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Pest Control Guide: |
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Organic
pest control doesn't mean substituting naturally occurring poisons
for synthetic ones and gardening as usual. You need to make two
changes in your basic thinking:
- Accept that most insects are non-pests and even helpers, and
stop trying to kill every insect you see in your vegetable garden.
- Accept the occasional hole and bite in your produce as a natural
part of raising healthy, residue-free food.
Once
you have accepted these new ideas you can move on to learning about
organic pest control.
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TOOLS FOR ORGANIC PEST CONTROL-
Simple techniques and products make organic pest control work.
Here's
a brief rundown of the elements needed:
Good
Soil Care-
Well-fed and cared-for soil is full of tiny living organisms that
feed and care for plant roots. Plants growing in such soil are pest
resistant. Test and adjust your soil's pH to suit your plants. Add
abundant quantities of organic matter-such as compost-every year.
Till only when needed and never when the soil is wet, and don't
use synthetic fertilizers or herbicides.
Resistant
and Suitable Plants-
There are many vegetable varieties that have disease and even pest
resistance built right in. Choose resistant plants whenever you
have the choice. Purchase plants that grow well in your region and
you'll spend less time fighting problems.
Good
Plant Care-
Give every plant exactly what it needs. Thirsty, hungry, over-watered,
or overfed plants are stressed plants. Stressed plants are prime
candidates for problems.
Eyes-
Use your eyes to spot potential problem situations before they turn
into 4-alarm fires. Take a slow walk through your garden twice a
week peering under leaves and observing what's going on. Write down
when and what you see to help you predict things next year.
Hands-
Your hands are great pest control tools. Use them for picking off
or squashing pests.
Beneficial
Bugs-
You can purchase a number of garden helpers to hunt pests for you.
Lace wing larvae are great predators of aphids, mites, and other
small, soft pests. Lady beetles are great predators, but tend to
fly away when released. Predatory wasps or Trichogramma wasps lay
their eggs on pest caterpillar eggs so that the pest eggs never
get a chance to hatch. To attract wild predatory insects, plant
a patch of flowers and herbs such as yarrow, dill, and sweet clover
to provide food and cover.
Beneficial
nematodes are tiny worm-like creatures that hunt insects in the
soil and kill them. They are related to pest nematodes, but are
not harmful to plants. Purchase and apply them according to label
instructions.
Diseases
That Make Pests Sick-
Pests get diseases just the way we do. The best-known example is
BT (Bacillus thuringiensis). BT (or BTK) makes only caterpillars
sick. Another type of BT (BTSD) makes only Colorado potato beetle
larvae sick.
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