6 Clever Uses for Pepper You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner
Updated: Sep. 25, 2018
Pepper can add some kick to your meal, but it can also come in handy all around the house—and garden, too!
1. Use Pepper as a Decongestant
Is your nose stuffy? Are your ears plugged? Do you have a cold? Instead of going out to purchase over-the-counter medication, reach for the pepper shaker. Nothing gets things flowing again faster than some cayenne pepper. Sprinkle it on your food and grab some tissues. Check out these other healing spices you’ve already got in your kitchen cupboards.
2. Use Pepper to Keep Colours Bright
That new cherry-red shirt you just purchased is fantastic, but just think how faded the colour will look after the shirt has been washed a few times. Add a teaspoon of pepper to the wash load. Pepper keeps bright colours bright and prevents them from running too. Don’t miss these other brilliant laundry tricks.
3. Deter Deer from Your Garden
Your freshly budding garden seems as if it’s ringing the dinner bell for the neighbourhood deer. They’ll find another place to dine if you spray your bushes with a cayenne and water mix. Don’t miss these other great gardening hacks that will save you time and money.
4. Keep Ants Out of the Kitchen
Two or three of your annual summer visitors have invaded your kitchen. Those ants are looking for sugar. Give them some pepper instead. Cayenne pepper sprinkled in spots where the ants are looking, such as along the backs of your countertops or on your baseboards, will tell them that no sugar is ahead. These are the 10 most disgusting house bugs—and how to get rid of them.
5. Use Pepper to Get Bugs Off Plants
There’s nothing more frustrating than a swarm of bugs nibbling at your fledgling garden. Just when things are starting to pop up, the bugs are there, chowing down. Mix black pepper with flour. Sprinkle around your plants. Bugs take a hike! Here are more clever new uses for flour.
6. Kill an Ant Colony
If you find the ants’ home colony a little too close to yours and it is causing them to relocate to your own kitchen, cayenne pepper can help get rid of it. Pour the pepper down the ant hole and say so long to ants. Next up, check out these 20 clever household uses for ammonia.
