Keeping your home free from pesky pets can be a challenge. Commercial and Industrial pesticides are harmful to our environment, toxic for ourselves and our families and they are often times very expensive. With that being said, there are a lot of remedies you can whip up safely in your own kitchen and use throughout your home and yard to keep pesky critters away. They are great for our environment, safe for humans and pets and cost only a few cents to make.

Here are a few of our favorite natural remedies.

For Ants: Ants absolutely hate cucumbers so peel some fresh cucumbers and place the peels outdoors around door and window openings. If you want to really stop ants from entering your home plant a few spearmint and peppermint plants near windows or along your sidewalk. These plants should deter ants from entering your home.

For House Flies, Fruit Flies and Gnats: (most variety of flies): Flies are not fond of basil, peppermint or spearmint….plant several of these plants around your front and back yards to keep flies at bay. Another natural remedy to try out is to get a container or bowl and mix together 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of white vinegar with 5 drops of Dawn liquid dish soap (for hand washing dishes). This attracts the critters to the bowl and they get trapped in the water and will die.

Mosquito’s: You never want to leave water lying around your yard in buckets, containers, baby pools, etc. as it attracts all of the mosquito’s to come to your house for dinner. Keep containers upside down and free of standing water. When outdoors you can try using bug zappers and citronella candles to keep them at bay.

Roaches: If you see a roach you need to immediately tackle this problem because roaches multiply quickly and one can become hundreds in no time at all. If you are looking for a natural way to kill roaches mix together 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar) with a 1/2 cup of baking soda, stir until dissolved and well mixed. Apply this mixture to any surface that you have seen roaches on. Reapply every 2-3 days to keep them from returning to that surface.

Not all home remedies will work for all pests so if one remedy doesn’t work, feel free to try another. When you have a pest problem it is important to tackle the problem as soon as possible before it gets out of hand. Read over all of the remedies above and keep the ingredients and supplies on hand so that you can quickly and effectively tackle the problem.

If your pest problem seems to be seasonal, buy your ingredients and supplies ahead of time so that you are ready to tackle the problem from day one.

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