Starting with bugs and stuff all the way up to rodents like coons and rats. So I have used olive oil mixed with soap and it did nothing. So I found a site stating hot sauce mixed with cayenne pepper sprayed on plants will work. I am on my second spray bottle because they are getting cloged no matter how hard I shake. So I just went out and sprinkled about 1 OZ of cayenne pepper all over my plants. Was wandering if I am missing something or there is an other way. Thanks Ant help would be great! Thanks again
You can also use repellent based on garlic. Get half cup of cut cloves, 2 cups of mineral water. Steep together for a day and spray. It worked for me for aphids. It's a matter of luck, not every mixture will work on all bugs, just for some types. As for rodents, I would set some traps. I don't suppose they are sensitive enough to avoid some kind of smell.
If you have pets, please be careful using cayenne pepper, if it gets in their eyes, they will claw them out trying to relieve the pain.
Maybe these will help? ALL PURPOSE INSECTICIDE: Ingredients: 1 bulb of garlic; 1 small onion; 1 TBS. cayenne pepper; 2 TBS. liquid soap and 1 quart of water. Chop garlic and onion, mix with water, add cayenne and let sit one (1) hour. Add liquid soap and mix WELL. After foam subsides, STRAIN (like thru a coffee filter) into a spray bottle and use. Refirgerate any left over liquid; will keep 1-2 weeks. GARLIC SPRAY: REPELS aphids, cabbage loopers, earwigs, June bugs, leafhoppers, squash bugs and whiteflies. Soak 3 ounces of finely minced garlic cloves in 2 teaspoons of mineral oil at least 24 hours. Slowly add 1 pint of water that has 1/4 ounce of liquid soap blended in. Stir thoroughly, STRAIN into a glass jar for storage. Use 1-2 TBS. of mixture to a pint of water for spraying plants. PLEASE NOTE: TEST a plant first for sensitivity to oil and soap before spraying ALL AT ONCE. As for the critters, dried blood sprinkled around acts as a deterrant to many four-legged garden invaders.
OK, first of all, strain whatever sprays you mix yourself. Soap and water go through spray bottles okay but if you are using anything like blended garlic or chewing tobacco etc. then you've got to strain it. I grab something out of the rag bag and use that. T-shirt sleeves or old socks work great. I keep and extra spray bottle on hand for when one goes down--they only do this on Sunday when the store's closed. Don't store sprays in the spray bottle. Clean with hot water after each use. I too have serious ant problems here in the desert including harvester ants which are called harvester ants because they chew up your plant leaves and haul them away. Then of course there's fire ants. I have used boiling water down the mounds with good success. The water doesn't really have to be boiling but hot enough to kill the ants. I've found it takes about 4 pours of 1 quart of water to do in a fire ant hill. You pour slow. The point is to get the water deep into the tunnels. I set a small funnel into the mound and start pouring. Add a little dish soap to the water. You do this over 2 days. One hill took three days before I quit seeing any ants. Now I'm looking for some kind of syringe or squeeze bottle to force hot water down into small ant mounds. I've used blended and strained hot pepper in a sprayer but not sprinkled it. However, I'm growing hot peppers next year to dry and grind for insect repellent powder. We'll see. One thing I did was to web search things like: organic pest control and make your own bug spray--anything that would give me ideas for control and prevention. Do web search the particular critter you are going after. That seemed to work best for me. A lot of well meaning folks suggest all sorts of things they've heard about. Some ideas are good some don't work at all. So, you've got to try different things to see what works in your garden. Here's an example: For grasshoppers take a quart jar and set it into the ground. Put 1 part molasses and 3 parts water in it. The grasshoppers are supposed to be attracted to the sweet and fall in and drown. I got one grasshopper, a praying mantis,some stink bugs, a couple of wasps and a frog. So for me it did more harm than good. I won't use it again. What worked was to just wrap my big tomatoes in nylon netting and the hoppers couldn't reach them to chew holes. Fortunately, the grass hoppers came in after I'd frozen and canned all the tomato products I need. Next year, I'm planting at least two tomato plants in a net tent I built so the hoppers won't get the late tomatoes I want for slicing, salad, and fresh salsa.
I did see that sraining was the step I missed. But my only thing about the ants is I can't find A mound. They are just there running all over my plants, doesn't look like they are doing damage but when I go out there bare footed I sure feel all the bites. In fact looking in my whole yard even after I treated it,except the garden,with ant killer they are still there all over my yard and I have only found one little mound.
You have to be persistent and keep looking for holes or hills. If they are running all over your plants, take a look under the leaves to see if they are herding aphids. Kill the aphids. I'm also wondering if ant holes aren't easier to see here in the desert than they are in Florida. You have so much more greenery for them to hide under than I do. Nothing grows where I don't put water until it rains. You might try dropping a few cookie crumbs or something like that to see who takes it and where they go. I do mean a few, you don't want to attract more ants. I don't know if that would work but if you have as much trouble with ants as I do it might be worth a try. I thought of one other thing. Have you every tried that commercially available ant bait that is boric acid and a sweet syrup? That works pretty good. I'd forgot about it because I use it indoors not the garden but it would be safe to use there. You can make your own bait by getting some boric acid at the drugstore and mix it with some corn syrup or jelly. Use just a little of the boric acid. If you put to much the ants won't like it and won't take the bait. They'll take this back to their mound. You can cover this with a bowl or something to keep the kids and pets out of it. If you think about it, boric acid used to be used as a home remedy for pink eye. So, while I wouldn't drink the stuff, I feel pretty comfortable with it. I've heard of mixing boric acid with left over cooking grease for the ants that don't like sweet. But, I haven't tried this myself so I don't know how well it works. Edit: I've used that garlic and mineral oil spray that Weeds and Seeds recommends. It's good stuff. I use less soap--maybe 2 teaspoons in the concentrate. But, I had a zillion aphids and 100 degree heat on the same day. I just wasn't thinking and wetting my leaves when it was that hot out burned the heck out of two melon vines. It didn't do that when I'd used it in the Spring. Weeds and Seeds warns you to test the spray--Do it! And you can keep the concentrate it in a sealed jar in the fridge for weeks.
I just started to plant few tomato cherries. I noticed before that there were some ants around. I thought that it might be dead or may i used a different type of soil until I found a trick how to eliminate those pests. Now I am happy about my plants.
One surprising thing I found recently is that ants do not like rubbing alcohol. We had some ants coming into the bathroom through an exterior door, so I sprayed a little flea spray around the door entrance. It worked for less than a day, and the ants were back. My wife suggested spraying rubbing alcohol, which I did - and the ants didn't come back. I have also used rubbing alcohol in the past on houseplants to kill mealy bugs, and it works really well. I don't usually use the rubbing alcohol at full strength, generally at least half watered down.
To be honest I find that for most pests you can just use a high pressure spray to knock them off the plants. It works really well for any soft bodied insects like aohids and caterpillars. For ants the best method is to find the nest and soak it with boiling water a few times. You need to do it quite a bit before it takes effect though
Well I ran out of cayenne pepper and so I used chili powder instead. Well the results were horrible.. My veggies are all ate up now and caterpillars are to blame along will an enormous amount of apides.
Clearly they like it hot! I guess that all of us who are into natural pest control do have to live with a few ruined crops from time to time. I guess that the best thing to do is to burn all the infected plants and hope that you catch any overwintering eggs.
A few more remedies to try: Orange peel spray (an ant repellant): Pour 2 cups of boiling water over peelings of one (1) orange and let steep 24 hours. STRAIN into a glass jar. Use this liquid after mixing in a few drops of castile soap, spray on target insects and nests. Also good for soft-bodied pests like aphids, fungus gnats and mealy bugs. FIRE ANTS: Use any brand of LEMON DISH SOAP. In sprayer that fits the end of a hose, fill with 1/2 soap and 1/2 water, spray everything HEAVY! Repeat as wanted, or once every three months. The soap changes the PH of the soil and drives ants away. RED ANTS: Simple Green (which is biodegradable) should be mixed with water to make a nice soapy liquid, sprayed on ant nest locations. I have also used instant grits for ant control, and these worked quite well! Simply put a handful of grits on/around visable ant nests, let the pests do the rest. The grits were taken by the ants, ingested and swelled up internally to cause death. Within a week's time, ant problem was solved! In regards to FIRE ANT BITES: white vinegar applied to bite sites ASAP after they're recieved will help counteract the poison injected, alleviates a lot of the discomfort associated with them. If possible, make a "brew" consisting of several sprigs of citronella scented geraniums placed in a small bottle of cider vinegar, set this out in sun for a least a month to blend and cure. Use the mixture on exposed areas of feet and legs BEFORE going into fire ant territory: totally REPELS the critters, has a nice fruity aroma, not one like an Italian salad! Mixture needs no refrigeration, stays potent indefinately. Brew is something I conjured up to try in Puerto Rico several years ago, found it to be invaluable as a fire ant repellant. Also, the leaves of the TRUE CITRONELLA scented geranium (not the lemon!) are an excellant mosquito repellant! Macerate a few leaves and rub them on exposed areas (such as back of neck, arms, etc.) and the nasty flying/biting things will leave you alone. Leaves can also be placed on window sills to repel mosquitos, work even after they've dried out due to volatile oils in the plant. My "natural remedies' contribution for the day...
Well thank you very much! I have heard about the Grits trick and tried it yesterday...They ate all of it up! Now we wait. Your ant repellent is a thing I will try this week. I go out there and either pick or just maintain and I get bit up, so thanks for those :-D
