Hey Grandma, how did you get rid of garden pests in the olden days?
We fought them with ingredients from our kitchen. Gardening Grandma’s favorite kitchen ingredients for pest elimination included vinegar, egg shells, cinnamon, cloves, hot pepper powder, garlic, and coffee grounds.
Why kitchen ingredients?
Synthetic chemical insecticides did not become widely available for home gardens until after World War II.
Therefore, it was necessary for gardeners to brew their own tonics for garden pest control.
Common examples of Gardening Grandma’s tonics include garlic and hot peppers blended with water and soap to deter beetles and caterpillars.
Small bags of cloves and cinnamon placed on the ground can overwhelm sensitive smell receptors used by aphids and gnats.
Covering entrance areas with coarse coffee grounds or hot pepper powder can discourage ants.
How do spices and herbs help deter garden pests?
Grandma was relying on one of two properties of spices and herbs to deter pests—smell and texture.
For example, some garden pests rely on their sense of smell to find their plant victims.
So, strong-smelling herbs and spices may confuse them away from desirable garden plants.
Other animals, such as rabbits, cannot stand the smell of vinegar. Domestic cats do not like the smell of citrus.
Slugs avoid crawling over sharpedged soil and dislike crawling over eggshells or coarsely chopped coffee beans. Ants avoid hot pepper powders like cayenne.
Do these historic pest control methods work?
Scientific research into the effectiveness of these old pest management techniques is limited.
However, some university extension services have evaluated them in response to emerging support for natural pest management techniques as opposed to applying strong insecticides.
Here are two examples:
•According to Utah State University Extension: cinnamon and cloves offer a natural repellent for ants and other pests; coffee grounds repel most pests, especially ants.
•“Reuse this morning’s coffee grounds to fight off unwanted pests, such as ants and destructive garden slugs and snails. Its powerful scent works to mask the smell.” (Ecofriendly Pest Control).
Today, are there more effective alternatives?
Yes!
One recommended approach to limiting pest damage to home gardens is Integrated Pest Management.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s Integrated Pest Management program offers researchbased, environmentally friendly strategies to manage pests in agricultural, structural and landscape settings.
It prioritizes cultural, biological, and mechanical controls, utilizing chemical pesticides only as a last resort based on monitoring and established thresholds. (See Resources at bit.ly/48lr2Lt.)
One self-rewarding bit of advice on another effective way to repel garden pests—add some plants to your garden that pests do not like.
These plants include lavender, rosemary, basil, mint, garlic, sage and more.
See “Insect-Repelling Plants for Your Garden” in Resources at bit. ly/48lr2Lt.
- Denton County Master Gardener Association
