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My tremendously supportive husband & I have 3 wonderful children, 1 dog, 12 laying hens, 2 dairy goats, 3 bee hives, and a 2000 sq foot vegetable garden on a small 1/4 acre lot in the city. In the center of it all is our small 1,000 sq foot house purchased in 2008 as a foreclosure that we fully renovated to host our growing family, home school adventures, and small home business (CozyLeaf.com). We have a desire to learn a path to self sufficiency finding ways to be good stewards of the resources God has given us. We want to learn to live with less as we laydown roots to our little homestead.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Natural PEST CONTROL ... ants deterant Cayenne Pepper and Garlic

Wow did we have an ant problem! SO I made a Garlic/Cayenne pepper spray to deter those nasty ants from wanting to be in my garden. (recipe from The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (10th Anniversary Edition) I HIGHLY recommend this book, LOVE IT!)
Ok so I made up several baggies of this "mixture" and put the other baggies in the freezer so I will have them ready and on hand when I need them! I got a 16 oz container of Cayenne Pepper at Sams for $4.46 and a 23 oz of Dried Minced Garlic for $4.66... so for under $10 you can have ALOT of this bug spray!!
Since I wanted a large application for the front and back garden I started with a large batch.

Garden Pest Control:
1/2 Cup Dried Minced Garlic
3/4 Cup Cayenne Pepper Powder
30 Cups of hot Water
2-3 days
(Use care when preparing and applying...the active ingredient is HOT PEPPER and can produce skin irritation!)

Combine the mixture in a Large container, give it a good stir and then let it set for 2-3 days...be sure to put the container somewhere where it wont be in the way or wont be tempting to the kids to want to play in!!
You can fill a sprayer with it and spray around your plant beds...OR just get a cup and pour it around your plant beds (this method is a lot faster!)
Ive only used half of my bucket and I havent seen an ant in days...it is quite potent!! My whole garden smells like garlic (oh I sure love it)! This is also a positive thing because we have a TON of squirrels in our neighborhood and I just read somewhere that squirrels HATE the smell of garlic and cayenne pepper. So although I thought I was doing this to deter just ants...I also have a simple squirrel repelent!

5 comments:

  1. Pest control services are services that you use in order to rid your property of a variety of different pests and infestations. This can include everything from creepy crawlies such as cockroaches or scorpions, to vermin such as rats, squirrels or even bats.

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  2. Nice blog and useful information about pest control services.
    Thank you.

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  4. It’s not all that often you see an army of ants marching across the kitchen counter in the dead of winter. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t nearby. Ants are very successful at overwintering in the great outdoors Snakes in Houston

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  5. Natural ways for controlling pests is really good option to treat pests. But if pest infested big area of your home then i think using pest control services would be good option. pest control san antonio

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