Make an all purpose organic pesticide from vegetables

This instructable will show how I made a cheap, all-purpose organic pesticide for my herb & vegetable garden. It can be used on a variety of insects that live in the dirt or on the plants including worms, mites and other parasites.

This entire pesticide will eventually break down and be reduced to nothing, so it is OK to eat any herbs or vegetables that are growing. This is mainly intended for indoor use, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work outdoors as well.

Step 1 Materials

The materials used to make the pesticide should be easy to obtain.

You will need:

• an empty & clean gallon jug (such as a milk jug)
• a spray bottle with spray nozzle
• a funnel
• a piece of cloth such as a shirt or bandanna
• a pot that can hold 1 gallon
• 2 small onions
• a jalapeño pepper
• a clove of garlic
• some dish soap

Take 1 gallon of warm water, dump it in a pot and you're ready to begin making the pesticide.

Comments

[Ijsbeer]

Does it smell particularly strongly? My bedroom is full of plants, and I've just found aphids on one (quite surprising how long it took, this is the first time I've found them in here after years of having the room full of plants), and obviously I want to prevent a mass aphid takeover - though for obvious reasons, I don't want my bedroom smelling like any of the ingredients.

And how is there all this mention of replacing the original soap, but no-one's suggested making it themselves? ;) I'm pretty sure there are multiple instructables on the subject.

Anyway, thanks for posting this.

[losregni]

I believe the soap may be used as a "sticker" which helps the mix stick to the leaves longer. We use sticker on the farm when we are spraying pastures.

[cjb84]

im not sure you should be calling this "organic". Last i checked there are some pretty nasty chemicals in dish soap that arent organic. Otherwise it sounds like a great idea. i will try it without the soap.

[becca_katisonly1]

same here --w/o soap first

[winterwindarts]

Try castile soap such as Dr Bronner's. It's pure vegetable oil and sodium hydroxide (plus water for the liquid version). True soap is some sort of oil/fat mixed with sodium hydroxide/lye and allowed to react. I love using it and the lavender version with the essential oil works as a mild natural antibiotic that should be safe even for gray water systems. It's highly concentrated and a small bottle lasted me more than a year even with my husband doing dishes.

[jtalbot522]

There are organic dish soaps like the brand Method. It's honestly better than other soaps

[aaronscottaugustinhotmail.com]

actually seventh generation is dish soap made with all organic ingredients. Its supposed to be eco friendly. we use it our house hold because of the septic tank

[alee52]

The dill in my garden went wild, grew about two foot tall. I let it go to seed so it would re- seed the herb patch and notice it is covered in lady beetles, yellow ones! Hope they gobble the aphids big time. Will let u know if the organic spray saves my cauliflowers which are being decimated by cabbage moths.

[becca_katisonly1]

actually they say having lady bugs in your garden -- food or flower -- is actually good for them like having earth worms in your soil is good for your plants growing in said soil

[jjone538]

Garden Moths Are Pretty Annoying

[becca_katisonly1]

very cool we will have to try it. do you think it would work on regular flowers and 'green' plants?

[jwitkowski1]

I would like to suggest an alternative to dish soap. The Shaklee Corporation makes a product called basic H. Farmers have been using it for decades in their soil. It makes the soil more absorbent. As a pesticide it actually kills them by penetrating their bodies and drowning them. I use it to clean my vegetables. It is an awesome product. You can order it from Shaklee at http://naturewise1.myshaklee.com/us/en/

[jakoby]

I'd be careful when spraying something containing dish soap on your plants. Dish soap can remove the waxy plant cuticle that covers leaves and the like, making plants more vulnerable to viruses, fungi, and other nasties that you don't want. In fact, that's the main idea behind the organic herbicides that use vinegar; the soap removes the cuticle allowing for better absorption of the vinegar, which kills the plant.

[TimmyMiller]

is it safe to use on grapes?

[iPodGuy]

Should be ok

[winterwindarts]

You might want to rinse the grapes before eating, especially if you spray them shortly before harvest....I learned the hard way that the tiniest residue of hot pepper can be painful....but I'm also very sensitive to capcasin (spelling?) and can't even allow hot peppers in the house, sweet peppers are hot enough for me to deal with.

[videoman22]

Will this work to kill beetles? I grow pumpkins and tomatoes along with variouse other veggies,herbs,vining plants, tropical plants, succulents and cacti. Just curiouse if i could use it on everything.

[winterwindarts]

Technically, this counts as a repellent rather than a pesticide-alluims (garlic/onions) and peppers won't actually kill much of anything but will certainly chase them away and not come back (the soap can kill some types of tiny insects but not very effectively). You might want to look into using pyretheum (my spelling might be off) aka "painted daisy" flowers in the mix which will kill insects yet break down within hours but you have to make sure to use it only in the evening when the good bugs such as bees are asleep or you'll kill them too. The amounts to be used vary and I don't remember them off the top of my head...my plants haven't blossomed this year for some reason and it's my first year trying to grow them myself so I haven't made any from scratch yet. It's an insect neurotoxin and can be poisonous to humans when fresh or in solution but once sprayed on plants in the evening it breaks down so fast that by morning the veggies/fruit are usually considered safe to eat.

[solive]

Besides as a pest repellent, essential oils play important role as a attractant for several pests. You can find the complete article here at Indonesia Essential Oils:
http://indonesia-essential-oils.blogspot.com/

[smileygirl12]

I can't wait to use this!Because of were I live bugs just love to eat up my plants and i am about to plant some tomatoes so I needed something that would keep the bugs away thanks iPodGuy!

[moxiepurple]

Thanks! I just saw some ants manking their way into my pantry today, and needed a way to kill them and not ruin the food. I am also going to try this out on our garden, luckily we don't have many pests eating things up out there. (I like your silverware too, I got a set from Ebay, we had them when I was a kid too.)

[judema]

tobacco can give tomatoes tobacco mosaic disease, if you smoke you should wash your hands before handling tomatoes. try adding black pepper to your mix.

[metta77]

I've been experimenting in my garden with a similar "soup" for the past 3 months.I used fresh garlic cloves insted of onions and added canola cooking oil,which also acts as a fungicide.Insted of using a detergent,I used a pure,fragrance free glycerine soap( just a few shavings).Keep up the good work saving the enviroment.

[jtalbot522]

Very intuitive! I think I'll do this instead

[MTummino]

Once this is strained to a pure liquid form it can be applied by a garden sprayer such as those found at www.sprayerusa.com
just make sure that it it strained really well so there are no chunks to clog the sprayer.

[de Oliveira]

Hi iPodGuy! You may use milk too! Ratio 10:1 - water:milk.
Or you may use strong tobacco on alcool 70%.
Mix with water to do not kill the plants and spray over.
Using tobacco, wash what you'll eat.

[burnergirl]

I've been looking for a way to banish all the wee mite-like flying pests that have managed to set up house in just about every plant I have inside (which is approaching a small greenhouse, now - a mix of succulents, cactus and tropical). This seems a lot more effective than just using the soapy water my mother used to use. I'm hoping this will do the trick!

[Dr. dB]

Plus, your entire place will smell either offensive or delicious!

[ventifact]

You should label the containers.

[Browncoat]

I wonder how long you could freeze this for longer storage & still have it be effective...

[iPodGuy]

I bet quite a while. It's basically salsa, you know?

[kathrynbax]

Actually, you can also use the little bird's eye chilies instead of the jalapenos as they work in the same way.

ORGANIC PESTICIDES & NATURAL INSECTICIDES: HOMEMADE ONION & CHILI SPRAY

This homemade insecticide and pesticide is very effective against any leaf-eating insects and has a limited effect against most scale and hard-surfaced pests such as shield bugs.

4 bird's eye chilies, chopped (or as hot as you can find) 4 large onions, chopped 2 bulbs garlic, chopped 2 L soapy water

Combine all the ingredients, including the seeds from the chilies. Cover with the soapy water and allow to steep for 24 hours. Strain. Add water to dilute if required and spray.

Can be stored in a sealed container in a dark place for up to 2 weeks.

This recipe came from the website Countryfarm Lifestyles. There are other recipes for other bugs too, which can be found here: http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/natural-pesticides.html

[dadakj]

Any idea if this would work for larger, say vertebrate pests like rabbits, woodchucks, etc?

[Full Frontal Graphic]

The main thing about the soap is that insects are very similar to water droplets in one way: surface tension keeps their moisture inside -- the soap lowers the surface tension, which makes the irritating mixture affect them more, plus it tends to dry them out. So it's more of a pest deterrent than a poison, it doesn't exactly poison the insects, it dries them to death and leaves a residue that prevents re-infestation. Planting garlic randomly throughout the garden helps as well. Some rodents LOVE garlic, but they have a good sense of smell and the strong jalapeno aroma really annoys them. So if you have mammal pests, it's the hot pepper portion that will be most helpful. Woodchucks' and gophers' blood tends to not clot too well. A very effective way to drive them away is to put rose canes (the thorny stalks of rosebushes) into their burrows -- once they get pricked a couple times they will find someplace less prickly. So if you don't mind driving them into your next-door neighbor's yard...

[abettini]

grazie, proverò immediatamente....vado a potare le rose!!

[dadakj]

Trimming the rosebush and putting them into the burrow.. thank you for your help!

[Enricommuter]

Thanks, iPodGuy.

I'll give it a try. 

[Swishercutter]

Cheesecloth would work good for this step and its cheap. I end up finding uses for it often so I keep some around almost all the time.

[DIY-Guy]

Nice instructable, I like it a lot.

My recipe which does kill bugs is- 1/3 water, 1/3 liquid dish soap (pick a cheap brand), 1/3 vegetable oil.

Shoot wasps with this and they will die in about 30 seconds. (This mix temporarily stained my painted siding with the oil, but the vegetable oil evaporated after a few weeks. the concrete does still show an oil stain though.)

One resource of books on the subject of gardening that I like to use is PaperBackSwap. http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php?n=2&r_by=DIY-Guy
This resource is nice because the books cost you only for postage (assuming you are in the united states of America.)

[ETXHippie]

Wasps will kill plant eating catepillers so don't kill them in the garden.