Insect managment

Posted by Phillip Richards Feb 26, 2007

For the first few seasons after we moved onto our bush block – 100 acres sand – we had very few problems with insects. They hadn’t discovered us and our only problems were actually getting things to grow so that we could firstly have something to show the organic inspection people and secondly enough to sell.

Once this was achieved and we had a small green oasis around the home site with a buffer (we thought) of bush and scrub around that, insects started to arrive. Not many we were lucky, but some.

For a short while fruit fly in the guavas was a problem. I found that the insects are very slow moving and that they gathered in the evening on the underneath of the leaves of gourds that we had on a trellis. It was easy each evening to use a little hand-held spray to give them a dose of pyrethrum.

Another scheme we used was simple and cheap – we physically removed caterpillars, bugs, and grasshoppers as we found them.

Best of all, the ducks and hens in the orchard kept this under control. Ducks are marvels at snapping flies out of the air and the hens eat up the fallen rubbish.

In our new place, we have to be more alert and use principles of Integrated Pest Management (see article). See too Weeds and Insects.