How Do Y'all Deal With Pests Without Chemicals?

[bubba1358]

Curious to know what everyone around here does to organically control garden pests.

This year, we had squash vine borers and squash bugs destroy all of our zucchini, butternut squash, and pumpkins. We had some ladybug look-alike eat our radish greens. Caterpillars destroyed kale and cabbages before we got any. Last year, something ate our pepper plants. We want to control these going forward, but do NOT want to spray pesticides. We tried getting guineas, but they got attacked and killed off, and the survivors are MIA. We'll have a better guinea plan and start sooner next year, but I realize we'll need more.

So how do guys manage it without spraying? Thanks!

 

[moolie]

We don't have a huge number of pests here, but we do a few things to try to mitigate damage to the crops:

Companion planting is huge. In my garden I have to watch out for carrot maggot flies (the larvae make black tunnels in carrots) so I plant my carrots with onions and haven't had any problems since starting that about 8 years ago. I also plant tomatoes with my carrots and onions, along with typical tomato herbs (oregano, basil) because they "get along" well and seem to improve growth in each other.

I hand-pick the big things like squash bugs and slugs, and put out saucers of beer for the slugs as well. They're tiny around these parts compared to when I lived on the Coast where there are "banana slugs", but they do quite a bit of damage if unchecked.

I encourage beneficial bugs like ladybugs and pollinators by interplanting my food crops with various flowers--marigolds, nasturtiums (also edible), poached egg plant, and a few others including alyssum are great for attracting the good bugs and keeping the bad bugs away. I have a book by Louise Riotte about companion planting that has tons of advice on this subject and these are the plants that help in my garden.

That said, something out there loves my cardoon and I still can't tell what is munching on it

 

[Britesea]

I always plant alliums (garlic, onions, shallots) around my brassicas to keep the aphids away, otherwise I would never get a crop.

Tobacco is an excellent pesticide (except don't use it on any of the solanum family- tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant etc) as they might get infected with tobacco mosaic virus. Couple reasons I like tobacco-- it's a very potent, but very short lived poison; you can eat your (washed, of course) produce a few hours after spraying. Yet there is no record of any insect developing an immunity to it, over the the hundreds of years it has been used as a pesticide, unlike most modern insecticides. It's primarily effective against any pests that suck the juices of the plants.

On the con side: Tobacco is extremely poisonous to all warm-blooded mammals and is readily absorbed through skin. Wear protective clothing and a mask when using it.

I would use tobacco only as a last resort after trying the somewhat safer pest killers such as sabadilla, pyrethrins, and Neem oil (depending on the pest), and encouraging the presence of frogs, snakes, ducks and chickens, and beneficial insects first.

You can make a tobacco spray by collecting about a cup of cigarette butts (your own, if you smoke, or scrounge them from others, or even from public ashtrays).
Soak them in 1 gallon of water for 24 to 48 hours. When it looks like iced tea, it's ready. If it's darker, or if you are going to be spraying close to your tomatoes etc, dilute the solution with warm water.
Spray on the plants on a windless day. Pour into spray bottles and use. The solution should keep for about a month if stored in a cool dark area. (make sure children and pets can't get into it!)

 

[bubba1358]

Thanks. I've looked into companion planting a little bit, but not as much as I need to apparently. :/

Tobacco is an interesting idea. I have a lot of nooks and crannies on the property where I could grow a small patch. I'd prefer that to used cigarettes....

Also, how do ducks integrate into a garden? Do the eat/damage/destroy the crops like a chicken could?

 

[so lucky]

I don't know from first-hand experience, but I have heard/read that ducks don't do the damage that chickens do. Theoretically, once the garden is up and producing, the chickens wouldn't do much damage, but mine love the tomatoes on the vine, so I have to keep them out if there's anything growing at all.
Lots of people use diatomaceous earth for an insecticide. It's a dessicant, not an instant kill. Also, there are a few natural pesticides on the market, or that you can make, that are pretty effective. Dipel for cabbage worms is a must-have. There is a spray made with hot peppers and garlic and dish soap that works well. Neem oil protects against some bugs and also has uses as a fungicide, as well, I believe. Some people use baking soda as a fungicide.
Just spraying with a blast of water gets rid of spider mites. Mild dish soap solution works for aphids.
Hand picking and being aware does wonders.

 

[moolie]

Just a caution--"natural" pesticides will kill beneficial as well as predatory insects, so proceed carefully if you choose to try diatomaceous earth or any of the other more natural products available. Things can get worse than they may be now if you kill off the good bugs along with your pests.

I have heard good things from friends about ducks and geese in the garden though

 

[ninny]

CHICKENS!!! Put them in the garden all year expect for when you want to keep your lettuce and tomatoes uneaten. Or just fence them off. We have been free rangeing our birds in the garden all year. We only pen them up when we plant until the plants are strong enough to be stepped on then let them back out until the tomatoes are setting once they are done we let them back out. Only do this with a few chickens though if you have a large flock don't let them in they will eat everything. Since we started doing this we have noticed a huge drop in bugs. Plus they eat the weed seeds and spread their poo for me. Use companion planting and don't over crowd the plants. Kill the weeds! My squash is getting attacked by something because I let the weeds get to high. Look into the book carrots love tomatoes. Also make sure you rotate.

 

[baymule]

When you spray your plants, spray in late evenings after the bees have quit working the garden. A lot of the sprays will kill the bees when wet, but once dry (since they aren't eating the foliage or vegetables) the bees will be ok. I sometimes use Voo-Doo Juice, but I have burned tomato leaves with it. I know you aren't supposed to use tobacco on tomatoes, potatoes, ect, but it does work for me.


Voo-Doo Juice

1 package of chewing tobacco

1 pod of garlic, crushed, not a clove, but the whole pod

1/4 cup of Tabasco

1/4 cup of dishwashing liquid

Boil 1 gallon of water, add pouch of chewing tobacco and crushed garlic. Bring to a boil and turn off heat. Let steep until cool. Strain, then add Tabasco and soap. Pour into a 2 gallon sprayer and top with water. Spray on garden after 7 PM, so as not to injure bees. Be sure to spray the underside of leaves too.


You can also use insectidal soap, I found some at WalMart. Look for spinosad, GreenLight brand can be found at Lowes.

 

[Britesea]

Using tobacco on your nightshade family plants can be risky, as the tobacco may transmit the tobacco mosaic virus... but it may not. Not all tobacco plants are infected.

Ducks don't cause as much damage as chickens in a garden because they are more interested in the insects. They will nibble on the tender young plants though, so it's best to wait until the your plants are up and running. However, I can't stress enough... if you want ANY strawberries at all from your strawberry patch--- fence them off! lol

You could also try experimenting with the Floating Row Covers- they are supposed to keep a lot of insects out, while allowing sunshine and water in. I've never used them, so I don't know how well they work.

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

The interplanting really helps, meaning companion planting, but also don't put the same thing in one place, and then all of something else in one place. It might look cute, but it's a huge red flag from the air, "Hey! There's the lettuce!!" Even a blind and injured bug can go from plant to plant if the plants are all lined up nicely.

I plant in a triad, vegetable/flower or native flower/herb or something very scented. I plant in 100-foot rows, so if I have 25 lettuce transplants I'll spread those over the whole length of the 100 feet, each lettuce transplant no closer than 2 feet apart, filling in between with the other part of the triad. Even if a couple heads of lettuce get hit, for the most part the rest of them don't and I can step in and fix the problem. This helps if there are gophers, moles and voles as well.

I also encourage the bug-eating birds that are ground nesters to nest in tall grass that is outside of my garden fence. I don't mow everything flat, just some paths through it. The birds do an amazing job of going after bugs. Not all of them eat fruit or do damage. I watched a hawk sit on a stump about 150 feet away from me for about 3 hours waiting for something good to go by. He didn't mind my being a safe distance. Also, don't let a dog or cat in the garden if you want the birds to help you. I stay in one section and come and go by one path and let the birds work on the other sections.

If you go out into your garden at night with a flashlight you might find out a lot more about what's eating your plants. here are some things that are just a pain, like snails and slugs. You can go after those early morning and collect them. The beer traps work, and often catch all kinds of critters. But if beer is too expensive, you can make a sugar/yeast mixture (it's the yeast they like) by adding a package of bread yeast to a large quart jar, 3 tablespoons of sugar and put water only to half way. Leave the lid off, and set aside. The yeast will expand, keep an eye on it so it doesn't run over. It will explode if you put a lid on it. Then when it's done foaming, you can fill it the rest of the way with water and use in small cottage cheese containers sunken into the soil, filled halfway with the mixture (or beer).

Wood ash dusted on leaves of brassicas will slow down flea beetles in the spring and early summer. They disappear where I am after that.