Making Safe Homemade Pesticides

Main Digest

Do you have garden or landscape pests that you want to eliminate but don't like environmentally questionable commercial products? Well, you don't have to use hazardous or poisonous chemicals to rid your home of pests and weeds. You may have ingredients in your home right now you can use to get rid of unwanted pests.

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Snails and Slugs

You can use beer to kill snail and slugs.

Sink a saucer or other shallow container until the rim is level with the ground and fill with beer.

The slugs and snails are attracted to the beer.

They will crawl in and drown.

Change the beer every few days so that it remains effective.

Pathogens - Blight

Compost and manure teas can help keep pathogens (including blight) away from plants.

Just fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and let stand for 24 hours to remove additives.

Add a quart or 2 of good compost or manure and let sit for 1 or 2 days, stirring on occasion.

Strain and drench the plant areas or thoroughly spray leaves including the undersides.

This also gives plants a safe natural feeding.

Pest Repellent

Use a mixture of garlic and hot peppers to make a pest repellent.

Chop up and mix together some garlic cloves and jalapeno or other hot peppers (or hot pepper sauce).

Put in a spray bottle and add water.

Spray tops and undersides of leaves to create a barrier for all kinds of destructive pests.

Mold, Mildew and Fungus

Baking soda can be used to make an effective treatment for mold, mildew and fungus.

If you have any of these problems, mix:

• A tablespoon of baking soda
• 1 gallon of water
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Fill a spray bottle with this mixture and spray plants, making sure to cover completely because some of these problems can exist where you can't see them.

OR

• Mix 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar with a gallon of water. Spray infested plants (best time is in the morning).
• Hydrogen peroxide can be used to prevent bacterial and fungal problems in your garden. It keeps diseases spores from adhering to plants. Use common drug store peroxide. Spray plant with undiluted peroxide (after testing a small area on the plant for adverse reactions), covering the entire plant. It works as both preventative and as a treatment for existing problems. Don't use on immature plants and seedlings until they mature.
• A 50/50 mixture of milk and water is a great mildew preventative and treatment. Spray weekly to prevent mildew or thoroughly spray at the first sign and every 3 days as treatment.

Weeds

Boiling water will kill any weed it's poured on.

A tea kettle can be filled and when boiling use to direct a lethal stream of water onto unwanted plants in the garden.

Vinegar is another weed killer. It should be used with caution as it can change your soil's ph level.

There are many more homemade recipes and formulas you can make to handle many garden problems. A little online research will turn up more remedies than it's possible to use. Experiment to see what works for you.

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