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Homemade Bug Spray for the Garden – 3 Easy Recipes

ByLaurie Neverman

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Walking down the pest control product aisle in the hardware store or garden center gives me a headache. Sure, I know bugs in the garden and yard can cause trouble, but that doesn’t mean we need to wage full out, heavy duty chemical warfare. It’s easy to make up homemade bug spray for the yard and garden that use plant compounds and soap to knock back your bugs.

Bugs on bean plant

These sprays can still cause trouble for beneficial insects, too, so use them sparingly, and they shouldn’t be put directly on plant parts you want to eat. Use care in handling, washing hand after use and avoiding inhaling the sprays or rubbing them in you eyes. Although they are natural pesticides, they are still irritants. Wash your produce before using.

These DIY bug sprays work best on soft bodied insects like aphids, spider mites, thrips, and the eggs, larval and nymph stages of other garden pests such as squash bugs and cabbage worms. They may also get rid of adult insects with hard shells, but they tend to be more resistant and require repeated applications. This brews are best used within a day or two, or stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Rhubarb Leaf Garden Bug Spray

Most of us know that you eat the stalks, not the leaves, of rhubarb, because the leaves are too high in oxalic acid. An overdose of oxalic acid can make you sick or even kill you. (Seriously, do not cook up a mess of rhubarb leaves as a green veggie. The British government suggested people eat rhubarb leaves during WWI due to food shortages, and people died.) How much is enough to kill you? Rhubarbinfo.com states:

For a person about 145 pounds (65.7 kg) that’s about 25 grams of pure oxalic acid required to cause death. Rhubarb leaves are probably around 0.5% oxalic acid, so that you would need to eat quite a large serving of leaves, like 5 kg (11 lbs), to get that 24 grams of oxalic acid. Note that it will only require a fraction of that to cause sickness.

So, don’t eat rhubarb leaves or this bug spray, wash your hands after use and your veggies before eating if you sprayed it anywhere nearby.

Ingredients

  • 4 rhubarb leaves, chopped
  • 1 quart water
  • squirt of dish soap (optional)

Directions

Place chopped rhubarb and water in a glass or stainless steel pot. Simmer for about 20 -30 minutes. Strain and cool. I let this settle for an hour or so and then poured off the top to avoid any sediment, but you could also strain it through some cheesecloth or a flour sack towel. Just keep in mind that chunks may clog your spray bottle. Add a squirt of dish soap (this makes it so the spray penetrates the bug skin better – gross but true). Mix well. Place in spray bottle and apply directly on target insects.

Garlic Oil Garden Bug Spray

This oil based spray is a little longer lasting than a water based spray, because it won’t dry up so quickly on the leaves. It’s adapted from Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, which has a ton of gardening ideas. This is similar to the pest control recipe in 6 Ways to Use Garlic in the Garden, but more concentrated and less stinky.

Ingredients

  • 10-15 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 pint of mineral oil
  • Squirt of dish soap, optional
  • Water, optional

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Directions

Place chopped garlic cloves and mineral oil in a glass jar. Let steep for at least 24 hours (longer is fine if you don’t get to it right away). Strain. Use as is, or add an equal amount of water and few drops of dish soap.

Onion Scrap Garden Bug Spray

As I explained in the post, “Don’t Cry Over Cut Onions“, onions take up sulfur from the soil as they grow, which accounts for their pungent aroma. When they are cut and exposed to oxygen, the sulfur compounds in the onion react to form sulfenic acid, a mild acidic gas. We can use this to our advantage by saving up our chopped onion ends and peels (or cutting up a whole onion if you like) and using them to fight garden pests.

Ingredients

  • Onion parts, about 1 cup
  • Water, about 1 pint (enough to cover onion bits in a glass jar)

Directions

Save up your onion scraps in a sealed container. (The longer they sit, the more powerful the smell will get.) Once you have enough bits, cover them in water, close your container, and allow to steep for 5-7 days. Strain and apply to target insects.

Fight Your Garden Pests from the Inside Out With Healthier Plants!

I have said this before but it needs to be repeated – healthier plants have less bug problems! My friend, Phil, gets into this in more detail in the post, “How to Organically Get Rid of Garden Pests, Forever“.

I see it in my garden every season. When plants get stressed, bugs show up. It’s like putting out a casting call for wee garden beasties. If the plants get some TLC (or weather conditions improve), a few bugs may stay around, but they cause little damage. If the plants continue to stay stressed, the bugs multiply and can wipe out entire crops. (Yes, sometimes I have garden failures, too. Drought and heavy rains have no respect for your level of gardening enthusiasm.)

Some of my favorite plant TLC options include:

Bee friendly yards and gardens are also friendly for beneficial insects, who can be a huge help in the garden by eating the guys that cause the trouble. Learn more about creating habitat for the good guys in the post “5 Tips for a Bee Friendly Yard“. Check out The Gardener’s Bug Book to help you identify the good and the bad bugs in your garden, and learn other methods of bug control.

Have any homemade bug spray recipes that you’d like to share? Please leave a comment below. Many herbs can help provide safe bug control for just pennies. I know I’m only scratching the surface with this post.

Close-up of bug

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16 Comments

  1. The county doesn’t care and if try to push them about helping with the damage and repair costs you will get hit with “Oh, we discovered we made a mistake and you owe us extra back taxes plus 3 years of interest in late fees.” Then have to go through a hearing due being penalized and punished for a mistake that was their fault from over 4 years ago but saying they are going to be nice and only charge late penalties for 3 years. Only professionals from Fish and Game are allowed to live trap and relocate them, but they won’t touch them unless contacted by a professional electrician, roofer and/or contractor AFTER they’ve already had to make repairs when the attic is invaded and you get blamed for not better protecting your attic even though the buggers chewed and broke their way in through an intact vent. If call them up yourself they just tell you not to bother them and that they’ll probably leave the attic of their own accord. From the looks of things plenty of folks are unhappy about all the many, many new regulations enacted so hopefully the next new group of local government officials will be/do better when eventually take office. Meanwhile, just learned that the old mayor is now facing some legal charges brought against him by the Attorney General although of course the mayor is denying any misconduct. Anyway, if anybody has any other suggestions and tips on what could try to deal with the squirrel problem would appreciate it. For example: Are there any shade loving plants that squirrels can’t stand perhaps could plant at base of our fruit trees perhaps? Already tried predator scents/sprays without any luck so not sure if plants would deter them any better but will try it if there are any.

    Reply

    2. Kay, I sympathize and empathize with you, we have a neighborhood teaming with squirrels and rabbits.

      We have tried all the “happy” remedies, bit our four legged molesters here are street thugs, they could care less about soap flakes, garlic, chili pepper concoctions, lights or electronic predators. We also have the ridiculous laws about trapping. I’m about to pull out my old trusty BB gun.

      I had a thought for your fruit trees, that is the same remedy used for gypsy moths. Wrap the base of the trunk with either plastic or sheet metal. Since the squirrels can jump pretty high, make sure you go pretty high up. Then coat the wrap with axle grease or something that is petroleum based and won’t go rancid or attract other pests/animals. The point is to make a barrier that they cannot get a foot hold on. If you have adjacent fences, then this may be a moot point, as they will jump to a branch (that is the situation with our non-fruit trees).

      I would say if you are having house damage, then all bets are off. They need to be eliminated.

      Laurie, this is not directed toward you…great article by the way:
      Before all the coexist with nature, radicals swoop in, ask yourselves this:
      Why are ALL of us OK with poisoning bugs…termites, mites, aphids, roaches, silverfish, ants…you name it, when they eat our vegetation, infest our homes or damage our houses, but heaven forbid, we harm the cute little furry animals???
      Do the bugs not have as much natural right to exist, eat, multiply and occupy space as the cute furry animals…why are we not saying…”well, you just have to learn to live in harmony with the termites eating your house foundation, after all they were here first you know??”

      If you’ve ever killed ants or roaches in/around your home or garden pests (bugs), then you are guilty of the same infraction, those who dispose of rabbits and squirrels are accused of.

      Anyway, Kay, if you try my suggestion, I hope it works. Otherwise, best of luck with mitigating any costly damages.

      Reply

      1. Some folks are limited in what they can do to take care of furry pests by local rules or high strung neighbors. We tend to take care of business out here in the country. The fat grey squirrel that kept raiding the bird feeders was delicious.

        Reply

  2. P.S. Any chance you could (or perhaps have) a post about how to deal with squirrels? They love to strip our fruit trees bare, but we’re prohibited not only from killing them but even from live trapping them … totally hands off here (protected species — although you wouldn’t know that they were disappearing/rare based upon the huge numbers of them attacking our fruit trees!) The smarty pants have quickly learned that our garden owls including the motion activated ones are fake even when moved about frequently, hanging, or on a pole and love to knock them over and play with them (removed or knocked/broke off the spring loaded moving head from one) and could care less about shiny reflective hanging objects or pinwheels. They also tease the dogs and cats and torment them daring them to give chase. We also have to check before opening the back door or they will sometimes race inside the house! They don’t mind getting sprayed with water jets either whether by hand held sprayer hose or a motion sensor set up. Full sized fruit trees much too large to cover. Metal sheets/guards to prevent climbing up the trunks don’t work because they have other means of jumping from buildings and fence lines. I’m out of ideas.

    Reply

    1. Take video footage showing you are being overrun and all the damage they are doing and petition to be able to live trap them and relocate, or start sending the municipality bills for all the damage they’ve done?

      It sounds like you’ve tried every reasonable method of deterring the little buggers.

      Reply

  3. From personal experience, I’ve found an easy (and cheap) way to introduce healthy bacteria into the soil (whether it is for improving garden veggies and flowers or even to improve the lawn/grass) is to inoculate the water with lactobacillus probiotics using the same item that is healthy for us — kefir. Probably could also use yogurt, but kefir is far more potent and easier to mix into water.

    Also, add any extra cellulose/SCOBY (the giant booger looking cap that forms on top) that you have left over (especially once you have more SCOBY Hotels than you know what to do with) from making kombucha to the compost heap for healthier compost and helps with breaking down the organic matter — as well as run it through a food processor with some water then use that to inoculate a 5 gallon bucket of water (or add it to homemade liquid fertilizer).

    Watering with either or both of these via inoculated water I have found also helps to loosen and prevent compacted soil. And it is perfectly safe to use as often as desired or needed.

    Reply

    1. Our extra scobys go to the chickens (they love them), as does extra kefir, but I could certainly see how they would be helpful in the garden, too.

      Reply

  4. Great DIY recipes for insect control. I personally use the Garlic recipe as I have seen it help with some of pest control service clients. I own a pest control service company and am always experiencing with new greener ways to provide my service. Great information and a great read!

    Reply

  5. I would much rather use natural or homemade remedies then any harmful pesticides. I’ll have to give these recipes a try! Thanks for sharing the tips!

    Reply

  6. Not sure where I heard about this one, but the best and easiest remedy for ants farming larval aphids on food plants is to apply a little compost around the stalk of the plant. I have used this successfully on the cabbage and squash families for years. This spring the dwarf cherry I planted last year had aphids slurping away at the tender leaf tips all over the poor little tree. There is an ant nest a couple of feet from the tree, pretty obvious how the aphids got there. I scattered a couple of handfuls of compost around the base of the tree and by the next day the aphids were gone. I think this works on the concept that the plant gets invaded when it is a little nutritionally deficient. The taste of healthy plant sap must be really yucky to ants!
    The other remedy I tried this year is in response to the appearance of forest tent caterpillars (cousin to the caterpillar larvae of gypsy moths). Patrick (PJ) Liesch at the UW-Madison Dept. Entomology Insect Diagnostic Lab identified it for me and suggested that since there did not appear to be a lot of the caterpillars I could try picking them off. If the situation escalates he suggested a few organic commercial sprays, but I would try garlic or rhubarb, of which I have a patch growing nearby.
    I picked off the two I could reach, one on the dwarf cherry and one on the lower branch of a 15 foot tall mystery tree I think is an apple. There was also a variety of little beetles. In the spirit of simplicity, I decided that since the caterpillars were easy to pick off, I would give the apple a good shaking, since most of it was far out of my reach. Various bits of stuff pelted down a little too fast for effective identification. In the event that any of them were bugs, I invited our frogs and snakes to take care of them. In the three days since, I haven’t spotted any more forest tent caterpillars. PJ referred me to a website that is useful for identifying bugs. It is sponsored by the University of Iowa and has various identification tools, includes a quick pictoral guide. The link, with photos of my sinisterly beautiful caterpillar: http://bugguide.net/node/view/560
    I am now debating whether I would be wise to wipe out the ant ant hill with a borax bait. If the compost is effective on a continuing basis for the fruit trees, I have a feeling the ants have a generally beneficial effect on soil and forest ecology, and I would rather leave them to do their work.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for sharing the bug link and information. Ants do aerate the soil, so I tend to leave them in place unless they are causing major damage. I find it quite fascinating to observe all the different types of mini-wildlife working in the garden.

      In the book The Holistic Orchard (and companion video), the author heavily promotes the use of mulch under trees, with mulch made using chopped branches and trees being the best option. We just found out there’s a tree service not too far from us, so we’ve started taking delivery of their chopped tree mulch and are working on mulching the orchards and swales. We’re also working to add companion plants and shrubs. Lots of work, but I can already see positive changes taking place.

      Reply

    2. Hi,my name is cheryl, we have we have two cherry trees a big plum tree and apple tree and an Asian plum tree and something’s eating them all completely stripped out someone said they could beat your wigs do you have any ideas or tips to chase them off

      Reply

      1. First you need to determine what’s causing the damage for sure. Then you can take action based on that information. Different pests respond better to different treatments and/or traps.

        Reply