10 Steps for Organic Pest Control
1. Build soil.
2. Plant flowers that feed and attract beneficial insects: zinnias, cosmos, fennel, dill, tansy, daisies, nasturtiums.
3. Plant insect-resistant varieties of plants.
4. Rotate crops to disrupt insect cycles.
5. Plant trees and shrubs that attract birds: Hedgerows, trees, berried ornamentals. Install bird feeders, bird baths, bat houses. To attract hummingbirds, plant conical flowers (fuschia, petunia, foxglove, Wegeleia).
6. Inspect plants morning and evening.
7. Hand-pick and use pheromone traps.
8. Use floating row covers until plants bloom
9. For severe attacks use organically approved products. Visit the Organic Materials Research Institute’s website to see the list: www.omri.org
10. At the end of the growing season, remove weak, dying plants, cleanup debris, cultivate soil, leave bare for one week to expose grubs and larvae to sun and birds, cultivate again and plant a cover crop of clover or alfalfa to protect the soil over the winter.

I was up on Main Street for a breath of fresh air recently when I ran into girlfriend Susan. After a little small talk, she asked what she should spray on her flowers to kill the bugs. My first question was: What kind of bugs? She said she didn’t know - never saw them. My first suggestion was: Get a good book on natural insect and disease control and visit your flowers at least twice each day to identify the pests. Keep this up and you will teach yourself which insects are attracted to which plants. This knowledge will enable you to proceed on the least egregious path toward insect control. She said she’d catch up with me when she returns from her trip to China.

Organic gardeners strive to develop a balanced system where problems are regulated naturally, relying primarily on nonchemical controls to deal with pest problems.

First and foremost in your quest for solid organic control of insects and disease is to continue building the organic matter in your soil. If you don’t remember another thing I say here, remember this: The healthier your soil the healthier your plants. Maximizing natural resistance is one important way good gardeners keep their gardens flourishing. Pests and disease organisms prefer plants that are weak, injured or unable to adjust to the site on which they have been planted. The insects show up in your garden to take out those weak and deficient plants. It’s their job.

All life has a purpose in the grand scheme of things. Certain insects were sent here to take out the weak and deficient plants, which would otherwise be unable to carry on a strong genetic line. For instance, have you ever seen a mother bird push a defective baby chick out of the nest? She is performing her biological imperative to carry on the genetic line of the strongest and healthiest. I raise laying hens and have seen this time and again. I must admit though, as I step down from my soap box, that on several occasions I have saved the runt from extinction only to have it die at the hands of some other misfortune.

Along with cultivating healthy soil, select healthy plants, rotate crops, plant a wide variety of plants and encourage natural predators such as beneficial insects, bats, purple martins, and hummingbirds. It is important to note that total elimination of pests is not required to grow good crops; it is only necessary to reduce pests below the damage threshold for the crop being grown.

Along with the biological controls there are physical controls as well that can be employed to deter pest insects. Following is a short list of the most common of these:

Beneficial Insects
Entomologists estimate that more than 90 percent of all insects are beneficial. Wild and domestic bees and also some flies and moths pollinate crops. Of most immediate interest to gardeners, however, are the thousands of species of predatory insects that attack pests. They are common worldwide and most numerous in gardens where pesticides are not used.

° Lady Beetles (Hippodamia convergens) - Ladybugs, which feast on aphids, will eat over 5,000 aphids and other soft bodied pests during their one-year life span. To keep the ladybugs in your yard or garden, release them when the insect pests are present. Ladybugs may be stored under refrigeration for a short time before release. If you have an abundance of them in your home in the early spring, try putting them in the frig with a little sugar water. When the danger of frost is past, release them to the wild.

° Green Lacewings (Chrysoperia chrysopa) - Touted as the best all-purpose predator for your garden or greenhouse. Green Lacewing larvae have a ferocious appetite for aphids, but they also dine on mealybugs, immature scales and whiteflies, eggs of many insects and mites, thrips and spider mites.

° Trichogramma Wasp (Trichogramma minutum) - This tiny one attacks eggs of over 200 insect pests. It is a parasite of insect pest eggs and kills pests before they can damage plants. It controls eggs of the cabbageworm, tomato hornworm, corn earworm, codling moth, cutworm, army worm, webworm, cabbage looper and corn borer to name a few.

See the Resource section to find out more beneficial insects and their application.

Bats
Bats perform astonishing feats in the air, catching insects with their wings. The little brown bat, a common U.S. species, which can live up to 34 years, eats moths, caddis flies, midges, beetles and mosquitoes. A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in just one hour. In the wild, important agricultural plants, from bananas, breadfruit, and mangoes to cashews, dates and figs, rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal. More than half of American bat species are in severe decline or are already listed as endangered. Loss of bats increases demand for chemical pesticides, can jeopardize whole ecosystems of other animal and plant species and can harm human economies.

One way to stem the tide of this loss and attract bats to your garden is to put up a bat house, a wooden box like a flattened birdhouse with an entrance slot in the bottom. Bats fly in and out through the bottom and cling to the partitions inside the roost.

Physical/mechanical controls
Floating row covers, a translucent polypropylene fabric that transmits 95 percent sunlight, provide an excellent all-season insect shield and are able to stop crop damage from Mexican bean beetles, cabbage worms, cabbage maggots, carrot weevils, Colorado potato beetles, cucumber beetles, flea beetles, leafhoppers, leaf miners, squash bugs, squash vine borers and others. Place row covers over crops until they bloom, remove cover for pollination purposes.

Diatomaceous earth is a nonselective, abrasive dust commonly used to kill pests in the home and garden. DE is the fossilized silica shells of algae called diatoms; the microscopic shells are covered with sharp needle-like projections that penetrate an insect’s cuticle, allowing vital liquids to leak out. DE has the consistency of talcum powder and is best applied with a dispersing sprayer such as the DustinMizer. This sprayer comes with a directional tool which directs the dust to both the top and bottom of the plant’s leaves. I have used DE for years in my garden, in my chicken’s nesting boxes to deter lice, and when I had a cow I put it in her feed, where it acted as a de-wormer.

When Susan returns from her trip to China, I must tell her that this list is just the tip of the iceberg as far as alternatives to chemical pesticides are concerned. And as far as the big picture is concerned, I leave you with a quote from the book, Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, “Agriculture doesn’t have to be a war waged on all life that doesn’t support your growth.”

See you in the garden!

(Kathleen Lamont is president of the Mountains Chapter of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association as well as a seasoned speaker on organic gardening practices. She can be reached at garden_girrl@yahoo.com)

Resources:
° Gardens Alive! Catalog - Beneficial insects and organic inputs 812.537.8650 or www.gardensalive.com
° Rodale’s All New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening - Rodale Press
° The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control - Rodale Press
° Acres USA - A Voice for Eco-Agriculture (Monthly newspaper). 800.355.5313 or www.acreasusa.com May, 2001, issue has an in-depth article concerning beneficial insects by Richard McDonald, Ph.D.
° Symbiont Biological Pest Management - Source for beneficial insects 828.297.BUUG or www.drmcbug.com.
° Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) - Source for approved organic inputs 541.343.7600 or www.omri.org.
° Bat Houses - Available at Ridge Runner Naturals, 33 Main Street, Waynesville.
° Purple Martins - Purple Martin Socity of North America: www.purplemartins.com

 

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