Got garden pests? Try these natural and environmentally-friendly garden pest control remedies from the kitchen…

All garden pest control should be done with utmost consideration to safety – and that means safety of plants, animals and humans. This holds especially true for those with vegetable and organic gardens. The main purpose of growing vegetables organically will be defeated if they become tainted with pest control chemicals.

Here are a few tips to make garden pest control safer and more environmentally friendly. You should follow these steps in order, starting with methods that have the least impact on the environment and natural ecosystem, and using progressively more severe measures only as needed.

1. Start with physical pest control.

This may be accomplished through picking caterpillars or beetles off by hand, creating barriers and traps and plugging holes. Snails can be found hiding in damp places under rocks, and slugs may hide under leaves, rocks, or pieces of wood or bark nearby. You can create a simple slug trap by filling a jar lid or shallow dish with beer and burying it up to the rim in the soil near where you are having an issue with slugs. Empty and refill the traps daily.

2. Utilize natural biological pest controls.

Encourage predatory insects such as green lacewings and dragonflies to feed on aphids and other pests that attack your plants. You can do this by placing a shallow bowl of water in the garden. Dragonflies especially will hover around water. You can also try planting plants that are known to repel common insect pests in and around your garden. Bacterial insecticides such as B. thuringiensis (BT) can also be used against caterpillars.

3. Turn to organically-approved chemical pest control only as a last resort.

Organic pest control methods can be quite successful and the ingredients for many homemade garden pest control recipes can be found in your kitchen cupboards. If chemical sprays are really necessary, try and find the least-toxic, and those that are approved for use in organic gardens. These include insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils, dehydrating dusts, etc. Make sure that the chemicals you use are made specifically for the insects you are targeting.

Below are a few simple kitchen remedies for garden pest control to try. Remember to first test homemade remedies on a small portion of the plant to make sure they will not harm them before treating the whole plant, and never apply on a hot or bright sunny day, which could cause plants to burn. (Applying in the evening is usually best, as this is when many insect pests come out to feed.)

Source: Fix.com Blog