Every season brings a different house pest. Mosquitos in hot and humid months, ants and roaches when it rains. And who wants to spray possibly harmful chemicals for every type of insect there is? Luckily, there are numerous organic pest controls that work great at repelling all kinds of home pests.
If you’ve got an ant or cockroach invasion in your home and don’t want to shoot pesticides everywhere, try some of these completely natural insect killers and repellents.
Citrus Oil and Cayenne Pepper Spray
Ants in the home are a common sight, and they can certainly be a nuisance. They may seem harmless, except for the red fire ants that can sting, but colonies in your home can spread bacteria as they go digging through your trash.
A citrus oil and cayenne pepper spray works as both a great natural ant killer and repellent. The citrus oil contains d-Limonene, which will destroy the ants respiratory system, and ants are repelled by the scent of pepper. It’s an effective solution with the potential to get rid of all ants, though it’s great to try other remedies as well for maximum impact.
Mix 10 drops of citrus oil with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in 1 cup of warm water, shaken in a spray bottle. You can spray it directly on ants to kill them, and spray it around entry areas to repel them.
Garlic Spray
This is best sprayed outside the home, particularly in your garden, but can also work as a mosquito repellant inside your home. Garlic’s naturally pungent aroma will keep away insects both flying and crawling, and works great in the garden to keep your leafy greens free of insect bites.
A good mixture is 2 pureed garlic bulbs, added to ½ cup of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of liquid soap, and 4 cups of water. Spray it on your garden plants to keep out garden pests, and around your home to repel mosquitos. The garlic smell will become unnoticeable within a few minutes to you, but remain strong to insects.
Diatomaceous earth
Imagine rolling around on a sandy beach, except the sand was razor-sharp and made thousands of cuts on your body. That’s basically what diatomaceous earth does to insects, though it’s completely harmless to humans (you can even eat food-grade DE).
It works best on insects with exoskeleton bodies such as ants, cockroaches, and bed bugs. The powder will cling to their oily exoskeletons and lacerate them, dehydrating their bodies. It doesn’t work instantly, but it’s very effective for getting rid of ant colonies, for example, as they brush their bodies against each other.
Simply sprinkle the DE anywhere you see ants walking, and wait a couple of days to notice the results.
Boric acid
Another natural insect killer that’s harmless to humans, boric acid works by targeting insects digestive systems first, and then destroying their waxy exoskeleton coating, which dehydrates them. It is flavorless and odorless to cockroaches, which means they won’t begin to recognise it after time.
It works best to finely dust it along areas where insects crawl, as they’ll simply walk around clumps of it. You can also mix it into little food baits, such as in tiny balls of peanut butter.
Plants and foods that naturally repel insects
There are numerous types of houseplants that can repel insects, as well as certain foods that repel them if left out.
You can leave out little bits of cucumber, garlic, or bay leaves to repel cockroaches, and garlic also works for mosquitos as well.
Basil, lavender, rosemary, and other houseplants can also repel different types of insects.
