Inside: These natural pest control tips will keep bugs away from entering your home. These DIY natural pest control tips save you money by using items in your pantry.

Besides ladybugs, insects are just gross. Seriously, aside from food for spiders, reptiles, and honey badgers, exactly what is their purpose in life? I suppose you can say a wasp’s main goal is to hunt me down, sting me and make me go into anaphylactic shock.  

I’m not sure if an advertisement was placed in the “Better Bugs & Garden Journal”, but my front porch became a hang-out for some funky black flying beetles. I guess they heard the food was so good, that they decided to fly into my front door, hoping if they fly hard enough, they’d break the door down.  

Too bad for them, it didn’t work out that way.  

Typically, I’d douse them with some bug spray, but I wasn’t able to find it in the garage. Seriously though, all that stuff seems to do is just make everything smelly and breathing in that stuff is awful.   

So, what did I do? I squished them, then went to my friend Google (they’re not really my friend – we have a love/hate relationship) and looked to see if there were natural ways to kill unwanted bugs (not counting squishing them). I found a few, but they didn’t work, so being the master scientist I am, I conducted my own, which worked remarkably well.

Stopping bugs in their tracks

Wouldn’t it be great if you could stop bugs from making their way into your home? Aside from a nosey neighbor, one of the most annoying things we have to deal with are pesky bugs. Having to deal with bugs is just another unexpected task we need to take care of during the day. Like we don’t have enough stuff to do already. To extinguish the feeling of being an exterminator along with your other duties, these 12 natural pest control tips will prevent nasty bugs from ever entering your home.

I don’t know about you, but although I know bugs do find a way into the house, it always makes me feel like I’m dirty and I don’t know how to take care of my home.

The truth of the matter is, that bugs will always find a way into your home. Since they’re so small, we either carry them in, they hitch a ride on the family dog, they crawl through small spots that aren’t sealed properly, or they just fly in when we open the door.

12 Natural pest control tips to use inside your home

These natural pest control tips will keep bugs away from entering your home. These DIY natural pest control tips save you money by using items you probably already have in your pantry.

Peachy bonus tip: If you don’t own a cat and you like cats, you may want to get one. Cats love to play with anything moving and just in case a bug, mouse, or any uninvited pest enters your home, your cat will catch it, and play with it until it’s no longer moving.

Crushed red pepper flakes aren’t only good on pizza

Mix up a small batch of sage and red pepper flakes. Place the mixture in a small plastic container, jar, aluminum foil, or wax paper and place it on your windowsill or pantry.  This mixture will keep ants at bay.

Fabric Softener Sheets aren’t just for the laundry

If you have screened windows and love to keep your windows open a great trick for stopping bugs from entering your home is to wipe down the front and back of the screen with your favorite fabric softener sheet. The fabric softener sticks to the screen and bugs – especially stink bugs – hate the feel and smell of the fabric softener.

Here’s a great use for your peppermint essential oil

Most everyone loves the smell of peppermint; however, mice, ants, and silverfish it. The best way to prevent and/or make them leave your house faster than an ostrich on speed is to add a few drops of peppermint essential oil to a cotton ball and place it wherever you’ve either noticed droppings or the pests.

Cucumbers aren’t only for reducing puffy eyes

Ants hate either the smell or the taste of a cucumber. Instead of throwing out your cucumber peels, put some either on wax paper or aluminum foil and place them in the spots you typically find ants loitering about.

Tar and feather them (kinda – sorta)

If you live in the Southeast or the Gulf Coast states in the US, you’re very familiar with crazy ants. Instead of buying Terro liquid ant baits (which works pretty well), this solution will have them dining on their final meal instead of your new bar of bathroom soap.

Mix 1 packet of dry yeast with ½ cup sugar and ½ cup molasses. Place some on a piece of cardboard or paper plate and leave it in an area where the infestation is the highest. If you’re not sure where to place it, just put it close to where you see them climbing the wall.

This mixture won’t necessarily kill them, but they’ll get stuck in the sugary goodness and won’t be able to move. Once a day, pick up the cardboard, drop it in a zipper bag, and throw those crazy little suckers away in the trash.

Bye-bye bees and wasps

Having a bee or wasp follow you into the house is enough to send you into panic mode. If this happens, all you need to do is to fill a wide-mouth jar, cup, or bowl with 1 cup of sugar and 1 – ½ cups of water. The sugar will attract the bees and wasps, but guess what? They can’t swim and they’ll drown.

A sprinkle a day keeps the ants away

A quick and easy way to get rid of ants that made their way into your house is to sprinkle talcum powder along the baseboards and doorways. When the ants march through the powder it will absorb into their bodies, leaving them to dehydrate and die.

Pull out the cheap wine

Roaches have got to be the grossest of all bugs. Just the thought of them makes you cringe. If you’ve seen one in the house, odds are there are more lurking about.

The best way to get rid of roaches without bombing them with pesticides is to fill a bowl with some cheap sweet wine. You’ll want to place it where ever you see them. Once the roaches drink the wine, they’ll get plastered and drowned in the bowl.

Shoofly don’t bother me

Flies are one of those bugs that are harmless in theory but are the most annoying bugs out there. They’re always whizzing around your face and landing on your food dropping whatever virus they’re carrying.

Sure, you can swat them with a fly swatter, rolled-up towel, zapping tennis racket, or hang those horrible fly traps on the ceiling, but when one is gone it seems as though another one is ready to attack you for killing its friend.

A simple solution to keep flies away from you is to save the peels from your oranges. Place them in a bowl where the flies are buzzing around and they’ll vanish as quickly as they’ve arrived. I’m guessing they don’t like the scent of citrus.

This works with all types of oranges; navels, tangerines, tangelos, and blood. If it’s an orange, it will work.

Say NO to mothballs

Mothballs work, but man, they smell like death on a warm summer’s day in Arizona. The best way to get rid of moths is to place some fresh sweet basil in the areas you find moths. Not only will it keep the moths away, but it’ll add a nice fragrance thorough the house.

If you keep the sweet basil in your closet, there’s a chance you smell like you just came back from dinner a an Italian restaurant, but doesn’t that beat having a moth munch on your favorite shirt?

The itsy bitsy spider…

How many times have you seen a spider and smashed that sucker so hard, that spider guts are now affixed to your wall permanently? (I’m here raising my hand).

Here is a much easier way to rid your home of spiders. All you need to do is to put some cedar chips into some old knee-highs and either place or hang them around your house in the areas that are prone to spiders.

Peachy Scientific Tip: According to the Smithsonian Institution, spiders taste their food through sensors on the tips of their legs.

If you can’t handle the smell of cedar, I have another suggestion for you.

Just mix together in a spray bottle 2 cups of water with 1-1/2 teaspoons citrus essential oil. It could be either orange, lemon, lime, or grapefruit. Whenever you see a spider or a web, just spray this repellent and the spiders will find a new home, far, far, away from your home.

The slumber party crasher

If you find bedbugs in your home, you should immediately call an exterminator. Unfortunately for us, some exterminators don’t find our infestations to be a top priority.

In the interim, you want to vacuum all the carpet, baseboards, switch plates, appliances, basically anywhere in the house where there’s a crack. After you vacuum thoroughly, you’ll want to throw out the contents of the canister, then immediately wash it out with hot water and bleach to kill any eggs which may be stuck to the canister.

You will then want to go to the store to pick up some diatomaceous earth and sprinkle that wherever you vacuumed. I know it may seem to be counterproductive, but the diatomaceous earth will draw the water out of the bedbugs, causing them to dehydrate and die.

Disclaimer: The links listed below are affiliate links, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. You can read the full disclosure here.

As far as I know, talcum powder does not work on bedbugs. Diatomaceous earth is available on Amazon and in the garden centers at most big box stores as well as pet stores.

Do you have any natural pest control solutions that weren’t mentioned above?

I’d love to hear your recipes for natural pest control. Share with a comment below.

Stay Peachy!