Effective Organic Pest Management Solutions You Can Try At Home

Eliminating pests in crops or gardens is totally different from that inside your home, the solutions must be safer and family-friendlier.

I guess nobody would like to use something containing dangerous chemicals so below are all my favorite natural pesticides that you can easily DIY at home.

Neem Oil

Considered as one of the most efficient pest repellent solutions available for centuries, neem oil is also 100% safe to use indoors as well.

What makes it stand out from other methods is, neem can control a gamut of insect breeds (such as whiteflies, mealybugs, caterpillars, scale, spider mites, aphids, leafhoppers, and mosquitoes) at all stages’ development, from egg, larvae, to adult.

Meanwhile, it isn’t harmful to beneficial insects like ladybugs, butterflies, bees, and earthworms.

Once you see the pest on your indoor plants, spray it with neem oil insecticide. It’d better bring it into your bathroom and spray thoroughly wet every leaves, cranny, and nook of the plant. This helps to avoid the neem oil getting all over the woodwork or carpets.

With heavy infestation, you should wash its foliage first with insecticidal soap to kill bugs on contact, then rinse off and spray neem oil on.

Insecticidal Soap

This is a perfect alternative for neem oil that you can easily purchase online, at local garden center, or make your own.

Although it won’t be as effective and versatile as neem oil, it works in a pinch. It can eliminate spider mites, aphids, whiteflies, thrips, and mealybugs efficiently.

It works similarly to Diatomaceous Earth, which makes the bugs die from water loss when its fatty acids dissolve the natural protective waxy coatings on their soft body.

Note: If you intend to DIY insecticidal soap at home, just opt for things like castile soap. Besides, not any indoor plants can stand this solution so it’d better test spray in a small area. If you find some serious damage on their leave, dilute it.

Himalayan Crystal Salt

While working as Himalayan salt lamps or salt baths, it is also known for high efficiency to get rid of snails and slugs by absorbing fluids from their body, making them die because of dehydration.

The best thing is, it doesn’t affect the helpful critters and plants while pricing very affordable.

For low-income gardeners who also don’t prefer to use harmful chemical treatment solutions, this is one of the best alternatives.

To use it for infection control, mix the salt with diatomaceous earth and water in a spray bottle.

Essential oils

Lots of essential oils can repel a wide range of pests and insects, for example:

• Ticks: lavender, thyme, sage, or lemongrass
• Spiders: spearmint, or peppermint
• Roaches: citronella or peppermint
• Moths: citronella, spearmint, peppermint, cedarwood, or hyssop
• Mosquitoes: lavender, citronella, or lemongrass
• Gnats: spearmint, or patchouli
• Flies: eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint, sage, or rosemary
• Fleas: lavender, lemongrass, peppermint, or spearmint
• Chiggers: sage, thyme, lavender, or lemongrass
• Beetles: thyme or peppermint
• Ants: peppermint or spearmint

To use them, you just need to mix 15 drops of oil with 1 cup of water in a spray bottle and spray on the infection area, such as leaves, stem, and soil plants.

Garlic

There are sulfur compounds in garlic which act as a natural Insecticide. Namely, it can eliminate caterpillars, ladybugs, and other insects.

To make a garlic spray bottle of 1000ml, here are what you will need:

• 1 head garlic
• 2 tbsp. of liquid soap
• 4 cups of water

First off, separate the garlic head into cloves and peel off all of them. Then, transfer the garlic to a blender with 1 cup of water and process the mixture within 1 minute.

When it’s finely chopped, pour the rest of water and the soap into this blender, puree within 1 another minute. Now pour the liquid into a jar, cover well and leave overnight or 24 hours if you have time as the longer the steeps, the better the garlic infuses its sulfur compounds with the water.

After that, just filter the mixture to remove chunks of garlic, transfer the liquid into a spray bottle and there you go!

Some gardeners even add chili and onion to increase the results but you should be careful when trying this advanced formula as they might make your eyes and throat uncomfortable. You should wear gloves, mask, and glasses for extra protection.

Tomato Leaves

This might sound unfamiliar to some people but I swear to GOD, it works for real.

In tomato plants, there are lots of alkaloids, for example tomatine, known as an effective pest management solution. The making process of tomato leaf spray is quite similar to the garlic – 2 cups of chopped tomato leaves mix with 30 ounces of water and then leave alone for 12 to 24 hours.

Strain out the tomato leaf chunks, pour the liquid into a spray bottle and ready to use.

Conclusion

As each organic pest management solution has its own blending ratio, it’s highly recommended to following precisely to get the best results. Always remember to test spray on a small area of your plants to know if they can stand that solution or not.

There are although some other eco-friendly methods to eliminate pests, the 6 options above are easiest to do while their ingredients are quite popular to find. Good luck!