5 Homemade Chemical Free Bug Repellents That Work
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Not only can insects be a nuisance in your garden, but they can ruin a perfect picnic or hike. Here are a few totally green, home remedy suggestions to repel insects without using toxic chemicals.
#1 Pepper Spray
This works great for ants and other small pests.
- Boil 2 or 3 cups of water.
- Add about ½ to 2/3 cup of chopped hot pepper. Let marinate for a few minutes.
- Run the mixture thru a sieve to remove the peppers.
- Put the liquid in a squirt bottle and use when necessary.
- Be careful not to spray directly on foliage.
#2 Minty Soap Spray
This is great for ants.
- Mix 2 tbsp of Dr. Bonners mint soap with a gallon of water.
- Spray directly on ants.
This will also work to ward off other pests on foliage however be care when you spray it directly on your plants. It has been known to burn some plants if too much is applied.
#3 Pure Vanilla Extract
Dab a little on you wrists, neck and behind the ears. Many insects don’t like the smell.
#4 Chem-Free Bug Off Mist
- Mix witch hazel with a few drops of tea tree oil, lavender oil, or peppermint oil in a squirt bottle.
- Lightly mist your body.
You can also add one of these essential oils to an unscented organic lotion for a bug repelling moisturizer.
#5 Lavender Works Mosquito Miracles
Stop the bites!
- Rub a lavender flower behind your ears, wrists and neck.
- Not only will you smell great but mosquitoes will leave you alone.
Go Greener!
We don’t need to use spray’s and harmful chemicals to keep pests away. There are plenty of natural, chemical free solutions to control bugs this summer. Go greener, our planet will thank you!
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Really great tips! Thanks for sharing. I’ll remember these particularly for my grandson.
Great Tips! I’ll help remember those tips for my grandma. She’s very forgetful.
Hmm, chemical free you say?
As far as I can tell, all 5 of those contain chemicals. And why would you not want to spray the pepper spray onto foliage if the chemicals in it were not harmful to the plants (same goes for the mint spray)
Maybe 5 chemical sprays you can make at home using ‘natural’ items is a better title.
“Chemical Free” is not really a very useful term. Everything is a chemical. The only thing that is truly chemical free is a vacuum. Which would probably do a good job of repelling insects come to think of it…
For you!
For you!
You can also grow several mosquito repellant plants, such as horsemints, rosemary, and marigold. Work wonders.
Hi Everyone
Thanks for stopping by and for participating!
I just want to clear up the reason that I rarely suggest spraying any of these home remedies directly on your plants.
First it is safe to do so. The only reason I suggest not spraying directly on your plants is, many times if you spray anything directly on the plant it is possible to burn them. This is even true here in the desert of water if sprayed during the hottest part of the day.
Not only that but why spray stuff directly on the plant when spraying around the area usually does the trick.
If you have ants or aphids in you plants, these sprays are perfectly safe to use. Just pay careful attention to how much you use and try to spray in the evening.
Thanks everyone for participating and I hope you will stop by often for more organic tips!
I find this helpful to kill aphids on my roses. Soak several cigarette butts in a quart of water overnight to make a tea. Strain through a screen sieve into a spray bottle. Add a little dishsoap to make it stick, shake well and spray where aphids are present.
Not 100% accurate…
You can add powdered cinnamon for keeping away ants when they leave the garden and invade your home.
I tried rubbing some of the anti-mosquito plants on myself. It seemed to work like a garnish for them as I was getting bit about every 10 seconds. Deet for me, thx.
http://digg.com/health/Mosquito_Spray_or_Natural_Predator_Controls_2
Each year, in the early spring, after the first lengthy rains, mosquitoes begin to make their appearance in our backyards and low-lying valleys. Local communities usually begin spraying to kill their larvae, hoping this will help keep their numbers down later. Do the mosquito sprays really work?
http://www.healthmad.com/Occupational-Health-and-Safety/Mosquito-Spray-or-Natural-Predator-Controls-.24392
Mosquito Spray, or Natural Predator Controls?
Hi: Thanks very much for your advice. Do you make anything for snails, slugs, moles, squirrels, and the like? PLEASE!
Has anyone got an organic tip to keep snails from eating my busy lizzies (that’s impatiens)?
Just as soon as I use up all of my chemical spray, I may try this.
crush up egg shells and place then on top of soil around plants,this will keep snails and slugs away.
Thanks, Jack! Easy and so simple. Of course, snails don’t like grit or “bits” in their way, do they? I will try this, although it may be too late for my busy lizzies!
I’m headed fishing this weekend and apparently the flies are worse than they’ve ever been. I’ll try vanilla and lavender to see how that works. I’m skeptical but I’ll give it a try.
hi there.
i stumbled upon your website here and am wondering if you have ever heard of a biting fly (insect) know as “battleass” in central america (specifically belize). This is a slightly bigger fly than a “sandfly” but it bites much more pronounced than a mosquito. Anyway, i would like to know if you have heard of this fly; becuase the only solution that i have to prevent getting bitten is by using long sleeve shirts, long pants, socks and sometimes even gloves. And if you think that’s bad …. try using this atire in the summertime within the tropics.
alright, I tried the vanilla and can say with confidence that it DOESN’T work at all.. in fact, re-read the vanilla sentence and omit the word “Don’t” and that about sums it up. On the plus side it does smell good. I didn’t try lavender because I really don’t know where to get that.
Hi Dan
I am so sorry to hear that the vanilla did not work for you.
Different things work on different people and in different areas. It depends on the bugs. It sounds like where you are you are going to need something a little stronger. May I suggest Tea Tree Oil. You can pick it up at your local health food store and it is quite potent. You can either purchase it in the oil form, apply it behind your ears, neck wrists and ankles, or you can purchase it in a spray. If you purchase it in oil form, be sure to dilute it a little before you apply it to your skin because it is strong and might cause a rash.
Good luck
Im sitting outside my friends house and im gettin ATE UP! The coors light next to me is begging me to chug the whole thing! Haha. Im gonna try the Vanilla Extract experiment and see if it ” Works Wonders” ! ! I hate mosqitous! Whoever reads this should go out and listin to any Tupac song, and think to yourself how lyrically inclined Tupac truley is, in zone. ” ” PEACE/LOVE
I have found a great product that really is chemical free and completely non-toxic to pets and children of all ages. Wondercide is what I use for my lawn, pets, garden, mosquitoes, and inside & outside of my home. It has worked wonders and given me & my pets the freedom to go outdoors at anytime. I live in South Houston & have had a horrible time with mosquitoes and fleas. Not with this. Wondercide is the best product I have come across in quite sometime.
I like to say that if you are clean person the roaches are clean but if you are a dirty person you will have dirty roaches.
I like to say that west coast has alots roaches and people that live in apartments have alots of roaches problems and the bug spary man can,t seem to get read of them so the people have do what can to get read of them self by using Natural spray that have no harm to humans.
Josh
Does anyone have an exact receipe for a catnip-mosquito repellent that works. I am having trouble finding measurements using catnip oil.
Here’s a recipe for insect repellant using the catnip plant itself and cider vinegar (if you don’t mind smelling like fries!)http://www.stretcher.com/stories/980625b.cfm
Help need waterbug repellent for home!
Anne, which kind of waterbug do you mean?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterbug
For those of you who want something that is safe for the skin and environment, unscented, and will repel both pests on people, in the home, and on vegetation try soap nuts.
You can find tons of information about soap nuts on my blog http://soap-nuts.info.
We use them boiled into a concentrated liquid for repelling mosquitoes, killing and detering roaches, ants, and silverfish.
We live in Central Florida and have a covered pool attached to the house so we have our patio doors wide open almost 7 months of the year so many a bug wanders in, few hang around for long. Seems they hate the smell of the saponin, and when sprayed on them the bugs do not live to fight another day.
Soap nuts liquid will also not harm your plants or the environment from run off into the ground. On the countrary the saponin from from soap nuts is being used in parts of the world to remediate polluted soil.
Beer in a shallow container will
work to capture your snails and slugs.
If you can stand the party!!!
Ducks consider slugs gourmet fare and muscovy ducks are noted for their appetite for flies. A female duck will also lay more and bigger eggs than most chickens. Or at the end of the insect season, you can eat the duck. (Not sure I would be able to, but you could.) They will also eat your lettuce so be careful where in the garden they are allowed to go.
snails love beer put a saucer of beer out and they will drink them self to death.
Hey, Guys, I heard last night that to put bounce fabric sofener sheets out around the area that people are setting and the mosquitos won’t bite.
I’m going to try it tonight.
Deet is toxic and should never be used on children or pregnant women. The stuff makes me scary sick with heart palpitations and nausea. I tried Flowers of Sulfer to keep the chiggers and ticks off me while I picked wild blackberries, and it worked just as well as the deet. I still got bit but not as bad. Flowers of Sulfer can be found at health food stores and it smells like firecrackers. The smell does linger on clothes for a couple of washings. I would love more recipes that work for other bugs.
Thank you so much for the “green” tips. My son has come home everyday this week with more and more mosquito bites from preschool. Apparently their playground is a nesting ground…. fun stuff here in Florida. I will try to rub some lavender lotion all over him before he goes to school in the mornings to see if that helps. If not, then I will try the pure stuff. Thanks again for all the great tips. Love your website!!! I’ve just discovered you about an hour ago and have already told all my friends.
Mommy Meeshie, there has been some correspondence in the UK papers about how to avoid mosquito bites, and one tip offered was to eat yeast extract products, like Vegemite (Australian) or Marmite (similar UK product) because mosquitos don’t like the taste! OK for use by vegetarians. I haven’t tried this myself, but offer the tip in case it’s useful. Lots of people use citronella too, which isn’t bad as long as you don’t mind smelling like a lemon.