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Bug Repellents for Plants
Bug Spray for the Garden
- 12 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 oz. mineral oil
- 1 pt. water
- 1/4 oz. Palmolive soap
Use lots of finely chopped garlic soaked in mineral oil at least 24 hours. Add 2 tsp. oil to 1 pint water and 1/4 oz palmolive soap. Kills cabbage moths, cabbage loopers, earwigs, leafhoppers, mosquitoes and larvae, white flies, some aphids on contact, houseflies, June bugs, squash bugs. Bugs killed slowly are cockroaches, lygus bugs, slugs, and horn worms. Not effective on ladybugs, Colorado potato beetles, rodents, grasshoppers, grape leaf skeletonizers, and sow bugs.
Bug Repellents for Plants
- 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce
- 1 cup rubbing alcohol
- 1 tsp. Ivory Liquid
- 1 qt. water
Mix together. Spray on plants. It works on white flies and mealy bugs and probably other pests that like your plants. However, be careful not to spray into the eyes as it will burn.
Ant Bait
- Epsom Salts
- White Sugar
Mix equal parts of Epsom Salts and white sugar. Sprinkle around the nest or put it in small containers where the ants like to go. (They take it back to the nest and feed everyone!) This won't harm other animals although it may make very small ones - kittens, pups, etc, have a bit of diarrhea if they eat much of it. Resist the urge to kill the ants you see when they gather at the "Free Food" as you want them to carry it home to wipe out the nest.
Earwig Bait
- 1 tsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. water
- 1 tsp. molasses
- 1 tsp. dry yeast
Mix together. Sink a small tin (tuna, sardine, jar lid, etc.) into ground and add the mix. This is best if put way under bushes,or back in a corner out of the way - earwigs are very shy and like dark secluded places.
Old Fashioned Bug Getter (grandma used it)
Throw soapy water (after dishes, etc.) on infested plants.
Snails and Slugs
Sink small tins (tuna, sardine, jar lid etc.) into ground and fill with beer. They crawl in and can't get out. (Too drunk maybe?) OR - put ring of salt (pickling, road, etc. - whatever is available and cheapest) around plants or flower beds. When they try to crawl through the salt they get dehydrated and die.
Houseplants
Wipe leaves with rubbing alcohol to get rid of mites, white fly, etc. OR - mix 1 cup of rubbing alcohol and 1 gallon of water and spray plants.
Wasp/Yellow Jacket Trap
Use a large jar (like bulk mayonnaise or pickles come in). Cut a piece of window screen large enough to cover top of jar when pushed down in the middle like a funnel. Cut hole about size of your finger in the "point" of the funnel. Put about 1 inch of water with a little vegetable oil in it into the jar. Add a mound of canned tuna (about half a can - depending on size of the jar). Add screen funnel and fasten with string, elastic, etc. tightly around top. Set jar where wasps can find it - preferably a sunny location. Wasps come for the tuna and they can crawl in through the hole but don't have the brains to crawl back out. They fall into the water/oil and that is the end of them. Set these out early in the year when new queens are just starting out and you might prevent a new nest from starting.