Posts Tagged ‘how to make natural bug repellent’

Natural Household Insect Repellent

Posted on June 27th, 2011 by Tonia 13 Comments

It’s that time of year when a seemingly innocent piece of fruit left uncovered on the kitchen counter can create a massive bug frenzy in the house. Fruit flies and ants galore. We’re fighting back in several ways:

1. The fruit bowl on the counter has been temporarily laid-off. All fruit is safely in the refrigerator, until colder weather permits their freedom again.

2. Spraying kitchen surfaces with white vinegar. Scout ants lead their colony to a food source through scented trails. Vinegar destroys that trail. This does not kill the ants, but diminishes their efforts. And it leaves the counters clean and disinfected.

3. Sprinkling cinnamon at bug-entry-points. The french doors that go from our living room out to the back yard let a lot of beautiful sunlight into the house. And ants. But ants can’t stand cinnamon- they do anything to avoid it. Ever since I put a dish of it by the doors, I haven’t seen any ants!

Left to right: borax and sugar, ground cinnamon


4. Baiting them with borax and sugar. The sugar will attract the bugs, and the borax will kill them via dehydration. Mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of borax; place in shallow dishes, and put them where the bugs are {but keep them out of reach of pets and children!}

There’s no need for pesticides and poisons- these methods are doing the trick for us. Although, I do miss my cheerful fruit bowl. Here’s another great household use for borax.

Completely unrelated to bugs: there has been a recent influx of new readers {some of you came over from Becoming Minimalist} and I want to say welcome! Thank you for leaving comments- it has been a lot of fun to click through and visit all of your blogs as well. My morning blog-reading routine is taking a little longer these days, but you all have such interesting things to say! Thank you and welcome.