Homemade Bug Spray for Plants (Simplest Garden Spray Recipe Ever!)
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You worked hard to grow that garden this year, make sure your plants are protected with this incredibly simple homemade bug spray for plants!
Homemade Bug Spray for Plants
Since Spring finally decided to stop being on vacation and show up this year many are finally being able to plant those beautiful and yummy gardens! The only problem is that with this beautiful weather also comes another visitor-little buggies. These, of course, can be the most annoying and destructive aspect of planting a garden. If you’re a first-time gardener-they may push you over the edge a bit!
Trying to figure out what to spray on your garden to get rid of these pests can also be such a pain. Many, if not most, pesticides on the market today are filled with such harmful chemicals-it would completely defeat the purpose of planting your own garden! If you want tons of nasties on your food, you can hike yourself to the nearest big box store to pick them up. It would save you a ton of time and energy that’s for sure!
I hope to have a bigger garden someday soon, but because of our HOA, we are not allowed to have very much. I’m starting out small with some herbs in my flower boxes outback. Oh, what my pregnant cravings would give to have an entire backyard filled with watermelons! But until then, I am doing what I can to really give some TLC to the plants I do have.
After doing a bit of research (well, quite a bit of research actually) I found what I think is the best all-natural bug spray for your garden. It only has three ingredients, yet it seems to get rid of a wide variety of bugs from aphids to cabbage moths!
—Need a bug spray for yourself? Try this Homemade Bug Spray
Homemade Bug Spray For Plants
What You Need:
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 cup of vegetable oil
- 3 drops of dishwashing soap
Directions for Homemade Garden Spray
- Put the garlic through a garlic press.
- Toss in container with oil.
- Place in fridge for two-three days until you get a strong garlic smell.
- Once you have the smell strain out the oil and mix with 3 cups of water and the dishwashing soap.
- Spray on the entire plant at the FIRST sign of buggies!
Sooner or later you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy the fruit of your labor-literally! This bug spray for your garden seems incredibly simple but it’s actually very effective! While it won’t work on squash bugs (sorry!) it will work on a variety of other garden pests.
Looking for more gardening tips and tricks? Check out these articles:
- Small Vegetable Garden Ideas ~ Gardening in Small Spaces
- Starting Garden Plants From Seed; Growing Your Own Plant Starts
- Growing an Herb Garden
- Homemade Hand Scrub for Gardeners
- 10 Practical Tips for First Time Gardeners That You Need to Know
- 14 Simple Gardening Tips
- 5 Ways to Save Money Gardening
The Gardening and Preserving Journal is here! If you are gardening or planning on doing any preserving this year, you NEED this wonderful sprial bound journal! Get your own copy here.
Do you have a favorite garden spray? Have you ever made a homemade bug spray for plants? What kind of plants do you use it on?
This post with the Homemade Bug Spray for Plants was originally posted on Little House Living in June 2013. It has been updated as of March 2020.
Do you know if it has to be vegetable oil? Will canola work?
I don’t see why it wouldn’t! The oil is just the “carrier” for the garlic. The type shouldn’t have too much of an effect!
I use mineral oil. I also only let it sit for 24 hours, on the countertop is fine. Then I can smell when its ready, (just walking by it lets me know). I also only mix it with 1 cup of water, rather than 3. I’m anxious to know from readers how well the 3 works.
aphids and cabbage moths are the least of our worries.
We battle grasshoppers EVERY.YEAR! it is awful they eat everything in their path. So far we’ve been able to hold them off some of the plants on the porch…but the garden…we’ll it was an all you can eat buffet.
We’ve used the Dawn soap in a sprayer attached to the end of a water hose to get them off lots of things.
This week…we’ve tried ivory bar soap and jalapenos.
I wonder if oil added to these recipes will help it adhere to the plant for longer lasting effect?
I’ll try this! thanks …Pat
Ooo! I remember visiting KY and they would have to battle tons of grasshoppers too! I hope that this works for you!
can you used bottled minced garlic for this?
Great recipe, thanks! I have used this kind of spray for years with great success but I add some chilli in mine, it adds a bit more umph to your mix and is super good at preventing things settling onto plants in the first place – just remember to wash it off before you eat your plants!!!
Hi! Can you tell me how you strain oil? I’ve never heard of it :-). I love your site!
I believe she just meant that you strain the pieces of the garlic out of the oil. 🙂
Gonna buy me some garlic so I can use this in my garden if need be 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
We get Scorpions, Black Widows, and HUGE Cockroaches here, in Southern Arizona. Will this work for them? They are starting to come out. They really come out after the farms have sprayed their pesticides.
This bug spray is mainly for garden pests such as aphids, squash bugs, ect.
I love this! I’ve tried using other ‘recipes’ and the sprayer always gets clogged with the pepper, or whatever is in the solution. I’m going to try this for sure on my vegetable garden!
This my first year with a garden so this is great! I need all of the help and information I can get. Hope to see you this Wednesday night at our Cook it! Craft it! Share it! Link Party. It starts at 8:30 PM EST. -Doree
This sounds great! We started gardening a few years ago and it’s nice to know of some safer alternatives to keeping the bugs away. Thanks for sharing; stopping by from the Pin It Monday hop!
I love that it is all natural. I have been letting the garden just be wild, no weed killer no bug killer, because I worry about the chemicals. I appreciate an all natural bug killer that is so simple even I can make it and use it! Thanks for linking it up to Snickerdoodle Sunday! – Kristina
Wow!! Really? This seems too easy (and inexpensive) I must try this. Last year, the bugs killed our squash and I am concerned this year they may try to do the same. Off to try. Thanks for the research and the post!
I totally needed this! My spaghetti squash are getting eaten alive. Thanks for sharing on Tips and Tricks. Pinned.
Wow….never heard of this before! Great idea & simple to make. My sister in law had also told me to use eggshells around the plants? I so don’t have a green thumb, so ignorance probably showing here 😉
Thanks for sharing on this week’s Share Your Stuff Tuesdays!!! We hope to have you join us again next week 🙂
(Rachael)
Eggshells do work for certain bugs too 🙂
This is so cool! I didn’t know it was that easy to make something like this! Thanks for sharing at The Wednesday Roundup and I’ve already pinned it!
Definitely going to try this!! We are battling flea beetles. They have destroyed my lettuce and now my radishes 🙁 thank you for this great idea!
Years ago my friend would simmer in a large pot of water, a mix of whole cayenne peppers, coursely chopped onion and slightly crushed garlic cloves in a mesh type bag. There’s no need to strain since it’s already contained. I’m not sure if she added any other ingredients once it was done. I like the idea of adding the oil and maybe dish soap to help it adhere to the plants and not just run off.
First time home grower thank for the information.i will be trying it. P.S
What type of soap would you recommend?
I use whatever dish soap I have on hand which is usually a natural soap like BioKleen or a castile based soap.
How often do you spray this on plants?
As often as needed.