Natural Pesticide Recipes

A sudden influx of garden pests can devastate your garden in a relatively short period of time. You work hard looking after your garden, so when pests arrive it is often tempting to grab the first insecticide you come across, but we all know the damage that some of these chemicals are doing to the environment.

However there are alternatives to the commercial chemical based insecticides. One alternative is to use companion planting. This is an old gardening method, popular with organic gardeners, where you mix plants that produce a natural insect repellent in amongst you crops or flower beds.

Examples of this type of plant are lavender, garlic, chives and marigolds. There are times though when a little extra help is needed. But rather than purchasing a chemical based insecticide, you can create your own from natural products found around the home or garden. You will find a few examples of these below.

Marigold Spray (Calendula officinalis)

Mash up 250 grams of marigold leaves and flowers into a pulp and add to half a litre of water. Stir and leave this mix to stand for 24 hours. After 24 hours has passed strain the mixture through a fine mesh or cloth. Then add another 1.5 litres of water and fill your sprayer. This mixture will help to control asparagus beetles, tomato hornworms, leaf cutting and chewing insects.

Elder Leaf Pesticide

Boil half a litre of water and add approx 225 grams of Elder leaves. Leave this mixture to simmer for 30 minutes. Take another half a litre of warm water and mix with 1 table spoon of castile (vegetable oil based) soap. Then mix both the soap water and the elder water together and strain through a fine mesh or cloth. Pour the strained mixture into a sprayer. Helps to prevent attack from Aphids, carrot fly, peach tree borers, cucumber beetles and midges. Elder leaves also have fungicidal properties and may be useful against mildew and blackspot diseases.

Note Elder leaf is poisonous. Store carefully and make sure it is well labelled.

Orange Peel Spray

Boil half a litre of water and pour over the peelings of 1 orange. Leave the water and orange peel to stand for 24 hours. Then add a few drops of castile (vegetable oil based) soap. Strain the mix through a fine mesh or cloth and add to a sprayer. Controls soft bodied pests such as aphids, fungus gnats, mealy bugs and can be used as an ant repellent.

Pepper Tea

Take one teaspoon of hot pepper or tobasco sauce, 4 cloves of garlic and 1 litre of water. Mix these together in a blender and strain the resulting mix through a fine mesh, such as a cheese cloth and then simply pour into your sprayer. This will then help to repel pests such as aphids, whiteflies, caterpillars and spidermites.

Vinegar Fungicide

Mix 3 tablespoons of natural apple cider vinegar in one gallon of water. Spray during the cool part of the day for black spot on roses and other fungal diseases. Adding molasses at 1 tablespoon per gallon will again help.

As with all commercial products, store these solutions out of reach of children and pets. They may be made from natural products, but some of the ingredients can be poisonous, such as Elder leaf, or cause irritation. Try not to make up more of a solution than you will use in a few days.

Do some research on any home made recipe before using, and try on a small area first before applying to your entire garden, especially on edible crops.