Organic Pest Control Recipes

From LoveToKnow Organic

When making organic pest control recipes, be sure to play close attention to whether the recipe is organic or simply non-toxic.

Organic Versus Non-Toxic

Organic pest control and non-toxic pest control often get lumped into the same category. While non-toxic pest control is much better than the toxic variety, many of the ingredients used to make non-toxic pest sprays contain inorganic materials such as dishwashing soap or non-organic brands of bar soap. These products, while not as dangerous as herbicides and pesticides, still contain toxic chemicals. So, if you are trying to be as earth friendly as possible, stick with purely organic pest control recipes.

Organic Pest Control Recipes

The following are some useful organic recipes to help control a few common garden pests.

Nematodes

Nematodes are tiny parasitic worms that live in your soil. If you've ever grown tomatoes and find that the leaves are beginning to yellow and fall off the plant, then you have a nematode problem. While some Nematodes are actually good for your garden, most are not. Here's an organic recipe to control Nematodes:

3 tablespoons of molasses
4 cups of water

Mix the molasses and water in a spray bottle and shake vigorously. You may want to use warm water to help the molasses dissolve better. Spray the "Molasses Tea" on your soil around your plants every couple of days to keep the Nematodes away. This mixture can also be used to spray on your plants to control grasshoppers and caterpillars.

Slugs

This isn't really a recipe, but it's and simple solution to ridding your garden of slugs and it only has one ingredient: beer. You can buy organic beer if you would like, but since you aren't putting the beer into the ground, any beer will do.

Fill a container about one quarter of the way up with beer.
Bury the container until it's about two-thirds in the ground with one third of the top above the dirt.
Change the container every other day as it begins to fill with slugs.

Slugs are attracted to the fermented yeast in beers, so they make their way to your container and fall right in.

Aphids

Aphids are tiny and look harmless, but they will eat the leaves off your garden plants in no time. Ladybugs are natural aphid predators, but if you don't have any ladybugs you can purchase to introduce to your garden, here's a quick organic recipe to get rid of these plant chompers:

1/2 a cup of hot peppers, chopped – Try Cayenne or Thai chilis, these are among the hottest peppers. The hotter the pepper, the more capsaicin and the more capsaicin, the better it keeps the bugs away.
2 cups of water

Mix the chopped peppers in the water and let it steep over night. Pour it into a spray bottle and apply to your plants regularly. This recipe is also good for many other garden pests because they don't like the smell or the taste of the hot peppers.

Fruit Flies

These are among the peskiest of garden pests because they are so small, yet so annoying.

2 teaspoons of basil essential oil – Your local health food store should have essential basil oil.
2 cups of water

Mix the basil oil and water thoroughly and pour into a spray bottle. Shake before each use. If you can't find basil essential oil at your local health food store, take a bunch of basil and either grind it in a pestle and mortar or a blender, and then add it to the water. Strain before adding it to your spray bottle so you don't clog the sprayer up with bits of basil.

What to Stay Away From

If you truly want to go organic for pest control in your garden, keep away from recipes that include any liquid dishwashing soaps, laundry soaps or rubbing alcohol. Many recipes claim to be organic but contain such items, which can be poisonous and are definitely not organic. There are, however, some organic soaps on the market that you can look into if you simply must use a recipe with the above listed types of ingredients..

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