Organic Pest Control

If has been a beautiful spring and you've worked hard to add to the beauty of your landscape or quite possibly you will grow the first delicious homegrown tomato on the block. You stand back to admire your labors and notice that something has beat you to the sweet taste of your first ripening tomato. You wake up the next morning and find your favorite budding perennial is gone! It is the bugs, you say to yourself, and you will get them! Before you reach for the "Kill Anything That Moves" synthetic pesticide or fungicide, think. It is the beneficial soil life that is making the nutrients available to the plants that you have lovingly given your time and efforts to help grow. Your kids, your animals, and yourself will likely be around the plants you are about to spray. The first thing the doctor asked me when we were talking about my father's newly discovered cancer was if he had ever been a vegetable gardener. And he had been a firm believer in Malathion. You need to protect your plants, but there are less harmful ways to do it than with toxic chemicals.

The ecosystem that is your yard or your vegetable garden is one operating in a balance in which nature provides the rules. When we indiscriminately go in and kill all living things with an across the board pest killer we are disrupting that balance. In all likelihood, your pest problem has surfaced because of an imbalance already in place. Sometimes, if left alone, the problem will be reversed by nature herself. Such is the case with aphids. You may develop aphid problems, but usually in a short amount of time you will find ladybugs and their larvae consuming these little pests. If you must resort to chemical controls to rid your plants of the problem bug then use the least toxic means available. They are many and they work. Let's look at a few of the most common.

· Garlic/Pepper Tea- A homemade remedy that works to keep the pests off the plant before they are a problem or after they are there. Liquefy two bulbs of garlic and two cayenne's or habenero peppers in a blender 1/3 full of water. Strain the solids out and add enough water to make one gallon of concentrate. Shake well before use and add ¼ cup of concentrate to each gallon of water and apply with a sprayer. You should know that this kills beneficial insects as well as the harmful ones.

· Diatomaceous Earth- This mined product of one-celled aquatic plants that lived millions of years ago in the western U.S. is used for controlling bugs with hard exoskeletons like ants. The razor sharp skeletons scratch the shells of living insects, causing them to dehydrate and die. Use as a dust or mix with water and spray infected plants. Will also kill beneficial insects so use sparingly.

· Thuricide (Bt)- Kills only soft-bodied worms such as Cabbage Loopers and the Tomato HornWorm. It is a beneficial bacterium that is applied as foliar and ground spray. Mix with molasses and it will not be washed off with rain.

· Neem Oil- This works to stop the appetite of many miners, moths, beetles, mealybug, mites, aphids, whiteflies, and scale. It comes from the Indian neem tree. This has worked for many of our customers as an insect repellent, including grasshoppers. It is best used on groups of plants that the insects really tend to be going after, and not used as a broadcast spray.

· Beneficial Nematodes- This is a scientific discipline unto itself! There are good ones and bad ones. Different nematodes control different pests. One called Antidote works on ants, grubs, and fleas. You spray these into the soil with a hose-end sprayer. Once established, they can live in ground for many years.

· Nosema Locustae- Used for the control of grasshoppers! Applied as dry bait, the grasshoppers eat it and die. Live grasshoppers eat the dead ones, keeping the cycle going. For best results, apply when grasshoppers are young and immature. This can also be around for years as infected grasshoppers lay infected eggs, carrying the cycle into the next growing season.

These are but a few of the products available to the gardener for non-toxic pest control. You will find that they are very effective. If you try to keep the inherent balance in nature intact, you will find your plants healthier and happier. And isn't that what we really want?