Lesson 3: Disease And Pest Control
Beneficial Insects
The use of beneficial insects can exert a wonderful balancing effect in the garden. These wonderful buggy workers can consume many times their weight in predator insects. Using them as weapons in our war against their unfriendly cousins helps reduce or eliminate the need for chemical controls.
Grasshoppers and locusts, for instance, create terrible damage to farms and gardens. With their large chewing mandibles and quick reproductive rates, their appearance has usually meant disaster. Yet there are two eco-friendly ways to eliminate them. The first involves prevention. This particular insect thrives in weedy dry brush. Keeping your garden free of brush and debris makes it much less inviting to these creatures.
If you spot the first grasshoppers, you can use nosema locustae. This is a predator protozoa, 100% organic and extremely effective. It acts as a bait, which once swallowed begins to systematically destroy the host. Since grasshoppers are cannabilistic, they will begin to die when others feed upon the infected carcass.
Neem oil is another highly effective multi-use organic control. It is effective against aphids, thrips, beetles and young grasshoppers.
A product called Sharpshooter is effective as an organic control against:
- Ants (including fire ants)
- Earwigs
- Flea Beetles
- Japanese Beetles
- Leafhoppers
- Mealybugs
- Mites
- Mosquitoes
- Rose Chafers
- Snails/Slugs
- Whiteflies
- Aphids
- Bean Beetles
- Cabbage Looper
- Caterpillars
BioGanic is another product that kills mosquitoes and other flying predators safely and cleanly.
Most organic controls are widely available at larger garden centers or online. Visit the Bio-Control Network at http://www.biconet.com/ or Planet Natural at http://www.planetnatural.com/ to see more products.
