How Do Y'all Deal With Pests Without Chemicals?

[so lucky]

good suggestions, Daffodil

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I will definitely be using some of those ideas, Daffodil. Thanks!

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

There are a couple more things I do to encourage the local critters to eat bugs. We have lizards, and they need places to hide and get up on top of, so I place small one-foot logs down the center of my 3 foot wide planting beds so they can go long distances safely and cover the whole bed. Sometimes I puddle pieces of shade cloth over the logs, they love that stuff, and they will stay where it is. They also love the cement cinder blocks that I have planted strawberries in. And strawberries need a lot of protection! I've put the occasional cinder block in the middle of the bed with nasturtiums in them to attract beneficial insects, so they hang out there as well.

Raccoons and skunks are excellent at eating snails. I've had a lot of trouble with raccoons getting up in the fruit trees, breaking branches, eating fruit, but the latest one is only eating snails, and hundreds of them! He's out there at night when the snails are out, and I am finding empty shells everywhere!

We also have tree frogs that will stay in a garbage can half full of water. I put the lid on upside down and slightly askew so they can go in and out. They eat any mosquito larvae that get in there, then go out to eat bugs. Plus I have a quick can to get a bucket of water out of. I am careful not to disturb or scare them. They seem to get upset if I talk to them, maybe it echoes inside the can!

 

[Britesea]

Here is an interesting idea I came across for using ducks without losing your garden plants- Make a "moat run"... put up two fences around the garden (they don't need to be that tall for ducks ) about 3 feet apart, and allow the ducks to wander in the space between the two fences. The theory is that they will pick up a lot of the bugs before they get into the garden. I can see this working for snails and other crawlies, but I'm not as sure about the flying/ jumping ones, like grasshoppers.

I have raised beds for my garden, which at least keeps my ducks from getting right into the plants; they nibble on the outside leaves but I can mostly live with that.
I also try to have plants with tiny flowers like yarrow and lavender throughout the garden, which some beneficials like ladybugs can eat when there aren't enough aphids for them. I figure it will keep them around longer, until the aphids show up.

 

[k15n1]

Apparently, bugs have this routine built into their brains that basically has them jump around a given area, looking for suitable food or whatever. When you interplant, the chance that the bug will land on its ideal host is smaller. And the chance of landing on the ideal host multiple times is small.

I'm considering planting in clusters next year. It will be a difficult switch. I so like neat rows of identical plants. Maybe I'll do rows that alternate between two types of plants. And for the corn, I'll plant peas and other climbing plants at the base. That'll be a fun experiement.

 

[baymule]

I finally have a good population of GOOD bugs. I have orange assassin bugs that spear aphids and bug eggs on their sharp needle like (I dunno what you call it-beaks??) then they eat them. I have lizards, ladybugs, toads, praying mantis and wasps. Don't knock the wasps nests down unless they are right where you go in and out of a building. Wasps eat caterpillars and all sorts of bugs.

It is a double edged sword......to get the good bugs, they have to have something to eat........so you have to have a population of the bad bugs. If you kill off all the bad bugs, you won't have any good bugs because there won't be any bad bugs for the good bugs to eat. Got that?

 

[Denim Deb]

The mouth parts of assassin bugs are called a proboscis.

Wish I had more good bugs. I've seen a couple of lady bugs and a wheel bug, but that's been it.

 

[baymule]

I really screwed up this spring when I dug out my compost bin. There were the biggest grub worms I ever saw in my life under there. They were big as a man's thumb. Thinking that I had found the grand-daddy of June bug grubs, I tossed them to the chickens. Now I found out that they were the grubs of the Rhinoceros beetle, which is a good bug.

 

[~gd]

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 pesticideWell i live in NC and I will tell you that flea bettles will eat your crop of tobacco in the field what you are talking about must be nicotine it is highly toxic to most animal life. ~gd, 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!)

 

[NatureBoy]

I plant varieties that are very resistant. And I plant them at the optimal time. I only plant brassica and chicory in the fall because they mature when it is too cold for most bugs. I plant things that very few bugs eat: onions, garlic, okra, leeks, etc. I plant the crops that can handle extreme cold very early before the bugs get started: peas, turnips, flax, carrot, beet, etc. And when I say extreme cold, I mean that I plant as early as the extension agency says I can even if there is snow and ice on the ground. I plant legumes for nitrogen that the bugs do not eat: vetch, fenugreek, etc. I plant fava in the fall when it is too cold for most bugs. I only grow Butternut and Tatumi squash since the SVB does not attack them. And I train them up a portable trellis to avoid mold and squash bugs. I never turn my lights on at night during growing season since it attracts moths. I use a 7 year crop rotation that includes one year with a member of the grass family. And I plant flowers that have small blossoms to attract and feed parasitoids. Lastly, I gave in and paid for a buried fence to keep the varmints out. And I have bat and owl nests.