So I've been working on growing a more natural garden, but its been slow going with pest control the past couple years. I had to resort to using dish soap to help with bugs which wasn't the greatest, but it helped a bit more than the organic neighbor (although not as much as the poison using other neighbor down the road). Any good ways to help?
My biggest issues have been corn boring things, tomato caterpillars, and some type of funky mold on the zucchini.
On this note for buggers in the yard and garden, does anyone know what could be used as a bee repellent? We have had carpenter bees around the house and its getting bad enough that I cant sit on my porch.
I am right there with you on the garden though, mine has yet to grow anything (bad soil here, might need replaced).
It must be regional differences. My biggest problems in the garden are white fly (tomatoes) and spidermites (brassicas), and both are particularly receptive to the soap treatment.
I try to live and let live in the garden and I don't use chemicals because it would be dangerous for my pets and for the wildlife in the garden. The only thing I really have to do something about are the slugs, they are eating everything in sight, I wouldn't mind so much if they ate the weeds but they are not interested in them. I have tried putting natural barriers around the base of the plants but it doesn't work. Is a beer trap the only option and would it harm anything else?
Have you tried companion planting? So you plant two plants together that complement each other for some reason, maybe because the scent of one put off nasties or because one attracts natural predators to the nasties that feed on the other. Search on Companion Planting and you'll find loads of examples.
Marigold is probably the plant I use the most in this way. Apparantly African Marigolds produce something called thiopene which repels nematodes. This makes it a good companion plant for root crops which are attacked by nematodes.
Green, dumb question here, but are nematodes like snails or slugs? I've been told that marigolds repel them.
My Granny hated tomato bugs and would squish them on first sight, so she didn't tell me about any repellant for them. There has to be a less violent measure out there, I'm sure.
As to companion planting, tomato and beans I've heard grow very well together.
I don't reall have the room to companion plant without overplanting or cutting back on production. The beer traps only cause issues if your dog likes to drink it. My lab will probably be on those if I use them drinking the beer and eating the dead slugs (he was too young last year). However if you don't like harming animals beer traps are very inhumane as these things go. The slugs actually drink so much they explode....
I use the beer/soap method mostly, as well as some diactimous earth (spelling may be off, lol) but reapplying it can be costly if it rains every couple days for some time.
Natural Pest Control
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