The last thing a gardener wants if for all of his or her hard work to get consumed by a swath of bugs. Pests can be the bane of any garden, which is why pesticides, chemicals designed to kill or repel bugs, are so popular. But increasingly, the trend is moving away from these chemicals, as they turn out to be often harmful for humans as well as insects. How do you control for pests without pesticides? In this article, let’s look at some of these ways, the most important of which is not to get rid of all insects, but to attract the rights ones to drive off the others.
Let’s dive right into to what you need to know about bugs. As far as our purpose for gardening go, there are two types of bugs: beneficial bugs and bad bugs. Bad bugs include aphids, Japanese beetles, squash beetles, grasshoppers, cabbage worms, earwigs, mealybugs, birch leaf miners, gypsy moths, and spider mites. See the shapes of some below:
These bugs harm your garden by eating your plants. Additionally, they lay eggs in your garden, which in turn produces more bugs that will harm your plants. That’s not an ideal situation for your new garden!
There are 3 ways you can protect against these pests:
- Use good bugs to protect against the bag bugs.
- Install row covers.
- Apply diatomaceous earth (D.E.) to your pants.
Let’s talk about each of these in turn.
Good bugs protect your plants by preying on the bad bugs while not eating your plants. Examples of good bugs are lady beetles, lacewings, praying mantises, ground beetles, spiders, rove beetles, hover flies, dragonflies, predatory mites, and parasitic wasps. Some of these you wouldn’t necessarily thing are “good” – there’s a lot of people with arachnophobia, for example – but in terms of protecting your garden, they absolutely are. Some of their silhouettes are below:
You can attract these guys to your garden through insectary plants. These include cornflowers, alyssum, fennel, borage, anise, marigolds, sunflowers, cup plants, golden marguerites, zinnias, and cosmos. Their nectar attracts the good bugs and provides a reliable source of food for them, allowing them to stick around your garden to prey on the harmful insects. Plant 5-10% of your garden as annual insectary plants.
The second way to protect your plants is through row covers. These aren’t fool proof, but in addition to providing some protection against the bad bugs, they also protect against bad weather while still letting in air, water, and light.
The third way is to apply D.E. to your plants. This organic pesticide is composed of fossilized algae that feels soft to our hands, but is sharp enough to harm bugs, causing them to become dehydrated and die. Put these on your plants’ leaves, but be sure to wear a dust mask to protect your lungs.
If you have additional questions about these methods of organically controlling pests, look at the attached infographic.
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