Another quick and affordable hack is to use hydrogen peroxide as a bug repellent. Spraying your patio furniture and outdoor plants with hydrogen peroxide keeps adult bugs away and can also eliminate any insect eggs before they hatch.
Hydrogen peroxide works as an anti-fungal. It helps control aphids, mites, mealybugs, and fungus gnat larvae. Hydrogen peroxide attacks the black, sooty mold caused by aphids. It helps with healthy root formation.
Rosemary, thyme, basil, and mint have scents that bugs dislike. Mosquitoes, cockroaches, and stinging insects try to avoid these herbs.
Hydrogen peroxide mixed with water is a great mosquito deterrent that is effective for all seasons. By keeping a spray bottle of this solution on your patio, you can keep mosquitoes away without having to install any extra equipment.
Keep insects away with peppermint oil. Before you reach for the chemical-laden bug spray and store-bought insect repellents, there's a natural solution you can try—peppermint. Insects hate peppermint.
Peppermint. Peppermint essential oil might just be the holy grail of natural pest repellents to leave around your home's entry points, as it can help keep away ticks, spiders, roaches, moths, flies, fleas, beetles, and ants. Use sachets of this oil near your doors and windows or try making a diffuser or spray.
Torches, in combination with citronella candles near your seating area, are a great way to keep bugs at bay while providing just the right ambiance for nights outdoors. If you do install torches, be sure to follow these guidelines for safe use: Position torches at least six feet away from the house.
Hydrogen Peroxide
It's useful as a disinfectant and may help prevent infections from mosquito bites if applied right away. Some people swear it helps relieve itching, swelling, and redness.
Mosquitoes hate the smell of lavender, citronella, clove, peppermint, basil, cedarwood, eucalyptus, peppermint, lemongrass and rosemary. They also hate smells such as smoke, for further insight, see our exploration on, does smoke keep mosquitoes away?
White vinegar can be used as a general purpose bug spray. Simply put some in a spray bottle (add some water if the smell is a little too pungent) and spritz around your home, especially the kitchen, to keep small insects out.
Spray pyrethrin on mosquitoes, moths, flies, fleas or any hard bodies insect to kill them quickly. Make sure to check out our solutions that inclue pyrethrin below. Safer® Brand End ALL® Insect Killer - Available in a 32 oz ready to use spray bottle.
The fizzing you see in the form of bubbles is the oxygen gas escaping. Catalase can cause up to 200,000 reactions per second. This powerful foaming action can help clean dirt, dried blood, and damaged cells out of a wound. Hydrogen peroxide also kills certain types of bacteria.
As an added bonus, hydrogen peroxide can help discourage unwanted bacteria/fungi that may be lurking in the garden. To give plants an added boost of oxygen or for pest control using the 3% solution, add 1 teaspoon (5 ml.) per cup (240 ml.) of water in a spray bottle and mist the plant.
He explains that rubbing alcohol “denatures” the proteins in the mosquito's saliva, meaning it clears away the thing that your immune system would normally react to with itching or swelling. “Rubbing alcohol also has a soothing and cooling effect,” he adds.
Baking Soda Why it Works: When mixed with a little water and applied as a paste, this household alkaline can help neutralize the pH balance in the bite, providing itch relief. Toothpaste Why it Works: A dab of toothpaste on the bite will act as an astringent, drawing itchy venom from the wound as it dries.
Vapour rub is fantastic for mosquito bites. it not only cools the skin (since menthol is a top active ingredient), but it also alleviates the itching immensely. How to do this: Simply dab some vapour rub on the mosquito bite.
If you want to manage a pest infestation, you will want to use the household products that kill pests. Cornmeal or borax baits for ants, diatomaceous earth dusting for crawling pests, vinegar traps for flies, Windex for spiders, and other lethal solutions will give you the chance for getting rid of pests.
Create a fly and wasp repellent.
Upstairs Downstairs Cleaning says that you can use full-strength Pine-Sol as an insecticide or a 4:1 Pine-Sol to water solution spray for staving off wasps and other stinging insects—just steer clear of honeybees!
Can Listerine mouthwash be used in place of bug spray to repel mosquitoes? No, you cannot use Listerine in the place of a bug spray. According to Dr. Karlan Robinson, it does repel mosquitoes, but those effects don't last very long.
Deter Insects
We may be fans of Vicks, but insects decidedly are not. Dab a bit on your arms, legs, neck, or other areas of exposed skin to keep bugs (including mosquitoes) at bay, however, it is not as effective at preventing bites as a commercial insect repellant.
Which Paint Colors Repel Insects? Because bugs see colors on the UV spectrum, they cannot register hues of green or blue. Painters even use blue paint to repel bees and wasps. Painting your porch ceiling in a blue tone could repel wasps, leading to fewer wasp-eating spiders around your home!