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How To Use Flour And Garlic To Banish Grasshoppers From Your Garden
By WILL FORD
Grasshoppers rely on consuming tender plant tissues, so lightly dust flour onto plant leaves to create an undesirable coating that disrupts their feeding ability.
The flour clogs grasshoppers’ mouths by forming a gum or paste when mixed with their saliva. Simply use a cup of flour and a paint or makeup brush, and dust your plants with it.
To repel grasshoppers with garlic, create a DIY spray. Mince four garlic cloves, place them in a container with a tablespoon of mineral oil, and let the mixture steep for 24 hours.
Strain the garlic-infused oil into a quart-sized spray bottle, discarding the garlic pieces. Mix in one teaspoon of liquid soap as an emulsifier.
Dilute the concentrate by mixing 2 tablespoons of the garlic concentrate with a pint of water. Thoroughly spray the plants once a week, especially after rainfall or heavy watering.
When grasshoppers come in contact with garlic's pungent odor and sulfur compounds, they are naturally deterred by it, as the spray disrupts their feeding and movement patterns.