5 Natural & Safe Insect Repellents That You Can Make At Home (2024)

FAQs

What is the best homemade insect repellent? ›

1. Citronella Oil for Mosquitoes. In case you don't already know, citronella is a naturally occurring oil that comes from crushed citronella grass. It's the same thing that's in citronella candles - as if that wasn't obvious.

Garlic Brew

This brew works to repel many insects, including ants, aphids, and caterpillars, as well as nematodes. Recipe: Finely chop one-half cup of garlic and add to three-fourths liter of water. Soak for 24 hours, strain, and apply to plant and surrounding soil.

Bugs hate the smells associated with repellency, such as lavender, citronella, vinegar, peppermint, and geranium. These oils are considered a natural way of driving away bugs from your home without harming you, your family, and other animals.

For a bug repellent that's safe and effective—and that won't stink or leave a puddle of oil on your skin—skip the DEET and get a picaridin formula, like Sawyer Products 20% Picaridin Insect Repellent.

Clove, cinnamon, geranoil, and peppermint oil are the most effective. If you are planning to mix your own plant-based mosquito repellent this summer, remember that essential oils are complex mixtures of plant-made chemicals that can cause skin irritations at high concentrations.

Our experts highly recommend DEET, picaridin and IR3535 as the most effective active ingredients for repelling mosquitoes. Dermatologist Dr. Zeichner also notes that there is evidence some essential oils repel biting insects due to their scents.

Peppermint oil can repel and may also kill bed bugs if the oil is sprayed directly on the bugs.

Neem oil is a powerful natural insecticide used all over the world. It works by disrupting the lifecycle of pests and is an excellent resource for anyone looking to protect their plants.

Can you use vinegar and Dawn as insecticide? ›

In fact, several products that attract fruit flies employ a vinegar attractant and a trap to help capture and control fruit flies. A container containing vinegar and dish soap can function as a trap since the vinegar lures flies to enter the trap and the dish soap will cause the flies to sink inside the trap and die.

Vinegar is one of the best ingredients to make a pest control spray. Vinegar is one of the best ingredients to make a pest control spray. It is effective in repelling ants, mosquitoes, fruit flies, and many others. Creating a mix is quite simple and is considered safe for humans and pets.

Mint repels all kinds of critters, including ants, flies, mosquitoes and mice. Leave small sachets of crushed mint — or even mint teabags in a pinch — around the house.

Smells that can help keep water bugs away include peppermint, eucalyptus, or tea tree. You might also try bergamot, lavender and citrus oils. Note that this shouldn't be your only defence, but is best used as an additional measure.

The scent of vanilla extract can be used to ward off mosquitoes and quite a lot of other pests. Some people will use vanilla extract as something of a topical pest control repellent since it is possible to put vanilla extract safely on a person's skin without any issues.

You can deter bugs, especially spiders, from entering your home with white vinegar. You can also stop a trail of ants marching on your walls, tables, or floor by spraying them with distilled white vinegar.

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?

You're gonna need dawn dish soap, 10 ounces of cold water and distilled white vinegar. Add 1oz of Dawn dish soap to the water. Add 1oz of the vinegar to the spray bottle. Shake the water and Dawn dish soap together.

Further, citronella, lemon, and eucalyptus oils are common insect repellents and are registered by the EPA and have been approved for topical use in humans. PMD (p-menthane-3,8-diol), proven safe to human health, is the only plant-based repellent advocated by the CDC for public use.