Molasses Is The Secret Weapon To Stop Caterpillars From Destroying Your Garden

Caterpillars come in all shapes and sizes, and while some are innocent and cute, others, like the spongy moth caterpillar, can kill entire trees. On top of this, many caterpillars, like tomato hornworms and cutworms (which are mistaken for worms but are, in fact, caterpillars), can wreak absolute havoc on a vegetable patch. However, the issue when it comes to keeping caterpillars out of the garden is that most people don't really want to harm or kill caterpillars since they do eventually turn into important pollinators like moths and butterflies. Luckily, there is a way to keep caterpillars away for good without harming them — and it involves an unlikely ingredient: molasses.

Molasses is a great way to keep the caterpillars and other leaf-munching insects off your veggies because these bugs apparently don't like the bitter taste of this thick and dark syrup. This trick works so well that some companies have begun producing horticultural molasses that is meant to be used as plant fertilizer and a way to boost the growth of good microbes in the soil after your soil has been depleted by synthetic fertilizers like Miracle-Gro. However, gardeners have also touted the molasses' ability to specifically keep hungry caterpillars away, with one reviewer on Amazon explaining that they were "overrun by caterpillars in [the] garden and this horticulture molasses saved my plants from being eaten to the ground."

In order to successfully keep caterpillars at bay, you need to be able to apply molasses to all of the leaves of affected plants using a sprayer. You can do this by turning the molasses into a liquid pesticide. To create this mixture, combine one tablespoon of molasses and a teaspoon of dish soap in one liter of warm water. Dish soap can be lethal to small insects like aphids and mites but it doesn't harm caterpillars, which is good because dish soap is an important ingredient that will help this DIY caterpillar repellent cling to your plants.

Once your molasses mixture has cooled to room temperature, you can pour it into your garden sprayer and thoroughly coat your plants. You also want to make sure to coat both the tops and bottoms of the leaves so that the caterpillars have nowhere to chew. Once you've done this, the caterpillars should evacuate your vegetable patch and find some plants that are more tasty to munch on. For some extra oomph, you can also add a bit of garlic, which many pests, including caterpillars, are said to dislike.