Homemade Recipes to Eliminate Pests From Your Plants

Sadly, it’s common for our plants to suffer from different pests, but this doesn’t mean we should let them deteriorate and die. As such, we’ll share some homemade recipes to eliminate these nasty menaces in a simple and effective way.

Our recipes are remedies for mites, slugs, powdery mildew, or aphids. Moreover, they’re cheap and effective. After discovering the benefits, you’ll never go back to using store-bought chemical options again! Keep reading to identify the pest and apply the corresponding recipe.

Eliminate pests from your plants

Pests harm your plants because they find food or the right environment to develop in them. However, they also tend to spoil foliage and cause withering, making your plants look unhealthy and neglected.

Nowadays, there are countless chemical products designed to eradicate pests. But, they tend to be expensive and polluting, since they have a chemical origin. For this reason, we’ve compiled some homemade alternatives that are much cheaper and just as effective.

Homemade recipes to eliminate mite infestations

Among the pests that commonly affect plants, we have mites. It’s believed that the dryness of the earth and the excess nitrogen contained within it, are the determining factors for mite infestations.

Although the appearance of these microorganisms, (also known as spider mites), can be avoided by eliminating these conditions, there are some homemade recipes that also work well. These include:

• Dry steam: exposing the mites to a high temperature, such as dry steam, kills mites.
• Natural infusions: some preparations such as wormwood, mugwort, pyrethrum, and nettle help to repel mites, without affecting the plants. Put water to boil, when it reaches the boiling point add one of the above and let it cool, before spraying it on your plants.
• Potassium soap: one of the quintessential home remedies that act against mites and other pests such as cochineal and whitefly. Dilute ten grams of soap in one liter of water, then use the water to spray the affected plants in the morning or at night.

Eliminate pests: mealybugs

Mealybugs are another pest that you can eliminate from your plants with a homemade recipe. Although they are known as one of the most difficult to eradicate. These pests suck the sap from the plant, gradually killing it. Try the following recipe:

• Soap and alcohol: make a mixture using these two products and apply it to a cloth. Then, clean each leaf. Repeat this several times for the best results.
• Garlic or wormwood extracts: used to eliminate mealybugs and to prevent their appearance on your plants. Clean the leaves from time to time with these products. You can also use neem or pyrethrum extracts.

Home remedies for snails

Snails feed on plants and when they appear in your garden, they’ll destroy your plants if you leave them untreated. They usually appear in humid orchards and thrive on the remains of decomposing organic matter.

So, the first thing you should do to eliminate snails is to keep the substrate of your plants clean and avoid waterlogging. You can also use:

• Eggshells: build a boundary of eggshells around your plants. You’ll soon notice how snails avoid the sharp pieces of shell.
• Beer: pour this liquid into a deep container (better if it’s aluminum) and bury it in your garden. The snails will go toward the beer instead of your plants.

Get rid of whiteflies: eliminate pests

Whiteflies affect large gardens or orchards where there’s an excess of nitrogen and traces of chemical fertilizers. Therefore, one of the simplest and most effective things you can do is correct the conditions in your garden.

You can also implement some homemade recipes, such as the ones we mentioned in the section on mealybugs. Among them, you can try fumigation with potassium soap or infusions of garlic and wormwood.

Homemade recipes to eliminate pests: slugs

Slugs are another common and annoying pest. Fortunately, you can eliminate them with a homemade recipe. Do this, alongside implementing care such as irrigation control and using organic fertilizers. You can also try:

• Lactic Acid: also known as buttermilk, it drives slugs away from your plants.
• Horsetail infusion: apply to the plants and it’ll act as an insecticide against slugs. Add the plant to boiling water, leave it to cool, and spray it on the affected plants.
• Beer: create a beer trap in the ground to repel and capture slugs. Each time you do this, use different types of beer to attract more slugs.

Which homemade recipe to eliminate pests will you try?

As we mentioned before, these homemade recipes are useful to eliminate different pests from your garden. In addition to those mentioned, baking soda and horsetail are also useful for eradicating powdery mildew. For its part, garlic is excellent at eradicating worms and caterpillars.