Mixing 1 cup of tobacco into 1 gallon of water and letting it sit for 24 hours, until it's the color of weak tea, makes an effective spray against caterpillars, aphids, and many worms. It should never be used on peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, or other nightshade-family plants, since the same chemicals that kill pests can harm these plants too.
Five DIY Natural Pest Sprays for the Garden
A growing vegetable garden eventually means dealing with pests, but there's no need to soak the soil and the harvest in expensive commercial poison. These homemade sprays handle most garden pests for next to nothing.
Tobacco or Nicotine Spray
Soap Spray
Old dishwater, or a stronger mix of 3 tablespoons of liquid detergent per gallon of water, sprayed weekly works well against slugs on hostas, mums, and other hardy plants, since many bugs don't care for the soapy aftertaste.
Alcohol Spray
Mixing 1/2 cup of alcohol and 2-3 tablespoons of dry laundry soap into 1 quart of warm water and spraying immediately works especially well against mealybugs on houseplants; this solution doesn't keep, so it needs to be made fresh each time.
Salt Spray
Mixing 2 tablespoons of salt into 1 gallon of water makes a simple spray for cabbageworms and spider mites.
Spearmint-Hot Pepper-Horseradish Spray
Combining 1/2 cup each of hot red peppers, fresh spearmint, horseradish root and leaves, and green onion tops, covering with water, straining out the solids, diluting with up to a gallon of water, and adding 2 tablespoons of liquid detergent makes a broad-spectrum spray safe for most plants; it keeps for a few days stored somewhere cool.
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