Updated date: Home Remedies to Keep Cockroaches, Lizards, Ants, Mosquitoes, Bed Bugs, and Flies Out of Your House

I've had a lot of experience trying to keep assorted pests away from my home. Here are some of the natural remedies I've used.

This guide will provide plenty of home remedies for getting rid of various insects and other pests. CC0 images, via Unsplash and Pixabay

Natural Methods to Keep Insects and Other Pests Out of Your Home

Cockroaches, lizards, centipedes, earwigs, and other pests crawling throughout your home is weird, especially when you are in the middle of enjoying your delicious food. When almost all the corners of your home are shared by these often unseen invaders, they pose dangers to your personal hygiene and health. They can even be poisonous if they manage to insert themselves in the process of food preparation. To make matters worse, small kids often do not know the dangers of these pests and might touch them or even try to catch them.

You might consider calling a pest controller, who will take a good sum of money to remove them—sometimes only for a limited time, after which, insects again attack your home. Though we might all know some traditional methods to keep these pests away, these tips and tricks may not always be consistent enough to tackle the problem.

In an effort to help you regain a sense of safety in where you live, however, here are some home remedies to keep most all small pests out of your hair for good.

Ants

Cut cucumbers into small slices and place them on the likely entry point of ants in your kitchen. Ants have natural instinct to avoid the fragrance of cucumber. Bitter cucumber slices work better.

Soap water spray works good against ants. It kills ants and stops their movement further.

Crushed mint leaves or mint tea bags are a good anti-ant agent.

A mixture of mint apple jelly and boric acid is a deterrent against pharaoh ants.

Put cut-out cloves in the cracked deck to kill the ants settled in the cracks.

To kill ants in their colony, mix 1 liter of water, 1 teaspoon of borax, and 1 cup of sugar. Put some cotton balls in the solution and place them in a yoghurt container with holes punched inside to allow ants access. The ants will carry this bait into their home or colony, where they will die eventually upon eating them.

Cockroaches

We use many products available in the market to keep away roaches. The best way to keep them out of your kitchen, however, is to keep it very neat and clean. If roaches exist in your house, wash everywhere with a strong soap solution.

When placed at their entry points, sliced cucumbers deter the presence of cockroaches.

Diatomaceous earth is a nontoxic alternative to chemically made products that works for killing cockroaches. It can be sprinkled over the areas where you see them most often. The tiny particles cut away the waxy exoskeleton and usually kills the roaches within two days. This product also dehydrates the cockroaches, so it is important to cover all water storage in your house.

Spraying soap water directly on cockroaches kills them instantly.

You can also make a mixture of equal quantities boric acid powder, sugar, and cornmeal, and place it over the high-traffic areas of roaches. It will act as poison and kill them.

Cockroaches like high places. Place boric powder over kitchen cabinets and in the spaces between the ceiling and cabinets. Boric powder is poisonous in nature for roaches and will kill all other roaches when they come in contact with a boric powder-infected one.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes most often breed in standing water and dirty areas. So, it is very necessary to keep your surroundings clean and airy. Take concrete measures to remove standing water sources.

A solution of garlic juice used as spray repels the mosquitoes for up to six hours. Add one part of garlic juice and five parts of water to make the mixture, and spray it all over your body. It is nontoxic and very effective.

The oil extracted from the leaves of neem trees is very effective and nontoxic. You can apply neem oil on the exposed skin to deter mosquitoes. It is also a good nourishment for the body to kill other harmful bacteria that attacks our immune system.

The marigold plant gives out a fragrance that repels mosquitoes and other bugs. You can plant marigold in your garden or yard to effectively deter mosquitoes.

Thai lemongrass is an effective mosquito deterrent plant as well. It contains citronella, which is safe for humans. Break a stalk from the clump of the plant, and peel off the outer leaves until you find a scallion-like stem at the base. Rub the stem between your palm vigorously—it will turn into a pulpy, juicy mass. Now rub this all over your exposed body. Mosquitoes will not dare come near you.

Flies

The best way to keep away flies is to keep your house and surroundings neat and clean. Small sachets of mint leaves in crushed form can also be placed around the home to restrict flies from entering your house.

Your dog can also help to restrict flies' entry into your house. If you feed your dogs yeast, they will gives off a scent that repels flies.

Eucalyptus oil is good in repelling flies as well. Pour a few drops of it on a cotton cloth, and place it in the areas where flies are a problem. It will deter them from entering the house.

Flush out your drain with hot boiling water and bleaching powder to eliminate the infestation of flies in the drainage system.

Bed Bugs

Apply some kerosene oil on your bed—on the corners and in the spaces between the joints—to kill bed bugs. Fill the cracks and corners of the bed where the bed bugs flourish mostly.

Airing out your bedding in the sunlight for four or five hours is a very old tradition to restrict the growth of bed bugs. If it is warm enough outside, bed bugs will come out of their shelters due to heat and eventually die.

Use of nontoxic, pool-grade diatomaceous earth is one of the best preventive measures against bed bugs. Apply it in the vicinity of any bed bug activity.

You can also wash your bed with hot water to kill bed bugs.

Lizards

Hang empty egg shells in the corners of your home. Their pungent smell keeps away lizards.

Onion slices can also act as a great remedy to keep away lizards and control their movement. Due to its active compounds and sulphur content, onions act as a deterrent for lizards. Put some slices near lizards' hiding places and see the results.

It may be a bit surprising, but peacock feathers can also be used to keep away lizards. Since peacocks eat lizards, the little reptiles are afraid of them. Plus, peacock feathers can be used as decorations in your house as well.

Additional Methods for Other Pests

There are many other insects and pests that can be found in your house. Here are some additional ways of keeping them at bay.

To repel moths, you can make sachets using bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, eucalyptus leaves, lavender, and peppercorns. Place the sachets in the areas affected by moths.

Once dried, lemon peels can be hung in a cheesecloth in the closet to restrict the entry of moths as well.

You can use wood ash to control slugs populations.

You can use hedge apple to control the entry and movement of crickets and spiders.

To trap earwigs, you can spray a newspaper with water. Now, roll it up loosely and secure it with a string. Place it on the floor where earwig movement is high. The earwigs will become trapped in the paper overnight. The next morning, you can just pick up the paper and throw it away in a sealed container.

A Clean Home Is the Best Deterrent for Pests

All the above conventional natural methods will surely help you out in keeping the insects and pests away from your house. With all these measures, the most important thing is that you have to keep your house and the surroundings neat and clean. A clean kitchen and bathroom is good for your personal hygiene, as well as for your personal health. Many insects breed in dirty places, so clean your home to keep them away.

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

© 2013 vishnu

Chandrashekar Jadhav on September 14, 2019:

How to get rid of blanket worms in Manson crawling on walls

Vidya rani on July 31, 2018:

I like it so much

Vidya rani on July 30, 2018:

i like it so much

Amitabha Nag on June 09, 2018:

How wizard remove from home ?

Saghir Ahmad Siddiqi on May 14, 2018:

Good advices

Ziauddin Hassan on August 25, 2017:

A very good substitute for housewife's.

Amit on September 17, 2016:

How to remove in my house rat

Vipan Chhabra on July 17, 2016:

The device on top, is not effective at all, I bought 2 for the price of one from Naaptol

Money on July 10, 2016:

wow its nice

Charles Clayton on September 17, 2015:

It's a nice post, but the main key for all is the cleanliness, if we keep clean our area at a regular time then there will be a mech lesser need of pest control.

naveen kumar on June 12, 2015:

Nice

vishnu (author) from india on May 16, 2015:

hi zainab, i am researching on ways to do away with lizards. Definitely coming up with solution....

zainab on May 13, 2015:

Aww lizards kills me by being in my home im so so so scared of it if i see it i cnt even sleep plz tell me a useful method cuz i hv tried eggshell bt it ddnt work

Riadh on January 31, 2015:

I love that you have a bat! (mind you, living for years in the inner city clnianeg their poo off my car makes me glad you have them and not me). Our only intervention is the netting to keep the bower birds and wattle birds away otherwise they just eat everything (which is what happened last year and we got very depressed). The little planters are going great and I do like your Bug's garden studio :)

vishnu (author) from india on October 09, 2014:

Thanx for the support. I will come up with more hubs disclosing nature's secret

Manisha on October 09, 2014:

V useful, & healthy tips!!! I like v.much

Parul on August 20, 2014:

Something else for cockroaches...

arpana on June 29, 2014:

Something about lizards.....

janvi on June 29, 2014:

Hello, what about lizard?????