Nothing ruins a happy home, yard, and garden like uninvited guests – by which I mean destructive critters that thwart your efforts to build and maintain a household and home. Worse is that most of the pest-control “solutions” out on the market are toxic not only to the pests but to you and me and our pets and the environment too! What’s a green redneck to do?
Thankfully, there’s a good old fashioned green home remedy for most pest problems just like there are for pretty every other household problem. Here are several of the most commonly useful:
- To make all your plants as pest and disease resistant as possible, grow them to be as strong and hardy as possible. Use good (natural) fertilizers – like your own homemade compost – rich soil, etc. Healthy plants are naturally pest and disease resistant.
- Add to the pest and disease preventing power of your garden by interplanting too – that’s planting all different things together in the same area rather than “monocropping”, where you grow each crop in a separate patch. Since different pests gravitate towards specific plants, it will be hard for any one pest to propagate when its dietary options are so spread out.
- Then, after harvest, rotate your crops – planting different crops in different patches each season. Rotating crops reduces the likelihood of a pest infestation to pass over from one season to the next in any given patch.
- There are also natural pesticides like neem oil and insecticidal soap. These aren’t as effective as some chemical pesticides, but they will kill bugs without leaving a harmful residue on foods.
- Diatomaceous earth is a dry powder derived from the shells of marine organisms. It can be used to deter and kill crawling pests.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
found you on google. Are there any books out on Sustainable Pest Control.
I am a landscape Architect/Horticulture teacher and I need a text book on Sustainable Pest Control.
Thanks,
H.J. La Chance, ASLA
Have you had any luck controlling aphids with ladybugs?
Last year, they worked great. I bought a little container of them, and they fiercely decimated the plant-eating foe, who never returned.
This year, when the aphids came I got more ladies and they wiped out the first round of aphids, then apparantly flew off. A month later, the aphids returned. Now what?
Anyway, thanks for the tips!
@H.J. La Chance
I don’t know of complete books on the subject, but I’m sure that there are some. I’d recommend doing the usual Amazon and Google searches (which you have undoubtedly already done). The site http://www.gardensalive.com sells a lot of natural pest control products.
@rewinn
Ladybugs do tend to fly away. I’ve had luck with Safer’s insecticidal soap and neem oilon aphids.