C O NTROLLING GARDEN PESTS TH E

NATURAL WAY

by: Duane Marcus

The Funny Farm
http://tinyurl.com/funnyfarm

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 WORKING WITH NATURE
The key to a productive garden with minimal pest problems begins with the soil food web. Building
healthy soil will result in healthy plants that can repel or resist problems with pests. Pests are persistent
however so, despite our best soil management efforts, they will come. Our job then is to produce a good
crop while minimizing the damage from insects and disease organisms. We can employ the following
strategies to achieve that goal.

• AVOID PESTS AND DISEASES

• ATTRACT BENEFICIAL ORGANISMS TO HELP US

• ANTICIPATE POTENTIAL DISEASE AND INSECT PROBLEMS

• OBSERVE THE GARDEN FOR SIGNS

• INTERVENE USING METHODS THAT ARE LEAST HARMFUL TO US AND THE ENVI-
RONMENT

Avoid pests and diseases

We can employ several strategies to avoid pests and diseases.

1. Choose pest and/or disease resistant varieties

2. Time plantings to get crops in before or after major pest outbreaks

3. Use crop rotations

Attract beneficial organisms to help us

We can use farmscaping (or bugscaping on a smaller scale) to bring beneficial insects to the garden. By
planting species that are food and habitat for beneficial insects we can attract them to the garden so they
can feed on our pest insects. Many insects are beneficial to us because they either eat the pests or their
larvae does. They will lay their eggs near or in the bodies of pests. The emerging larvae will eat the pests as
they grow.

Providing habitat for birds and bats is helpful as well. Both consume many different kinds of insects both
harmful and beneficial. Planting shrubs, leaving some areas natural, installing bird and bat houses are all
good strategies for attracting birds and bats.

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Anticipate potential disease and insect problems
Here in the South we know that we will get blight on tomatoes, cabbage loopers on brassicas, flea beetles
on eggplant, squash borers and many other pests. By knowing what infestations to expect and when we
can expect them we can be prepared to act when they occur. We can have controls on hand to intervene
when our observations have led us to the conclusion that we need to do so.

Observe the garden for signs

It is very important to keep our eyes and minds open to the interplay between the plants and the other
organisms in the garden. If we are only looking for pests we may miss the presence of beneficial insects.
When we do find pests we need to ask ourselves some questions. Is the pest damaging the part of the
plant we eat? What percentage of the crop is infested? Is the harvest just starting or is it almost over? Are
there signs of the presence of predators of the pest? Once we have answered these questions we can decide
if , when and how we will intervene to control the pest. If the harvest is almost over we might decide to
wait. When harvest is complete we can then pull up the plants and compost them. If we see evidence of
predation we will let the natural processes take care of the problem. If it is early in the lifespan of a crop
we might need to intervene.

Intervene using methods that are least harmful to us and the environ-
ment
We have several options open to us. The first and most simple is to remove the pest by hand and destroy
it. This works well when infestations are minimal. If the problem is severe we may need to resort to spray-
ing to get control of the situation. For worms of all types bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is commonly used. It is
a bacteria that consumes the worms. A newer more broad spectrum organic control is Spinosad. It derived
from a fermentation of actinomycete, a soil-borne bacteria. It will kill worms, aphids, and hard-shelled
bugs. If mixed with a little soap it can penetrate the leaves to help control leaf miners. Insecticidal soaps
work well on soft-bodied insects like aphids.

Bacillus subtilis is a natural control for fungal diseases. A solution of baking soda is said to be effective on
some types of fungi.

By using these strategies we can attain good crop yields without ever having to use harmful chemicals.
Working with Mother Nature not against her brings great rewards.

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Resources
Univ. of California, Davis Integrated Pest Management Site
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/menu.homegarden.html
Cornell Resource Guide for Organic Disease and Pest Control
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/resourceguide/index.php

This site has some good home remedies http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_cntrl.htm

Dr. Richard McDonald’s site http://www.drmcbug.com/

Lots of photos of bugs http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

Good bug identification site http://bugguide.net/

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