Homemade Insecticide Recipes

Barb Zone: 4a

barbo37 from Fairview, MI

A: Barbo37,

There are many variations of this floating around in print and on the web, but here is another good all around recipe for repelling bugs:

• 1 cup liquid dish soap (or Murphy's Oil Soap or baby shampoo)
• 1 cup tobacco tea (3 fingers of chewing tobacco in a nylon stocking and soak it in a gallon of hot water until the mixture is dark in color)
• 1 cup antiseptic mouthwash
• 1/4 cup of Tabasco Sauce (or substitute chopped hot peppers)

Mix these ingredients in a 20-gallon hose end sprayer, filling the rest of the sprayer with water, and spray your plants. You can also reduce these measurements down to proportions that suit a hand held spray bottle. Slugs and snails love hosta, but they detest crossing sharp surfaces because it causes them injury. Prevent them from climbing up hosta plants by sprinkling eggshells or diatomaeous earth around the base. Round sandpaper disks also work well for this purpose. Cut a slit in used disks and wrap them around stems.

Good Luck!

Ellen

Put 3 chopped onions, 4 chopped garlic cloves and 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper and half a litre of water in a liquidizing blender. Whirl at high speed until thoroughly blended and liquid. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of pure soap in half a litre of water and mix the two liquids together. Store in a tightly sealed glass bottle, label and keep out of the reach of children.
This is particularly effective against scale, thrips, mites and aphids.

LEONA LABINE

June 10, 20060 found this helpful

This is from www.recipegoldmine.com
awesome site a recipe for everything!

Bug Spray
This will dislodge or smother aphids, thrips and mites.

2 tablespoons liquid soap (such as Ivory)

Mix and put into plastic spray jar. Spray onto plants.

I can't remember where I got these but I hope they help!

Print out these five standby remedies for yard and garden, including a natural fungicide for mildew and black spot:

Simple Soap Solution
2 Tbs. soap flakes
2 litre warm water
Dissolve soap flakes in water and apply directly to infested areas every 5-7 days. Note: Too much soap can cause burning on plants.
Pests affected: aphids, spider mites, and whiteflies.

Garlic Oil Spray
10-15 cloves of minced garlic
2 tsp. mineral oil
600 ml water
1 tsp. liquid dish soap
Soak garlic in mineral oil for 24 hours. Strain garlic out and add 600 ml water and 1 tsp. liquid dish soap. Mix thoroughly. Spray plants with this solution.

Fungicide for Mildew and Black Spot
1 tsp. baking soda
1 litre water
1 tsp. soap flakes
Dissolve baking soda in 1 litre of warm water.
Add soap flakes to help solution cling to leaves. Remove infected leaves from plant, then spray top and bottom of remaining leaf surfaces to control spread of the disease.

Sticky Traps
1-2 Tbsp. Vaseline or preferably, Unpetroleum Jelly
4x8 plastic cards or cardboard
Waterproof yellow paint
Apply paint onto both sides of the card and let it dry. Once the paint is dry, apply
Unpetroleum Jelly liberally over both sides of the card. Place the card just above the plant canopy.
Pests controlled:Flying pests, such as fungus gnats, and whiteflies.

Sowbug Traps
1 small plastic container with lid
2 Tbsp. cornmeal
Cut a small hole at the base of the container, large enough and close enough to the bottom to allow sowbugs to climb in. Place cornmeal in container. Place container into area infested with sowbugs. After feeding on the cornmeal, the bugs will drink and then explode! (Replace cornmeal frequently.)

Mandy Leigh

July 20, 20100 found this helpful

Well, I read all of these and made my own, which, I will now use for life. I took just rosemary, not even fresh, just dry rosemary from your cabinet, I ground it up, then, I took equal amounts of mouth wash & water, then, I added 2 cap fulls of baby oil, put all into ingredients a spray bottle, shake it up and the more it sits, the more the aroma of the rosemary is stronger so it works better each time you use it.

The recipe is 1 cup of each. Dishwashing liquid, ammonia, listerine, and epsons salts. I hope this helps! It works wonders for me.

Is the recipe safe for cherry tomatoes and safe to humans or do I have to wash before eat.

Editor's Note: I would always wash before eating but the spray should be safe compared to insecticides.

hopefulau

July 15, 20130 found this helpful

From: SGGuides

To manage problems with aphids and mites, try a pesticide made with rhubarb leaves. Simply boil rhubarb leaves in water for 20 minutes, and when cool strain into a spray bottle. A mild dishwashing soap can be added as well. (take care with the leaves as they are poisonous when eaten)

For managing leaf-chewing pests, mix up mashed chili peppers, chopped onion and a head of minced garlic. Allow to steep in water for 24 hours before straining and spraying tomato plants.

To curb attacks from tomato hornworms and other leaf cutters, make a mash of marigold leaves and flowers, and soak in water for 24 hours. Strain the solids, and add another 1.5 quarts of water plus a pinch of liquid castille soap before spraying.

For problems with beetles, caterpillars, whitefly and any soft-bodied insect pest, use a mix of water, cayenne peppers and chopped horseradish root.

LARRY FLUITT

December 1, 20120 found this helpful

First question would be why use borax to begin with, though considered low toxic it is still a number of times more toxic than anything else you or an exterminator would use for insect control. It is a slow acting stomach poison, so it would take time to get the job done if you are fighting a current insect infestation. The borates can be effective by lightly dusting out of the way places of the home, but mainly as a preventative.

25th year as exterminator