Repel Flies Naturally
Grow basil in pots and flowerbeds near your doorways and windows — it’s a natural way to repel flies and mosquitos and keep them from entering your home.
Pests
Browse Tips by Category…
- Arts & Crafts
- Automobile
- Family
- Food
- Gardening
- Health
- Holidays
- Household & Cleaning
- Kids
- Kitchen & Cooking
- Money-Saving
- Outdoors
- Pests
- Pets
Keep Bugs Away!
To keep bugs away, replace your outdoor white light bulbs with yellow LED or CFL bulbs. Yellow light contains less of the blue wavelength of light and helps to keep bugs away. These bulbs, unlike incandescent bulbs, also emit very little heat, further reducing their attractiveness to bugs.
Timely Tick Tip
Next time you’re outside doing yard work, taking a walk (no matter how short), or hiking, take along a sticky tape lint roller and periodically roll it across your skin and clothes. Any ticks that have landed on you will be picked up.
Keep Groundhogs Out With Herbs
Repel groundhogs! Plant basil, chives, lemon balm, lavender, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, and oregano in your garden.
Banish Pantry Bugs
A bay leaf slipped into a container of flour, pasta, or rice will help repel bugs. Either dried or fresh leaves work.
Homemade Bug Repellent
Use 1 big bottle of blue mouthwash, 3 cups of Epsom salt, and 3 stale beers. Mix together until salt dissolves. Place in spray bottle. Spray perimeter where you are sitting. (Do not spray on yourself!)
Got Ants?
Pour a line of cream of tartar where they’re entering the house and they won’t cross over it.
Homemade Insecticide
Instead of using insecticides, try planting marigolds, basil, savory, horseradish, mint, onions, garlic, and chives near your garden. These plants’ natural root secretions repel some insects.
Deer Repellent
To repel deer, place slices of deodorant soap into knee high pantyhose and hang them up around your garden.
