Long before war profiteering corporations began flooding the civilian market with their chemical products, people had been killing insects without blanketing their homes and gardens with carcinogenic and costly poisons. You don’t have to be a chemist to prepare the age-old insecticide either, and you most likely already have what you need in
your home. It’s so simple that if you haven’t tried it already you probably won’t believe it until you do.
It’s soap and water.
That’s it, soap and water. It kills nearly every insect, and even spiders and centipedes. Some take a little more than others, but even some of the toughest, like the dreaded palmetto or the German cockroach will go down to this perfectly safe and cheap insecticide.
How does it work? Whether it’s Dawn dish-soap (still pretty toxic in its own right), organic dish soap, or agricultural insecticide soap, it all works by clogging the spiracles that bugs breath through.
To use this miracle pesticide, just fill a squirt bottle with water and add a few ounces of the soap of your choice, shake it up a little to mix it, and spray the filthy little critters. If you are using it in the garden you will probably want to use a mist in order to cover the leaf surface or the fruit that your pests are attacking. This will also work well for use inside the home for smaller pests like ants on the kitchen counter. But if you are trying to take down big game like Palmettos or German roaches, then you will want to hit them with a solid jet of soapy water. It will be most effective on large and fast-moving pests like roaches if it hits them in a way that makes it hard for them to run, if they run away and the soapy water dries before they choke to death, then it will not be effective. You might even want to have a paper towel ready to smash the really tough ones with after you hit them with the soapy water.
You don’t need to put your life or the life of your loved ones on the line in order to kill pests, it can be done with safe, clean, household items.
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7 thoughts on “The Simplest, Safest Pesticide On Earth”
Good post. Thank you.
Funny. When I was living in Florida, I used my spray bottle set on on “jet stream” to get those roaches.
It works.
Thats grate
, I’ll load up now and let U know in a WEEK…
You can also use a little laundry soap w/ water in squirt jar, store bought I’ve done- not sure about homemade (soap, washing soda, borax).
I make my own laundry soap and use it in my garden as well. It even works on the beetles that chew on tomatoes ! I spray my dogs regularly to keep fleas at bay, too!!
Excellent article on bug spray.
I’ve used this also and have always had good results, rubbing alcohol works too especially on those pesky fruit flies.