Getting rid of pests is an essential part of optimal garden maintenance. Chemical solutions can sure help in controlling pests but they can also hurt the natural eco-system. Therefore, it is a good idea to consider using natural repellants.
Here in this post, we will discuss five natural remedies to manage pest infestation as early as possible:
Garlic and Chili: Get Rid of Small Insects
Garlic and chili spray can help you get rid of small insects such as caterpillars and aphids. It works like a charm, every time. 
Mix crushed garlic and chili powder (or fresh chilies) with a proportional amount of vegetable oil. Add the mixture to an equal amount of dishwashing liquid. Leave the solution to soak for about 15 to 20 hours. Pour it inside a spray bottle and spray it on plants. Make sure you wear gloves. Keep the mixture away from the reach of children.
Use the solution for at least two weeks to see visible results.
Essential Oils: Get Rid of Rodent Pests
Rodents such as rats, mice, beavers, voles, etc. have a large pair of ever-growing frontal teeth.
Therefore, they need to continue chewing on something. While rodents may seem nice to some people, these nasty creatures actually have a voracious appetite for everything beautiful growing in your garden.
Rodents often gnaw through the outer bark layer of woody plants and eat the young wood during winters when they have difficulty accessing the ground. Rodents are also known to eat the plant roots.
Rats and mice hate the smell of peppermint oil, pepper, cloves, and cayenne pepper. Soak some cotton balls in oils from one or all of these foods and leave them at different locations in your garden where you think rodents may be hiding.
If rodent infestation in your garden is severe, natural remedies may not help much. On such occasions, it is a good idea to call in rodent control experts and let them handle the situation.
Espresso: Natural Slug-and-Snail Repellent
Slugs and snails can damage your plants and shrubbery if you don’t do anything to stop them from entering your garden. Espresso-coffee-based natural slug-and-snail repellent is a highly effective natural remedy.
Mix espresso coffee with water. Fill up a bottle with the solution and spray it in areas that have slugs and snails. The caffeine from the mixture will absorb into the skin of slugs or snails and kill them instantly.
If you are looking for a more humane way to get rid of the insects, place a copper barrier tape around the garden to repel them.
Camphor or Lapsang Souchong Tea: Get Rid of Possums
Possums are known to eat plants and flowers.
Brew up a pot of Lapsang Souchong tea (a Chinese herbal tea). Allow the brew to cool, pour it inside a spray bottle and spray on the common possum routes such as fences, pathways, and trunks.
Camphor is also a great possum-repellant; possums cannot stand the smell of camphor or Lapsang Souchong tea.
Place a few camphor blocks in your garden if Lapsang Souchong tea is not available.
Milk: Get Rid of Mildew
Powdery mildew appears as a white coating on tree leaves, stems, and flowers. A group of fungal diseases, powdery mildew does not kill trees and plants but can sure weaken them. Plants affected by powdery mildew may not last through the season.
When the weather conditions are favorable, powdery mildew can start growing at a rapid pace in your garden. You can minimize the damage by spacing out the plants evenly for maximum air circulation. However, you may still need the help of a fungicide. But you don’t have to use chemicals.
A pot of milk mixed with ten pots of water is a natural fungicide. Spray the diluted solution of milk on plants to get rid of powdery mildew. How exactly milk works so well in combating powdery mildew is yet to be known. However, many believe that some proteins found in the milk provide an anti-septic effect when they are exposed to sunlight.
David Dorfman
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- 5 Best Pest Control Natural Remedies to Save Your Garden from Pests - January 25, 2020
