Homemade Pest Control

One morning you stumble into your kitchen, flip on the light and out of the corners of your eyes, you see roaches scurrying off into your cabinets. On top of that, there is a line of tiny sugar ants threading their way across the counter gathered on the crumbs you forgot to clean up from the night before.

When you have a pest problem in your home, the first thing you will probably think of doing is contacting a pest control company to come and take care of the problem for you. However, if you are interested in saving money and are willing to tackle the job yourself, then you are going to have to come up with some homemade pest control remedies.

Sure you can go out and just buy regular chemicals and insecticides, but these can be very dangerous to use, particularly if you are a novice and especially if you have young children or pets in your home. Homemade pest control products, on the other hand, are much safer to use, not to mention less expensive.

The Best Homemade Pest Control Remedies

When it comes to homemade pest control remedies, there are some really great ones out there to choose from.

Alcohol spray is usually effective in killing all types of pests in the home. To make this yourself, you'll need to mix one to two cups of alcohol per quart of water. The amount to make will depend on how serious your pest problem is. Remember that using undiluted alcohol as a spray is very risky for your plants. You can mix up an insecticidal soap/alcohol spray according to the directions on the label. Be sure that you substitute alcohol for half the water.

Another great homemade pest control product that you can make yourself is a tomato leaf spray. You make this by soaking one to two cups of chopped or mashed tomato leaves in about two cups of water, leaving it to soak overnight. Then strain through cheesecloth or fine mesh, adding about two more cups of water to the strained liquid, and then it is ready to go.

Herbal sprays are also very effective forms of homemade pest control, and generally are made by mashing or blending about one to two cups of fresh herb leaves with approximately two to four cups of water and leaving this to soak over night.

When You Need Professional Help

These types of remedies work incredibly well for taking care of pest problems in the home, but if your pest problem is especially serious and you can't seem to get the job done yourself, then you are going to want to call in professional help to take care of the problem for you.

Especially if termites are the source of your problem. Termites can do serious structural damage to your home. Although calling in professionals is going to be cost more, at least you will have peace of mind knowing that you, your family and your home are safe.

Many types of insects can be treated with homemade products. Sometimes they work extremely well and sometimes you'll get only a moderate amount of success. If you're the adventurous type, give them a try - they're easy and inexpensive.