10 Foods That Keep Bugs Away From Your Picnic Gallery - Explore (2024)

FAQs

10 Foods That Keep Bugs Away From Your Picnic Gallery - Explore? ›

Citronella is a natural bug repellent. Luckily, there are a number of citronella candles in the market that can make the job easy for you. Light a few and space them out around your picnic area to ward off mosquitoes and other unwanted bugs. A portable fan is a great way to keep cool on a hot day.

Citronella is a natural bug repellent. Luckily, there are a number of citronella candles in the market that can make the job easy for you. Light a few and space them out around your picnic area to ward off mosquitoes and other unwanted bugs. A portable fan is a great way to keep cool on a hot day.

Lemongrass, citrus, peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree, citronella, catnip, and lavender oils all possess properties that repel bugs. The oils can be used individually or combined to make a simple anti-bug potion. Mix about 1 cup of water with 25-30 total drops of oil into a small spray bottle.

You can reduce their populations with traps of overripe fruit, stale beer or a molasses-yeast and water mix. Empty the traps and replace the bait every three to four days. A bit more information: Skip the pesticides. Since these insects are present during harvest, spraying is not practical.

One calls for mixing mint mouthwash, Epsom salt, and stale beer and spraying it around your yard. Another uses apple cider vinegar, water, and an oil made up of citronella, peppermint, lemongrass, cedar wood, and geranium. Does homemade mosquito yard spray work?

Clove, peppermint, thyme, rosemary, and citronella oil are just a few essential oils that can help keep bugs away.

What smell do bugs hate the worst? ›

Those most closely associated with repellency are citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, and catnip oil, but others include clove oil, patchouli, peppermint, and geranium.

Most insects subsist on a diet consisting primarily of plants and fruits. Many species of bugs such as butterflies, moths, bees, and beetles are herbivorous while others may prefer sweet nectar or sugary sap. Some bugs will even feed off other insects such as aphids or caterpillars.

Vinegar is one of the best ingredients to make a pest control spray out of. It is effective in repelling ants, mosquitoes, fruit flies, and many others. Creating a mix is quite simple. What's best is that it is safe for humans and pets.

RANGER READY PICARIDIN 20%

Ranger Ready's body worn Picaridin 20% serves as an effective hunting bug repellent for mosquitos and ticks for up to 12 hours and gnats, No-See-Ums, and other biting flies for up to 8 hours. It's an effective and safe DEET alternative that keeps you protected from vector-borne diseases.

Dryer sheets are designed to provide a pleasant scent to laundry, not to repel insects, so any insect-repellent properties may wear off quickly. In summary, while some people claim that dryer sheets can repel mosquitoes, there is little scientific evidence to support this claim.

Which Paint Colors Repel Insects? Because bugs see colors on the UV spectrum, they cannot register hues of green or blue. Painters even use blue paint to repel bees and wasps. Painting your porch ceiling in a blue tone could repel wasps, leading to fewer wasp-eating spiders around your home!

Heavily scented soaps, perfumes, hair care products and lotions attract bugs as well as woods and standing water.

Hydrogen Peroxide: Put a little bit of hydrogen peroxide into a spray bottle, and spread it liberally over your home's patio and other surfaces. Make sure to spray the perimeter of your outdoor living space, as well — that will prevent bugs from getting close to you and anyone else.

How do you keep bugs away permanently? ›

Mosquitoes are turned off by several natural scents: cinnamon, peppermint, cedar, citronella, lemongrass, patchouli, catnip, lavender, and more. Find a favorite, and use it when you want to spend time outside.

Peppermint oil, cedarwood oil, and cypress oil are essential oils that effectively keep co*ckroaches at bay. Additionally, these insects hate the smell of crushed bay leaves and steer clear of coffee grounds. If you want to try a natural way to kill them, combine powdered sugar and boric acid.

These little nuisances are called picnic or sap beetles. They are attracted to ripe or damaged fruit and vegetables.

Key Takeaways. Due to climate change and global warming, pest populations are increasing, and people in and around Northern California (and around the globe) are seeing more bugs and pests during the summer months.

Burn Citronella Candles

Citronella candles are made of citronella oil, a natural bug repellent. When burned, these candles can keep bugs away from your outdoor dining area, all while setting the mood and serving as a great decoration.

Diamondback and box tree moths are especially antsy around cinnamon, but most moth species will stay away from the scent if they can.

The smell of lemon is pleasing for most people, and this citrus fruit has long been used to eliminate unwanted odours in the home, but that's not all it's suitable for. Insects absolutely hate the aroma lemon juice gives off and its astringent properties are harmful to most types of bed bugs.

DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and oil of lemon eucalyptus are referred to in this fact sheet as common insect repellents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends using products with one of these EPA registered ingredients. They can be applied to human skin and some can be used on clothing.

Isopropyl alcohol can kill bedbugs. It can kill the bugs themselves, and it can kill their eggs. But before you start spraying, you should be aware that using rubbing alcohol on a bedbug infestation is inefficient and can even be dangerous.

What cleaner do bugs hate? ›

In addition to being a great cleaning agent, vinegar is effective in deterring many types of pests. Ants despise the smell of vinegar, and vinegar will wipe out the scent trails they leave around the house to navigate.

Lighter colors like white are very reflective, bouncing light, while darker colors like black absorbed the light. In fact, in laboratory tests, it was found that mosquitos preferred black, red and blue the most as opposed to lighter hues such as tan, yellow, and white.

ATTENTION: If you have a sweet tooth, you should know that Junior Mints, Red Hots, Lemonhead, and Boston Baked Beans candies are coated with bug juice—yes, from real bugs. To make the glaze that coats these sweets, almost 100,000 bugs are killed.

This may sound bizarre, but it's not uncommon for insect fragments—including their heads, bodies, and legs—to accidentally end up in the food we eat. Bugs are constantly present during the food manufacturing process, from the field where the food is grown to the storage and transit of the food to your grocery store.

Apple cider vinegar repels ants, spiders, and mosquitos like white vinegar.

Important natural enemies of insect and mite pests include predators, parasitoids (parasites), and pathogens.

Aluminum Foil

The foil will reflect light up onto your plants, deterring any insects and other pests from feeding off the elements inside your garden. Using foil balloons is also a great way to deter pests without mixing aluminum into your mulch.

One of the easiest homemade bug sprays, simply mix one cup of white vinegar with three cups of water. You can also add half a teaspoon of dishwashing soap to help the solution adhere. Shake thoroughly and apply to the affected areas.

A combination of half apple cider vinegar (although normal vinegar works just as well) and half water in a spray bottle works perfectly to repel those pests. This concoction can be sprayed around the perimeter of your home, on the legs of tables that have food served on them or even around a screen house or tent.

What did Native Americans use to repel insects? ›

Sweetgrass had many ceremonial uses among Native Americans. Some people wore braids of it around their necks or adorned their homes with the aromatic plant to help repel mosquitoes.

Smoke from campfires

Any self-respecting camper or BBQ-er will tell you that smoke keeps away insects, including mosquitos. Native Americans knew this too. Their campfires served many different purposes, including cooking, communication through smoke signals, and keeping away flies and mosquitos.

Organic pest management may include the use of pheromone traps, release of beneficial insects, use of trap crops, and other organically approved techniques (see Rules Relating to Pest Management, next page).

These little nuisances are called picnic or sap beetles. They are attracted to ripe or damaged fruit and vegetables.

A 50/50 solution of water and vinegar sprayed around the tables and chairs at your cookout will ward off ants and prevent unwanted intruders from working their way into your patio.

Acetic acid makes vinegar an excellent tool for pest control, repelling some of the most common backyard nuisances and even killing weaker insects. It's most effective against ants, spiders, and mosquitos. You can keep spiders from entering your home by spraying vinegar around your property's perimeter and entryways.

Many herbs are natural bug repellents. Sage, basil, thyme, and rosemary are known to help repel pests. Throwing these herbs directly on the grill coals while barbecuing will help keep those unwanted pests away. Be sure to soak the herbs in water before tossing them on the grill.

Heavily scented soaps, perfumes, hair care products and lotions attract bugs as well as woods and standing water.

Insects generally see 3 colors of light, Ultraviolet (UV), blue and green. Bright white or bluish lights (mercury vapor, white incandescent and white florescent) are the most attractive to insects. Yellowish, pinkish, or orange (sodium vapor, halogen, dichroic yellow) are the least attractive to most insects.

Perfumes, cologne, deodorant, skin lotion, hair products, and laundry detergent are common culprits, especially floral and musky fragrances. By switching to unscented products or trying different products instead, you just might solve your problem.

How do I get rid of picnic flies? ›

Flies hate the smell of lemon, so take a lemon and cut it in half. Flies also hate the smell of cloves, so stick cloves throughout the flesh of each lemon half. Put the lemons in decorate bowls and place the bowls throughout the food areas. The flies should stay far away!

Insects don't become fully functional until temperatures reach 70 degrees. This means in most of the country, insects may become active in mid-March or early April and can quickly produce many generations of offspring during the warmer months.