In my previous article,"http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/5299...", we looked at some of the reasons why it would be appropriate and beneficial to look after the good insects which actually help keep the bad ones in check.
Little ants and spiders, lady beetles eating up aphids! What a nice team to have working for us!
Chuck out all those nasty chemicals that can effect our lifestyles and cause considerable damage if over-used.
Start planning now and read up as much as you can about alternative, organic ways to control pests. This way, we are protecting our environment and our health others too. I have put a list of references for books and articles at the bottom of each part but you may find more useful and appropriate ones for you, in your local bookstores and Libraries. What a great way to start!
Here are the first recipes in our collection of natural remedies using herbs and natural products. I have not used them all so I cannot personally guarantee their success. If you try them, let us know, or, share with us your own methods that you use, so that others may benefit also:
Chilli Spray
Use fresh or dried chillies and blend one cup of dried or 2 cups of fresh chillies with two cups of water. Spray fresh. This will kill caterpillars.
Chilli and Wormwood Spray
Blend one cup of chillies and one cup of wormwood with one cup of water. Then, add five cups of water and bring to the boil. Allow this to stand for one hour. Strain and bottle.
This can be sprayed on plants and garden beds to repel possums, rabbits, snails and slugs. It also kills aphids, bean fly and white fly.
Note: Do not allow to come into contact with eyes or skin.
Comfrey Foliar Food
Before Comfrey flowers, cut the leaves and pack them into an old bucket or something similar with holes in the bottom. Place a plate or a tin lid on top and weigh it down with half a brick.
Put a plastic plant pot in an old basin and stand the bucket on the pot. After three weeks, there should be a quantity of brown fluid in the basin. Strain this and then bottle it.
Spray plants in the proportion of 15 ml (1 tbsp) comfrey liquid to 1 litre water and a few drops of liquid detergent. Put the remaining contents of the bucket on the compost heap.
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