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Would you want to discourage backyard pests from damaging your vegetation with out harming your loved ones, your pets, or the setting? Bugs are unavoidable however you don’t want poisonous chemical compounds to maintain them away out of your flower or vegetable garden. Instead, use pure pest management strategies generally utilized by organic gardeners.
Let’s have a look at some pest management options you’ll be able to safely use in your natural backyard — their advantages, disadvantages, and different noteworthy data.
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Organic Pest Control Products
Neem Oil
A naturally occurring pesticide, neem oil is obtained from the seeds of the neem tree. Its lively compound is azadirachtin, an ingredient that kills bugs and retains them from reproducing. Neem oil controls powdery mildew, aphids, rust, spider mites, whiteflies, and beetles. It can be utilized on houseplants, roses, fruits, greens, decorative timber, shrubs, and flowers.
The product can also be used as a fungicide.
Not all neem oil merchandise are certified organic. Make certain you solely use USDA certified organic neem oil merchandise in your natural backyard.
Disadvantages
- While it kills pests, neem oil may hurt some soft-bodied beneficial insects. Apply the answer solely onto plant surfaces, circuitously into the soil.
- Neem oil will be harmful when ingested by infants or small children, generally inflicting diarrhea, vomiting, or seizures.
Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is produced from fossilized skeletons of microscopic aquatic organisms. Their skeletons are made from silica, a pure substance that makes up a part of Earth’s crust.
This natural pest management technique works at a microscopic stage, performing like tiny items of glass that kill bugs when utilized instantly on the vegetation. The sharp particles minimize soft-body bugs like aphids and caterpillars inflicting them to dehydrate and ultimately die. Diatomaceous earth additionally works on hard-bodied bugs like cockroaches, fleas, and beetles when the silica finds its method into the bug’s joints.
Disadvantages
- The sharp edges that kill roaches and beetles will even kill bugs we depend on to pollinate our gardens, resembling ladybugs, bees, and butterflies. Avoid utilizing it on and close to flowers and vegetation the place pollinators can be visiting.
- Diatomaceous earth will be harmful to people, irritating your nasal passages. It may dry out and irritate your pores and skin and eyes.
Corn Gluten Meal
Extension brokers at Cornell University advocate utilizing corn gluten meal to inhibit the germination of weeds, noting it additionally wards off pests that feed on herbs. Corn gluten meal is innocent to people.
It might take a few weeks, however corn gluten meal is a pure solution to management ants in your backyard. These tiny critters take the crumbs to their nests and eat, however they can’t digest them.
Things to notice
- Many gardeners confuse corn gluten meal with cornmeal. The cornmeal in your pantry won’t stop weeds. Corn gluten meal is a byproduct created when making cornmeal.
- Extension brokers on the Oregon State University dispute Cornell’s claims about its capability to manage weeds, however they discovered it makes a wonderful fertilizer.
Floating Row Covers
Floating row covers made from polypropylene- or polyester-based cloth, easy plastic covers, or canvas tarps assist management aphids, thrips, cabbage worms, squash bugs, and different pests. They additionally deter squirrels, rabbits, birds, and different critters. The covers create a windbreak and retain warmth whereas letting within the water, air, and lightweight the vegetation must survive.
Floating row covers additionally assist management:
- Caterpillars on broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage
- Maggots on corn and beans
- Beetles that prefer to munch on eggplants, cabbage, potatoes, and cucumbers
Things to notice
- Lightweight covers don’t want supportive poles, are the least costly, and are appropriate for residence gardens.
- Medium-weight covers assist crops mature sooner. They’re greatest for lettuce, carrots, radishes, and candy corn.
- Heavyweight covers defend towards frosts and freezes.
Beneficial Nematodes
Not to be confused with non-beneficial nematodes that can hurt your vegetation, beneficial nematodes are microscopic, non-segmented roundworms that can kill soil-dwelling bugs or bugs of their larvae or grub stage. They don’t hurt earthworms, however assault pests like Japanese beetle larvae, cutworms, root maggots, and grubs.
Beneficial nematodes gives you greatest ends in small gardens since it’s essential to apply the right amount at the right time to ensure that them to work. Apply them too early within the season, and also you run the chance of them dying if the bottom temperature drops too low. Apply them too late, and also you threat the warmth killing them. The nematodes ought to be utilized to the soil when pests are current within the soil.
Disadvantages
- Beneficial nematodes are a biological pest control technique that can take longer to work than chemical pesticides. You might not see a lower within the pest inhabitants till two weeks after the appliance, and you could must reapply the nematodes to your backyard each seven to 10 days.
- Since nematodes reside creatures, they’ve a restricted shelf life and have to be saved at a cool temperature.
- You should apply the species of nematode that’s the appropriate measurement for the pest you’re controlling.
- Nematodes can die from publicity to daylight or from drying out within the warmth. Apply them within the morning or night time when the soil is cool and moist
Mother Nature Knows Best
Companion Planting
Companion planting is the apply of rising sure vegetation collectively for the good thing about one or each of the vegetation. Some vegetation assist repel pests or lure pests away from different vegetation. Some present meals for sure bugs that management pests. Either method, companion planting helps you management backyard pests with out the necessity for pesticides.
What kind of pests do you’ve got? There’s more likely to be no less than one herb or flower that deters that pest. For instance,
- Marigolds entice bugs that kill aphids. Alliums and petunias additionally hold aphids away.
- Marigolds and petunias additionally repel leafhoppers, asparagus beetles, tomato hornworms, and squash bugs. Plant petunias subsequent to basil and your tomato vegetation.
- Nasturtiums and chrysanthemums keep off aphids, beetles, ants, and cabbage loopers.
- Carnivorous vegetation, resembling pitcher vegetation, lure and eat bugs. These vegetation have developed to avoid consuming beneficial pollinators.
- Garlic and onions repel tomato worms. Tangy chives are additionally good to develop alongside tomatoes and carrots.
Not all bugs and bugs are dangerous in your backyard; many are pollinators which might be important to the survival of the vegetation. By utilizing pure pest-control strategies like companion planting, you’ll be able to deter undesirable bugs with out harming you, the planet, or the helpful animals and insects that assist your natural backyard flourish.
Want extra pure pest-control suggestions? Check out Bug Off (Naturally)! 7 Nontoxic Pest Control Remedies
About the Author
Todd Michaels is a conservationist with levels in biology and botany. He writes about eco-friendly landscaping and recycling efforts across the nation.
