Happy Homesteaders

Natural Pest Control

Natural Pest Control

Gardening can be a rewarding endeavor, but keeping your plants alive sometimes means doing a little crowd control! Conventional poisons can harm soil, children, and pets, so here are some natural solutions I found:

 

 

Earwig Sauce Trap:

2 tbsp soy sauce 

½ c cooking oil

Shallow bowl/container

Mix together, leave overnight. This catches earwigs, centipedes, ants, and cockroaches. Keep away from pets. 

Ant & Spider Spray:

Water bottle

Water

5-10 drops peppermint or cinnamon essential oil

Mix and spray. I found that ants avoided places sprayed.

Ant Syrup:

½ c powdered sugar

3 tbsp borax

Enough water to make a thick syrup

Mix together, drop near ants. This killed some ants and the colony moved away. Keep away from pets & children.

Boozy Slug Trap:

Beer of choice

Shallow bowl or container 

Leave bowl out overnight. Dispose of caught slugs/snails.

Plants/Herbs for pest control: 

Marigolds - Mosquitoes, aphids

Nasturtiums - Aphids, beetles, squash bugs

Basil & Lavender - House flies, mosquitoes

Lemongrass, lemon balm, mint, rosemary - mosquitoes

Thyme - whiteflies, cabbage loopers & maggots, corn earworms, hornworms

Dill - aphids, squash bugs, spider mites, hornworms

Fennel - slugs, aphids, snails

Allium Family (chives/onions/leeks)- Slugs, aphids

Borage - Hornworms, cabbage moths

 

 

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