Easy to make and use, homemade garlic-mint garden insect spray was tested on badly attacked basil plants & a flowering vine and worked with only 2 applications! This bug spray has continued to work in my garden as well as many reader’s gardens, too.
Welcome to one of AOC’s popular gardening DIYs: how to make a natural garlic-mint insect spray easily from pantry ingredients- that actually works! Be sure to check out these other resources for more information on this spray:
- a follow-up video showing how to make it, apply it, and how it worked on green beans, too.
- a Frequently Asked Questions page with answers to most questions I’ve gotten, plus reader testimonials about how this has worked in their gardens – both good and bad.
Okay guys, I’m excited to finally share with you the results of the get-rid-of-nasty-garden-bug experiment I’ve been conducting on my poor, bug-eaten basil plants and trumpet vine that I’ve shared a bit about before. I know I’ve teased you with my testing for long enough – we all deal with bugs, so I know you’ll be as happy to see the results as I was!
The background to this experiment is a tale known to many organic gardeners (and maybe even would-be gardeners who gave up when faced with seemingly destroyed plants?): years of either ignoring it (and losing plants or living with damaged plants) or trying many different remedies from diatomaceous earth (works on many things though tedious to apply, sometimes hard to find, needs a lot of reapplication, may kill good bugs) to soap and water (this never really did much in my garden).
And for some reason, while I don’t have much of a problem beyond cucumber beetles in our large, main garden (and most years I don’t lose plants to them), our herb garden hosts something(s) that have eaten the basil every year since we added it to our backyard. I created this spray last year (adapted from a Keeper of the Home article) to use on them, but didn’t really keep track of it, although I do remember that it worked.
So this year when our basil was hit particularly hard as well as some marigolds I planted among the herbs and the trumpet vine growing up the gazebo across the path, I mixed up a new batch, wrote it down and documented in pictures so if it really did work, I could share it with you.
And you’re not going to believe how well it worked – in fact, as I was putting this together I was thinking I was going to have to add disclaimers on the photos like “I promise these really are the same plants” or something, so you’ll believe me!
The Natural DIY Garden Insect Spray Experiment
So I’m pinky-swearing or whatever you need from me: the three photos in the collage above really, honestly are the same plant from beginning to four weeks later. I know, can you believe it?
And also honestly: even after 20 years of growing things, seeing stunted, bug-eaten plants like my poor basil makes me want to throw in the towel sometimes. It’s just…ugh. These were three basil plants that I grew from seed, nurturing them along and to see them look like this in just a few weeks after planting out? It’s hard.
And so I sprayed my homemade garlic-mint spray all over that poor plant, but I didn’t really think it was much for this world. It had only one growing tip left, but seriously, look at it (above left) – who would give that guy a chance?
Well, I started seeing results within days – new growth! After a week I still was a bit skeptical – was that old bug-bitten leaves or new? But by week 2, I knew we had a winner and I snapped a picture before applying one more light spraying and then waiting another 2 weeks.
Look at this beautiful, healthy basil plant! There’s a bug-bite here and there, but I can live with that (and we organic gardeners do, often, a-hem), but most of the new growth is blemish-free and I’ve started harvesting and making our not-so-secret-ingredient frugal pesto to freeze.
Now, I had to share this with you as well, even though the photos were not taken in great light. This plant on the left was the worst of the three basils – stunted beyond anything I had seen with every growing tip eaten off and the remaining leaves were hard and leathery.
It was so bad I did dig it up and was just about to drop it in the compost (which I probably would’ve done if I hadn’t been planning on sharing this with you all), but at the last minute I planted it in an empty spot out in the main garden, spraying it with the garlic-mint spray. And while it took longer to rebound (duh, I would, too!), I took the photo on the right just a few days ago, hardly believing what I was seeing.
Is this stuff a miracle worker, or what? I should probably mention, too, that when I applied it the first time, we got a ton of rain the following week and I was sure it wasn’t going to work. Garden M-I-R-A-C-L-E.
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And, you can probably see where this is going (should I have saved all the afters for the end? I was just too excited to share with you!) but here we have a reminder of the trumpet vine damage. This insect (I still don’t know what – I’ve never seen anything so it must be nocturnal) ate leaves like other bugs, but seemed to zero in on the new growing tips, which is a sure way to kill a plant.
And now the vine is growing like trumpet vines are supposed to (that would be out-of-control, for those not familiar with trumpet vines, ha!), full of lovely leaves and new growing tips. I think this thing has grown 3 feet in just a couple weeks, that’s how much the insects had stunted it.
Homemade Garlic-Mint Garden Insect Spray
So, are you dying to know what is in the spray and how to make it? It’s super easy and uses easy-to-find (or grow) ingredients – I created it up by combining a couple of sources, none of which had a clear ‘recipe’ (I credited one source above) so I’m writing it out for you so you can make it whenever you need it.
I’m so happy to gift this to your garden, because I think you’re going to love it as much as I do. Oh, and the mint? It makes this smell good – no yucky concoction here for you to suffer through.
Don’t forget to read the Testimonials & FAQ where you’ll find answers to the most common asked questions as well as results from those who’ve used it!
DIY Natural Garden Insect Spray
Ingredients
- 2 whole HEADS garlic, cloves separated and peeled
- 3 cups mint leaves and stems, too – I just throw it all in now
- 2 teaspoons dry cayenne pepper
- 12 cups water
- 2 small squirts of biodegradable dishwashing liquid
Instructions
- Add the garlic and mint to a food processor and pulse for a few seconds.
- Transfer mixture to a large pot and add the cayenne and 12c. water.
- Bring to a boil; remove from heat and let sit overnight.
- Strain into a couple spray bottles (or gallon garden sprayer) and add the two small squirts of dish soap.
- To Use:
- Shake well before each use.
- Spray all the leaves on affected plants, including the undersides – preferably on a cloudy day so as not to burn the plants.
- Wait a few days to see the affect and then apply more if needed (many times I’ve only needed to do one application)
Terry says
October 31 at 6:03 amHi Jami, I’m having horrible time trying to keep tiny little green worms off of my roses! I just started my first Rose garden!
I get a few other bugs but mostly those tiny little worms, I’m not familiar with them and I have been picking them off by hand, but that is hard on my bad back and they are really hard to see sometimes. I needed to know if this spray is safe and how to use it on roses! Thank you
Jami says
October 31 at 7:03 pmHi, Terry! That sounds like rose sawfly larvae and this spray doesn’t work on worms or slug-like insects, since it repels by scent and they don’t respond to strong smells. You’re stuck with picking them off, dusting with diatomaceous earth, or using an organic insecticide.
Rae says
August 23 at 3:31 pmI made this concoction, unfortunately, it doesn’t work. I never see any bugs so I have no clue what’s eating it.
Judi Farkas says
July 28 at 7:49 amWill this work on tomato plants?
Jami says
July 30 at 1:52 pmIt depends on what’s bothering them. It won’t work on tomato hornworms because they don’t care about the smell. It has to be a bug that will be repelled by the smell.
Diane R says
July 23 at 7:51 amHi I love your recipe and I’m going to try it! Have you tried it on scale bugs? I have a climbing Bowervine that is prone to getting scale. Also wondered if this would repell deer from eating the flowers in the yard?? We have a terrible time with deer eating everything in our yards in Virginia! 😫
Jami says
July 23 at 1:04 pmI’ve experimented using this for deer and it seems to work, you just have to keep it applied. A reader told me she had been using it for a couple years on her roses and it’s the first time she’s been able to harvest any from the deer. It probably depends on the type of deer, but definitely worth a try!
As for the scale bugs, I don’t know – I don’t have those. You’d know in a week I think if it worked or not on them.