MIgardener Guide To 100% Organic Pesticides For Home Gardens

Written by: Luke Marion

Published on February 21, 2020

Updated on October 23, 2025

In the world of organic gardening, it is inevitable that one day, you will encounter pesky bugs that want to make themselves at home in your freshly grown fruit or vegetable plant. This kind of intrusion can be annoying and upsetting at times after spending countless hours working to grow chemical free food in your farm or garden.

A man spraying crops with organic pesticide.

Thankfully, there are a handful of options for gardeners who want to get pests out while doing their best for the planet at the same time. Let’s explore the best types of organic pesticides you can use at home.

Growing Organically

Expecting to harvest 100% of your organic garden is unrealistic. I learned this from my grandfather, who probably learned it from his grandfather. Instead, approach each season expecting you will probably lose about 10% of your crops to pests, whether insects or animals in the garden.

That being said, scientific developments and discoveries have given organic gardeners some amazing tools that can yield great results when battling pests or implementing DIY pest prevention. We don’t need to be afraid to use those tools when the need arises!

Types of Organic Pesticides

Many people today are trying to reduce potential health risks by limiting exposure to toxic and unnatural synthetic chemicals. One main area of focus is the food we consume.

The following organic pesticides are extracted from natural sources like plants, microorganisms, or minerals, so they break down relatively quickly, ideally leaving no harmful residual effects. Here are the natural and organic pesticides that I recommend:

Intercropping Plants

Essential Oils

Mite X

Diatomaceous Earth

Homemade Oxalic Acid Spray

Neem Oil

Pyrethrin

Thuricide (BT)

Spinosad

Intercropping Plants As A Natural Pesticide

Intercropping to add biodiversity is a favorite method for organic gardeners because it offers a hands-off approach to pesticide use! Intercropping is when many kinds and varieties of plants are grown intermixed instead of in dedicated rows. When different plants are near each other, their pheromones are mixed, creating a cocktail of chemical scents that confuses pests.

I like to combine high-intensity spacing with intercropping to grow as much food as possible in a given space, while also preventing pests from detecting their favorite snacks! Overall, planting marigolds and other strong-scented plants near vegetables will not affect their flavor. This method will help invite beneficial pollinators in and keep pests out.

Plant strong-smelling flowers, herbs, and onions near varieties like tomatoes and squash to mask the pheromones that plants give off that attract pests.

Essential Oils

Similar to the intercropping method, using essential oil blends on your plants can help mask their scent from incoming pests. Creating your own at-home essential oil spray can be a quick and easy way to reduce pests in the garden.

A mixture of peppermint oil and lemongrass oil is a great blend that will keep squash vine borers away exceptionally well. Mix lavender oil, rosemary oil, and thyme oil for a fantastic scent-masking agent in the garden.

Read Essential Oils to Protect Your Entire Garden for specific instructions on mixing and using essential oils. This method is not as effective as the others listed below in this post, but it is still a good, safe option for controlling pests. Try using it supplementally with other methods.

Mite X Spray For Houseplants

Are you having problems with insects on your houseplants, indoor herbs, or ornamentals? Mite X is a safe, organic spray that can be used indoors and outdoors!

Mite X is a broad-spectrum insecticide made from natural botanical extracts of cottonseed, clove, and garlic. It kills and controls many types of mites, thrips, and aphids.

Pro-Tip: This is a contact spray. Pests must be sprayed directly for it to be effective!

Read these blog posts for more information on mites:

Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous earth is a naturally occurring sedimentary rock made up of fossilized diatoms or microalgae. It is ground up into a very fine powder, or at least it feels fine to our hands.

On a microscopic level, it has a rough and abrasive exterior that makes it an ideal insecticide. It kills a specific family of pests called arthropods (a fancy word for creepy crawly critters with hard exoskeletons).

Once applied to the ground as a barrier surrounding your plants, diatomaceous earth will get rid of unwanted wasps, beetles, ants, mites, fleas, etc. that might attempt to damage your harvest. It coats and infiltrates the shell of these pests and slowly dehydrates them for long-term results. You won’t see immediate results, but after about a week, you will see a noticeable difference in the garden.

The best part is that diatomaceous earth is entirely safe to use around pets and people!

Pro-Tip: Diatomaceous earth is not a fungicide! Contrary to what you may have heard, it will not work as a fungicide and will not successfully prevent powdery mildew or tomato blight! It is also not effective for getting rid of fungus gnats. For more information, read this blog post on diatomaceous earth uses.)

Homemade Oxalic Acid Pesticide From Rhubarb Leaves

Do you grow rhubarb in your garden? If not, this easy-to-grow perennial vegetable is a must for making your own kombucha, wine, pie, preserves and... organic pesticide!

The large, elephant-ear-shaped leaves, which are poisonous to consume, are good for more than just natural mulch. They can be made into a super-effective, all-natural pest control spray!

Rhubarb leaves are very high in oxalic acid, which is a naturally occurring compound that shuts down the digestive system of insects when consumed. Oxalic acid is effective against aphids, white flies, and spider mites, but not against Japanese beetles or flea beetles.

Watch the video above to learn how to make this all-natural pest control spray!

Neem Oil

Native to India, neem oil has been used for centuries. It is derived by pressing the seeds of the evergreen neem tree, and has a strong scent that garden pests hate! Neem oil is considered non-toxic to birds, mammals, bees, and plants.

Neem oil repels a wide variety of pests and is especially useful in fighting aphids, whiteflies, fungus gnats, and Japanese beetles. It also acts as a fungicide to help prevent black spot, powdery mildew, and canker.

Pro-Tip: Look for cold-pressed neem oil when battling aphids because cold-pressed neem contains the chemical azadirachtin, which halts the aphid egg-laying cycle. Captain Jack's Fruit Tree Spray is 70% cold-pressed neem.

Pyrethrum

Pyrethrum is a naturally occurring mix of chemicals (pyrethrins) sourced from the powder of dried chrysanthemum flowers. Pyrethrin is fast-acting and can be used on vegetables, fruits, flowers, and ornamentals up to the day of harvest!

It can effectively control aphids, scales, spider mites, caterpillars, fruit flies, leafhoppers, flea beetles, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, and more. It also prohibits the fungus gnat's reproduction cycle.

Captain Jack’s Orchard Spray combines sulfur as a fungicide and pyrethrins as an insecticide/miticide to control pests while preventing fungal diseases like powdery mildew, rust, blight, brown rot, scab, and leaf spot.

Thuricide (BT)

Used as a pesticide since the 1920s, Thuricide contains a natural soil-dwelling bacterium used to get rid of pesky caterpillars and other chewing insects. Once ingested, this bacteria will stop the life cycle of cabbage loopers, leaf curlers, tomato hornworms, tent caterpillars, and others. Thuricide will not harm beneficial insects or earthworms.

Thuricide is an organic spray that can be used on your orchard or vegetable garden without harming birds in the garden, people, animals, or beneficial insects like ladybugs or honeybees.

Spinosad

Thuricide and spinosad can be used almost interchangeably, except that spinosad controls more types of insects. Spinosad is approved for organic gardening and is used to control chewing insects. Like BT, it is part of the line of biological controls that utilize the power of beneficial bacteria!

It was discovered in 1982 in an abandoned rum distillery in the Caribbean. Since then, it has proven effective in dozens of applications, from codling moths in orchards to cabbage moths, tomato hornworms, and beetles.

Over the years, I’ve started using spinosad more frequently because it is non-resistance-forming! As an organic gardener, I already have limited options, so I like to stick with options that are non-resistance-forming.

As you may know, pests can adapt and become resistant to pesticides. If this happens, you must regularly increase the concentration applied. Eventually, the pests can become completely resistant, and that pesticide will no longer work at all.

I can continually use spinosad, year in and year out, without causing pest resistance, and it has almost no side effects!

When Is the Best Time to Spray

Whether you are using an organic or inorganic spray, you should always spray in the early morning after the plants dry from any dew or late at night so that you don’t harm your plants! Spray on days with minimal wind and when no rain is expected. Keep an eye on the weather; if it rains after you spray, you will likely need to reapply.