Natural Pest Control for Organic Garden
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Natural Pest Control for Organic Garden
Most pests can be controlled with homemade sprays or powders made from a number of ingredients, including garlic, horseradish, and wormwood. Store the mixtures in a dry, cool place. Use light amounts; hand sprayers work fine. Do not spray before or after rain. You want the plant to be dry. The best time of day to spray is at sundown.
Rhubarb leaves, toxic to man and bug, make a particularly good spray. Crush the leaves in 2 gallons of water and let the mixture stand for 36 hours. Strain and spray on plants infested with aphids, red spiders, or rose bugs.
Another all-purpose garden spray calls for one cup of fresh spearmint leaves and green onion tops, a half cup of horseradish root, and a few red peppers. Run them through a blender, and add water and just a drop of detergent. Detergent helps the spray adhere to the foliage.
Does Natural Pest Control really work?
Yet another natural pest control spray can be made by combining in a blender a few garlic cloves, a tablespoon of mashed chili pepper, and a cup of warm water. Stir in a teaspoon of nondetergent soap. Spray this, strained, on any plant.
Spider mites, so tiny that it takes fifty to span an inch, can be controlled by a mixture
natural pest control
of a half cup of buttermilk, 4 cups of wheat flour, and 5 gallons of water. This spray will kill not only the spider mites but their eggs as well.
Commercial sprays for apple scab are poisonous and destroy the nutrients in the fruit. It’s better to use a natural pest control spray. A mixture of garlic, tansy, pennyroyal, and cloves is a better alternative. Crush the ingredients, blend in the oil, strain, and use as a spray. Raking fallen apples and leaves in the fall also helps control the disease. Good pruning helps too, since it lets in sunlight to kill fungi.
Cucumber beetles are deterred by a sprinkling of wood ashes around the base of a plant and on the lower leaves. Lime keeps away slugs and sow bugs. Slugs are attracted to acid soils, and their presence is a sure sign that your soil needs lime.
When all else fails, pick off the offending bugs, place them in cooking oil and chop them in a blender. Spray the mixture on your plants. Read all about managing fields and meadows here.