Home Made Insecticide Ideas

Most people, no matter how clean they are, will have trouble once in a while with bugs invading their home. There are many ways to get rid of them, most of the using expensive pest control companies, or toxic poisons that not only poison the bugs, but also your environment.

I have gone both these routes, and when these didn't work, I researched and found some home made remedies that worked better that the first two options.

My worst problem by far was roaches. Living in Texas, they are a common problem, but that doesn't make them any easier to have around. They are nasty and embarrassing. I paid hundreds of dollars to well known pest control companies, with names you would recognize, to no avail. I used over the counter measures, but they were like a band aid on a terminal illness. They would kill the ones I could see outright, but there were always hundreds of other to take their place.

Then one day I read a home made recipe in the Keepers At Home magazine, which is put out by two Amish ladies. It was the best recipe I've ever used, and we rarely see roaches anymore. When we do, I just make a little more of this recipe and place it where I saw the roaches. I highly recommend it.

The roach recipe:

Mix one cup boric acid, half a cup of flour, one fourth of a cup of lard (or shortening), one eighth of a cup of sugar, and half an onion, finely chopped. I put all these ingredients in a large zip lock baggie, and kneaded it well.

Then drop small balls of this mixture where ever you see roaches. Be sure and place the balls where your children will not pick them up and put them in their mouths. Within a week, you will see a great reduction in roaches, and soon, it will be rare, if ever, that you see them at all!

For ants, mix a few drops of peppermint essential oil with in a spray bottle of water. Spray it where ever you see the ants.

Another remedy is vinegar along the ant trails. I have also sprinkled AJAX along the trails for a couple of days, and had good results with that.

Bay leaves in your flour, oatmeal and other grain type products will repel those little bugs that will sometimes get in them.

If you tend to have a lot of mosquitoes, you might consider growing some citronella geraniums in your flower beds. Pick the leaves and rub them on your skin when you are going to be outdoors. Another hint, taking good amounts of the B complex vitamins will help keep mosquitoes from biting you!

I hope these remedies will help you in your quest to rid your life of bugs, without making the cure worse than the disease, which is often what happens when you resort to poisons!!