Here is part two of Gardening and Essential Oils read part 1 here.

Part 2 of Gardening and Essential Oils is all about things that bug us around the house and garden. Part 2 also covers natural and safe pest control and natural insecticides with essential oils.

Thank you to Dr. David Stewart for this information!

Essential Oils For Things that Bug You
By David Stewart, Ph.D., R.A.

Among the many chemicals in our industrial environment that get into our systems and make us sick are the pesticides we use in our homes. We use them because they are toxic to the creatures that bug us, but they are also toxic to us! Sometimes the toxicity is immediately apparent: we get a headache, get sick or feel nauseous from the fumes or other contact.

Sometimes the toxicity is subtle and can accumulate resulting in chronic complaints and disorders (including allergies, cancer and miscarriages that can be serious and even deadly over time. Sometimes we even put poisons on our pets to deal with ticks and fleas, not realizing that these substances are not healthy for us not our animals.

How to Use Oils for Pest Control

As Young Living Essential Oils users, we don’t need poisons to kill pests. We can repel them (and even sometimes kill them) with substances that are not only harmless to us, but are actually healthful to us. Below is a list of oils that will solve most of your pest problems around the house.

And how do you use them? One way is to get a pistol-grip squirt bottle. Mix a few drops of the oil with some water, shake it up, and start firing. If you have bugs on your plants, like aphids on your roses, you can squirt the leaves and drive the bugs away with no harm to your plant. You can do the same with the other pests. As for ants, you can smear a line of peppermint or spearmint across your kitchen counter or floor and the ants won’t cross it. If you already have a line of ants invading your house, just draw a line of oil across them and they will turn back. It is fun to watch! And as for flies, you can knock them dead right out of the air with one shot from your pistol grip.

Specific Oils for Specific Insects

ANTS
Peppermint
Spearmint

APHIDS
Cedarwood
Hyssop
Peppermint
Spearmint

BEETLES
Peppermint
Thyme

CATERPILLARS
Spearmint
Peppermint

CHIGGERS
Lavender
Lemongrass
Sage
Thyme

CUTWORM
Thyme
Sage

FLEAS
Peppermint
Lemongrass
Spearmint
Lavender

FLIES
Lavender
Peppermint
Rosemary
Sage

GNATS
Patchouli
Spearmint

LICE
Cedarwood
Peppermint
Spearmint

MOSQUITOES
Lavender
Lemongrass

MOTHS
Cedarwood
Hyssop
Lavender
Peppermint
Spearmint

PLANT LICE
Peppermint
Spearmint

SLUGS
Cedarwood
Hyssop
Pine

SNAILS
Cedarwood
Pine
Patchouli

SPIDERS
Peppermint
Spearmint

TICKS
Lavender
Lemongrass
Sage
Thyme

WEEVILS
Cedarwood
Patchouli
Sandalwood

A Brown Recluse Experiment

Seeing how squirting a peppermint-water spray would kill flies in mid-air, I wondered what pure oil would do. So I did an experiment on a brown recluse spider. I captured a live one in a jar and carefully placed one drop of peppermint on one side. The pure peppermint repelled the spider sho crowded to the other side to avoid the oil. When I tipped the jar to force the spider to fall into the oil, it merely squirmed and got away, still repelled by the oil, but not apparently harmed. Then I put a drop of water with the oil and tipped the jar so that the spider slid into the water and oil together and, instantly, it shriveled up and died.

Conclusion: The oil alone is an insect repellant. Combined with water, it is an insecticide.

Safe Insect Repellants

As far as repellants go, when you go into the woods and fields, put a little lavender around your ankles, wrists, and waist-band and you won’t have to worry about chiggers or ticks (or Lyme Disease of Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever). Lemongrass, sage, or thyme would work, too, but might irritate your skin so put it on your pant cuffs and shirt sleeves.

As for your pets, you can put oils such as Purification around their necks and backs, but watch to keep oils from around their eyes.

So there you have it. Non-toxic pest control.

You can view this and other interesting articles on essential oils by Dr. David Stewart at www.raindroptraining.com