Natural Pest Control for Garden

[Ripple]

Wondering if any of you have good recipes for natural pest control in your garden or home

This seems to work well for me


Heat water almost to boiling with minced garlic, peppermint, and hot peppers (cayenne, jalepeno etc). I have used just hot sauce if i dont have fresh pepper available. Let cool over night. Put in spray bottle with a couple of drops of dish detergent. If it rains then obviously you will need to spray your plants again. Seems to work well to keep all kinds of bugs off your plants.

Any other suggestions for garden or household pest control?

[Ripple]

Forgot to add that you need to strain the liquid before putting in spray bottle.

[Tobi]

Thank you Ripple. This may be a very useful solution.
For instance, I have heard that aphids absolutely cannot stand garlic smells, and will vacate!

Now do you know....if this solution rests on leaves, and comes in contact with sunlight, will it cause any discolouration or browning?

[Ragna]

I use a 50/50 buttermilk/water solution against mildew. It works really good.

[knightofalbion]

A good thread. We humans must learn to live in harmony without resorting to toxic chemicals that poison the earth and in many cases are carcinogenic ...

I'm a keen gardener and can honestly say I've never used any form of pest control, even natural.

Aphids and greenfly - some seasons, the bane of my life! But they're still God's creatures and for our bird brothers and sisters they're vital food for their fledglings, so I leave them be. Only blowing hard when I need to!

Slugs and snails - I go out at night, gather them up and relocate them somewhere else. No need to kill.

There's room for us all.

[Phoenix Rising]

Knight, I like your solution the best. However there are times when you get so overrun with slugs and snails, you need another solution. I use sunken beer bottles with a little beer left inside to attract them. If the garden is large you should place a bottle every 4 or 5 feet, leaving just the lip of the bottle exposed. Leave them for about a week, collect them and see how many you find, it will be a lot.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by Sundancer

Knight, I like your solution the best. However there are times when you get so overrun with slugs and snails, you need another solution. I use sunken beer bottles with a little beer left inside to attract them. If the garden is large you should place a bottle every 4 or 5 feet, leaving just the lip of the bottle exposed. Leave them for about a week, collect them and see how many you find, it will be a lot.

I would have to disagree with you on that. If there is the will, there is the time.

I'll give you a powerful tip. Water your plants in the morning, rather than in the evening. This will reduce slug activity by at least 80%.
How does it work? Simple, by understanding slugs. (Slug empathy) Slugs are predominantly nocturnal and moisture lovers. By watering in the morning the immediate top soil will have dried out by the evening and thus the soil does not encourage them to 'travel' that way i.e. towards your plants.

[Ripple]

Originally Posted by Tobi

Thank you Ripple. This may be a very useful solution.
For instance, I have heard that aphids absolutely cannot stand garlic smells, and will vacate!

Now do you know....if this solution rests on leaves, and comes in contact with sunlight, will it cause any discolouration or browning?

I have not noticed any problem and my plants are in full sunlight. I spray top and bottom of the leaves and saturate the plant with the solution

[Ripple]

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

A good thread. We humans must learn to live in harmony without resorting to toxic chemicals that poison the earth and in many cases are carcinogenic ...

I'm a keen gardener and can honestly say I've never used any form of pest control, even natural.

Aphids and greenfly - some seasons, the bane of my life! But they're still God's creatures and for our bird brothers and sisters they're vital food for their fledglings, so I leave them be. Only blowing hard when I need to!

Slugs and snails - I go out at night, gather them up and relocate them somewhere else. No need to kill.

There's room for us all.

That is nice that you are able to do that knight. Unfortunately where I live, I must do something or my plants will be literally dead overnight. There are pests here that will strip a plant down to twigs in no time at all. I am sure in some locations a passive approach may work though.

[Tobi]

I used to rescue snails dear Knight!
I worked as a gardener for a lady in town (and general jobs) She got a bucket of water and told me to pick out all snails and drown them in the water. When she had left, I grabbed every snail and chucked it over her hedge into the field!
I hoped each one had a soft landing....but at least that way they had a chance.

That is a good tip about watering in the morning! Thanks. I don't grow veg any more, but find slugs and snails eat all the flowers I plant. They nip off every flower, then eat the plant too. I have found putting a ring of rough sandpaper round very precious plants works very well. Slugs & snails hate dragging their tender bellies over it, and usually don't even try.

This works well also for putting around outdoor vases (on graves etc) Otherwise the snails will go up the vase and eat all the flowers. I stick the sandpaper on with an elastic band.