Gardening is a wonderful activity, until you see something eating away at your hard work. Whether its worms on your tomatoes or slugs on your herbs, it can be devastating to see.
Using commercial bug killers may be the easiest option, but not the best option. The chemicals used to make store bought pest control sprays is not healthy for your garden – or your family. Even some of the so called “natural” options are still full of chemicals you do not want to ingest.
This is why I took it upon myself to find a truly natural and safe option for our vegetable garden.
After much research I found this Garlic Pepper Spray pest control option. I made some and tested it in my garden and found it to be effective. I have been using it ever since.
It is a little time consuming – and messy. But it does last for a while and if it is safe for my family – it is worth it to me.
Garlic Pepper spray is a systemic spray. This means you can spray it on any plant and the plant absorbs the spray. When a bug attempts to eat the plants, they will have a negative reaction.
Making Garlic Pepper bug spray
This solution makes approximately one gallon of bug spray.
Ingredients
- 6 bulbs of garlic
- 12 hot peppers – the hotter the better (habaneros, cayenne, jalapenos)
- 2 gallons distilled water
- An empty one gallon water container
Supplies
- 2 sets of nonporous gloves
- Eye protection
- 1 spray bottle
- 1 blender (this is the one we use)
- Strainer
- Funnel (I use this set)
Instructions
Peel the garlic bulb of its paper.
Put on gloves and pull the stems off the peppers. Our blender would probably make mince of these, but it’s super quick to do, so we just do it to save the effort later.
Add the following to your blender.
- Garlic cloves
- Peppers
- 2 pints distilled water
- 1/4 cup raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Run your blender on pulse. Repeat a few times then set blender on high and let it run until all ingredients are pulverized.
When well pulverized, pour your mixture through a strainer and let the drained liquid pour into your empty gallon container. Allow each small batch you pour to fully drain into the gallon container. You can also apply some pressure to the top of the mixture in the strainer to ensure all liquid is released.
Discard or compost the remaining pulp after you have drained the liquid. I compost mine in garden beds I do not dig in often due to the ingredients! I do not want to be digging in hot peppers.
Fill spray bottle with approximately 5-10 ounces of the strained liquid. Fill the remainder of the bottle with fresh distilled water. The distilled water is better then tap since tap typically uses chlorination.
Store filled bottles out of the reach of children and pets. Label the spray bottle clearly so the family knows what is inside. Remember, this is full of capsaicin. This is the oil that makes a pepper hot and if it gets on your skin, a cut, your mouth, ears, nose, etc. it will burn – badly.
Milk is a great relief agent if you happen to get anything in your eyes or nose. Washing your membranes just moves the oil around more because water and oil do not mix.
Clean all tools and utensils used to make the spray very well to remove all remnants of the pepper.
How to use Garlic Pepper Spray
Spray on leaves, plants, or vegetables where you see bugs. A light misting should do the trick – you should not need to saturate the plants. Start with a light spray, wait a bit, and if you feel you need more than do another light misting.
It is important to note that this spray repels good and bad bugs, so use with caution. We don’t want to kill the good bugs like bees and butterflies!
Don’t eat the fruit, herbs, or vegetables that you spray for about two hours after spraying.
YOUR THOUGHTS? What natural remedies do you use to repel bugs in the garden?