants. This is my favorite, I use it for everything.  

Small Screw Top Containers

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Great Spray Bottles for Homemade Pesticides

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Get Rid of Black Spot on Flowers and Plants

Black spots on flowers and plants usually means fungal disease, get rid of fungal disease easily with this simple treatment.

Fungal Diseases 

To control fungal diseases, such as black spot and powdery mildew,

  • mix one teaspoon of baking soda in one quart warm water.  
  • Add one teaspoon liquid dish washing liquid. 
  • Apply to leaves as a spray or drench the leaves of smaller plants with a watering can. 

This keeps the black spot from invading my Black Eyed Susan's which are prone to this. 

Enjoy Your Bug Free Summer, Katie

Plant Lice Treatment

spirituality
Trusted Wizzley author spirituality shares her fabulous all natural homemade plant lice treatment that rids your plants of this pesky threat simply with simple basic ingredients and instruction.
Thanks Spirituality for helping us to garden the all natural way.

Natural Home Remedies for Plant Lice

  • Natural Home Remedies for Plant Lice

    Plant lice is annoying, but while I want to rescue my plants, I don't want to use chemicals in my home or garden, so I'm trying out home remedies instead.

Updated April 22, 2013

Share and read others experiences on how to get rid of ants, aphids and other pesky insects.

katiem2Oct 29, 2018

Derdriu, Good to have you back, it is that time of year again.

DerdriuMarrinerOct 22, 2018

katiem2, This is a revisit since with all the rains here ants are homeless and taking advantage of every opened door and unrepaired crevice! In addition to all the ant remedies, I like the fungal treatments since that's a problem what with all the atmospheric moisture, hurricane-induced rain and standing water. What would you recommend for mosquitoes?

katiem2Jul 15, 2012

Tolovaj, Very nice comment, thanks so much for the helpful feed back :)K

TolovajJul 15, 2012

Thanks for the tips, katiem2.

Boric acid is great weapon against ants indeed if the queen gets her share. Because sugar is so rare in nature, ants bring it directly to their chief - queen and if it is mixed with boric acid (common in washing detergents) it is good chance she'll die.

I would like to add a little warning about baby powder. It is controversial subject but most of baby powders contain talc and this can cause problems if it enters the food chain because it is related to several sorts of cancer. It is sad truth it is still widely used in food industry...

I personally wouldn't use anything with talc near my food (or kids either), but have to admit baby powder really smells good and there are not enough researches done on this subject. So everybody for himself (herself)...

Hope I didn't spoil a day to anybody:)

katiem2Jul 7, 2012

Sheri, WOW thanks for the great tip!

Sheri_OzJul 7, 2012

I just discovered something that I read on a squidoo lens - using baby powder. I sprinkle it around where the ants were (after chasing them away with water and then drying the spot). It's been two days now and no ants!!! What a relief! Smells good, too. I'm just afraid to wipe away the baby powder now.

katiem2Jun 24, 2012

Thanks sheilamarie for clearing that up, I might need to add this to the article in case others miss the comments section and are left with the same question as lobobrandon. Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts and issues with pesky insects and the need to get rid of them. :) K

KentJun 24, 2012

I will be using these a lot. Thanks for the simple effective recipes to get rid of bugs insects ant those annoying ants. This will be a great money saver.

ScottJun 24, 2012

Hey katiem2, I will put this to good use. We have ants in our kitchen now, we obsessively clean the counters but they still come around. I guess they found somthing they like and sent the message to the colonoly. We have a cat we feed in the kitchen. This is no doubt the issue. I will put this homemade pesticide to good use. Thanks

lobobrandonJun 24, 2012

Oh thanks Sheila, I guessed so, but the sugar confused me. I guess it's just to fool the ants. Great idea Katie, I'd love to try this. Boric powder isn't a problem here.

GuestJun 24, 2012

We are in constant battle here, too. Lobobrandon, the boric acid kills the ants. The trick is they bring the solution back to the colony and feed the queen and others. Curtains for the colony, I'm afraid.

lobobrandonJun 24, 2012

Ants are a real problem here, but I quite didn't get it - you use the mixture to attract the ants, then what? Do they die or just get deviated? I guess it's just a deviation, do let me know :)

RagtimelilJun 23, 2012

Yup. I got ants. It's a constant battle down here in Texas. Thanks for the article.

katiem2Jun 22, 2012

My pleasure, enjoy your plants and gardening :) K

spiritualityJun 22, 2012

Thanks :)

katiem2Jun 22, 2012

spirituality, Great idea I will do the same. Great to have you here :) K

spiritualityJun 22, 2012

Featured you on my natural remedies wizzle: http://wizzley.com/natural-home-remedies-for-plant-lice/

katiem2Jun 19, 2012

Mike, Coming from you, the expert, I'm humbled. Glad to have you here and get your feedback. :)

teddletonmrJun 19, 2012

Hey Katie, these are great tips for saving money on controlling insect pests around the landscape, flower and vegetable garddens.
Thanks for sharing, Mike
katiem2
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