Week 12 - PESKY INSECTS

According to eartheasy.com, "Each year North American homes use approximately 136 million pounds of pesticides on lawns and gardens, and in the home. In fact, homeowners use about three times the amount of pesticides as farmers. Most wildlife pest poisonings, and most surface water contamination from pesticides, come from single-family homes." Crazy, right?

This year the goal for my vegetable garden (besides being bountiful), is to be “organic”. By that I mean I am making every effort to not use any pesticides or fertilizers that would be considered inorganic. Don’t get me wrong, if something goes awry I will responsibly use whatever necessary to save my plants, but I’m trying not to.

To date I haven’t had anything occur that I have not been able to handle. My grapes had some kind of funky bumpy thing going on with it’s leaves. I removed the damaged leaves, sprayed the vines with a fungicide from Safer Brand, thinned out the vines for better air circulation and things look okay. I have since read the bumpy things are essentially scars from some pesky insect feeding on them. I have a “herd” of slugs that are enjoying my strawberries and although I know beer in a shallow dish will take care of them, they haven’t done so much damage that I wasn't able to can 7 jars of jam this week. I don’t think killing them is necessary, although drowning in beer is not a bad way to go! There are of course all sorts of little bugs making holes here and there and for them I have sprayed the plants with Safer Brand Insect Killing Soap. All in all, so far so good!

There are several things you can do to maintain a healthy garden, but one of the most important is to be vigilant. Watch your gardens carefully and take action the minute you see something is off. The sooner you address a problem, the less likely it is you will have to haul out the “big guns”.

Here are some environmentally friendly suggestions for keeping destructive insects at bay.

1. Pull out any weak plants. Chances are they are already infested and you don’t want the infestation to spread.
   
2. Build healthy soil. By adding compost, natural fertilizer and mulch, you build healthy, strong plants, which are less likely to succumb to insects and disease.


3. Clear the garden area of debris and weeds which are breeding places for insects.


4. Rotate crops. Rotating crops helps avoid re-infestation of pests which have over-wintered in the soil.


5. Water in the early morning to keep foliage dry. Wet foliage encourages insect and fungal damage to your plants.


6. Disinfect. If you've been working with infested plants, clean your tools (and even your shoes), before moving on to other garden areas.


7. Invite beneficial insects into your garden. Wasps, Hover-flies, Praying Mantis, Ladybugs, Lacewings, and nematodes, all feast on a variety of destructive insects. You can purchase them at gardensalive.com and gardeners.com.


8. Birds eat insects so attract them to your garden by providing a bird bath or feeders.


9. Put up bat houses. Ensure they are at least 10 feet off the ground.


10. Plant herbs as companion plants. Seedsofchange.com has a nice list of herbs which act as natural insect repellents for other plants. Just search their e-newsletter for “companion plantings”.

If you are infested and do require the “big guns” proceed with caution.

1. First, do some research to establish what the problem truly is. Yellow sticky traps are great for finding out what’s buzzing around your garden. Go through your gardening books, search online, or contact your local cooperative extension.


2. Read the product label to ensure it, treats your problem, treats your plant, and focus here: the amount to use. Less is more! Don’t feel you need to drown the vegetation, particularly if it’s something you will eat.


3. Treat only the plants that are infested.

This is what you want to keep in mind: anything you use can effect other things. We don't want to harm beneficial insects (particularly bees which pollinate the things we grow), birds, toads and frogs which help control undesirable insects. We don't want to contaminate our ground water. We don't want to saturate the food we grow with poisons and then ingest them. It’s all a delicate balance. Bottom line? Protect what’s yours, but do so as responsibly as you can!