Safe Pest Control Tips

Pest control must be done with the utmost consideration for safety to humans and pets. You should also use care that you don't use a pesticide that is later going to make you or other family members sick. Its very important that you read labels. You should see how long any pesticide sprayed on vegetables will make the vegetables unsafe for human consumption. If your trying to grow organic vegetables and they become tainted with pesticide residues you have defeated your purpose. Below are essential tips for growing vegetables and fruits as pesticide free as possible.

1. Plant marigolds and other plants that insect pests don't like. Every year I plant a row of marigolds in my garden and I have few if any garden pest problems. You can also plant lemon basil, mint, oregano, and catnip. But keep in mind you should plant your mint in pots or containers so it will not spread and take over your garden. You can grow rosemary and dry it and then crumble it up and spread it around your dogs bedding and in the area where the dog stays. This will help prevent ticks and fleas. I think rosemary works better in a dogs bedding to keep them flea and tick free than almost any commercial spray or treatment you can purchase. And it's a lot healthier for your dog also.

2. Declare war on your garden pests with ladybugs and preying mantis. Both will kill and eat all kinds of bugs. You should also leave spiders like the Carolina Writing Spider alone. Spiders kill and eat huge amounts of bus. Keep shallow bowls of water in the garden to encourage lacewings and dragon flies to hang around. You can even build them a small shallow pond with gold fish in the pond to keep down mosquitoes.

3. Study and learn everything you can about naturally controlling garden pests and flies with friendly insects you can order and put out to kill them. Anytime that you can use nature to control its self your much better off.

4. If you do have to resort to chemical pest control try using insecticidal soaps, dehydrating dust, and horticulture oils to help control your garden pest problems. I used to use pesticides in my gardens and once I stopped I noticed a lot more butterflies and hummingbirds in my gardens than were there when I used pesticides.

5. Recipes for safe effective alternative pest control are below.

You can mix 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap in 2 cups of vegetable oil. You will want to mix a tablespoon of this solution in a cup of water and spray it on aphids and mites.

You can fill cracks and crevices with boric acid to get rid of cockroaches. You can spread bay leaves in your cabinets to also help get rid of the cockroaches. Cockroaches need food and water so be sure that you cut out their access to either and along with the boric acid and the bay leaves you can get rid of the cockroaches quickly and easily.

You can order parasitic wasps and turn them loose in your yard and garden and they kill and eat over 200 kinds of garden pests. In case you don't know one ladybug can eat up to 125 aphids a day. So if you order several hundred or more you should have a garden free of aphids very soon. You should plant marigolds, coriander, butterfly weed and tansy to help keep the lady bugs in your garden and yard.

Don't spray for mosquitoes unless you absolutely have to because you will also kill beneficial insects like lacewings and dragon flies. Instead create a shallow pool with goldfish in it to attract dragon flies to your garden and yard. The goldfish will eat mosquito larvae. But you can also keep your pools of water moving slightly to get rid of the mosquito larvae. You can also put up bat houses around the edges of your property or garden to encourage bats to make their home near your garden. They eat huge amounts of insects.

You should also put out bird houses, bird feeders and bird baths in your garden to attract huge amounts of birds to your garden and yard because birds eat huge amounts of insects.

Preying Mantis and Cabbage Worms

The larvae of Preying Mantis feed on cabbage worms and cabbage worm larvae. If you have a healthy population of Preying Mantis in your garden and yard you won't have problems with cabbage worms.

Feed Picked Off Cabbage Worms To Goldfish And Koi

As long as you don't use pesticides on your cabbage you can pick the cabbage worms off and feed them to your goldfish and koi.

Water Rabbit Or Gopher Burrows

You can always put your garden hose down the burrow or hole of rabbits or gophers and let the water flow. The rabbits and gophers will quickly find their way out of your garden. Once you turn the water off pour a small box of moth balls down any gopher or rabbit hole and then fill the end with dirt. The rabbits or gophers will not return if you do this. But only use the moth balls underground this way so you'll be sure that children or pets aren't going to come in contact with them.

Bats hunt at night and eat huge amounts of insects. You can put up bat houses in your yard and garden to attract bats into your area so they will eat a lot of the problem insects in your area. In the video above you can find out some really great information about bats.

You can control and get rid of most garden pest insects with out ever having to spray dangerous pesticides in your yard or garden. Ladybugs, prey mantis, birds, and bats are all natures way of getting rid of insect pests that would otherwise eat parts of your garden and possibly destroy it.

You can get your slug and snail pests drunk and they will just drown and you can safely dispose of them. You can do this by putting out shallow dishes of beer in your garden and the snails and slugs will climb in and drown themselves.

If you have yellow jackets in your area you should put out yellow jacket traps in the early summer and keep them filled with the attractant to keep the yellow jackets interested. Keep lids on all your trash cans and quickly pick up and dispose of any fruit or vegetables your not going to use. Wash any spilled fruit juice away with soapy water and don't leave empty beverage containers setting around. Pour a cup of bleach in each trash can as soon as you empty it. This will help to get rid of bad smells and it will cut way down on yellow jackets and flies being attracted to the garbage cans.

If you have a large in ground yellow jacket nest in your yard you should call professional pest control to get rid of it. You should also use real care mowing where you know there might be yellow jackets around. They will often be stirred up by the sound of the lawn mower and attack the person operating the lawn mower.

In the American south spiders like the writing spider that live outside your home or in your garden should never be killed. Spiders like this often kill huge amounts of insects and they will not bother you. I have several writing spiders in my garden every year and I enjoy watching them eating bugs.

If you have animals like raccoons or deer eating from your garden or fruit trees you can set up the new motion operated sprinklers that turn on when they detect motion. Deer and raccoons will quickly run out of your yard when the water suddenly comes on and sprays them. You can hang aluminum pie pans and rubber snakes in fruit trees to keep birds out of your fruit trees. If you have to you can cover your fruit trees with netting to keep the birds away until you can harvest the fruit. If you can find a supply of the small mirrors with holes in them you can hang these in fruit trees and birds will stay away.

You can use fake owls in your yard to keep pest birds away but you will need to move the fake owls often or the birds will quickly catch on to the fact that the owl isn't real. I move mine about every three days and it works great. You also need to move your scarecrows often because those pesky crows can be pretty smart. If you don't move the scarecrow often you'll find the scarecrow setting on it one day.

You can spray Capsaicin sprays on your garden plants to keep animals like rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and deer from eating up your garden. You will need to wash your vegetables off under running water when you harvest them.

If you have a problem with ground hogs or gophers fill their holes and tunnels with water by putting your garden hose down their hole and turn it on full blast. After you do this two or three times the ground hog or gopher will move on to somewhere more friendly. You should always fill their holes back in but before you do spray it full of capsaicin spray and the powerful pepper spray will encourage them to move on.

Keep trees and bushes around your garden cut back and keep any near by under brush cleared out so that wildlife like rabbits or raccoons won't have any hiding places. If you find a rabbit hole where a rabbit is living spray its hole with capsaicin spray and it will move on.

You can set live traps for raccoons and rabbits and turn them loose miles down the road where they won't return to your garden. Apples are a good bait for rabbits and sardines and peanut butter are the favorite food of raccoons.

You Can Remove Caterpillars Yourself

If your garden is plagued with caterpillars fill a bucket about a third full of water, put on gloves and pick the caterpillars off and drop them into the water. Dispose of them well away from your garden so they won't just come back.

Keep Your Garden Nature Friendly To Prevent Pests.

If you put up bird houses and provide bird seed and bird baths birds will make a home in your garden and they will raise and reproduce in your garden. Song birds will also eat huge amounts of insects.

Put up several bat houses in your garden area to encourage bats to come and live on your property. Have a shallow pool in your garden both to attract dragon flies and for the bats to drink out of.

Be sure to plant things like marigold and catnip in your garden to keep bad insects away. Lemon basil also works very well to prevent garden pests. You will notice that a lot of plants that keep away harmful insects seem to draw beneficial insects.

You should order both ladybugs and prey mantis and turn them loose in your yard and garden. You want to be sure you have planted things that the lady bugs like to be around so they will stay there in your garden and not go over to the neighbors.

Clean Up Your Garden Area In Winter

You want to clean up your garden completely in winter. Don't leave dead plants or brush where pests can over winter. Remove everything down to the soil and you can go ahead and get your soil prepared for the next summer.

Spray timbers and under them with a good quality insecticide soap to cut down on garden pests the next year.

I hope you enjoyed this Hub Page on Safe Pest Control Tips and if you have comments, tips, suggestions or questions feel free to post them now. Thanks for reading.