Pest control the natural way (Garden Fertilisers, Pest Control and Herbicides in general)

Member Name: Sparkle

Product:	Garden Fertilisers, Pest Control and Herbicides in general
Date:	08/07/00 (200 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: safe and cheap methods

Disadvantages: controls rather than kills all pests

Not everyone wants to fill their garden with pesticides, I know I don't. Did you know chemicals aren't the only way to control pests?

By making your garden wild life friendly you will find it unusual to be plagued by any pest. Birds, frogs, hedgehogs, ladybirds and other insects all help in the battle against the less desireable inhabitants. In fact if you use too many pesticides you end up killing the pest-eating animals and it is then easy for the pests to get completely out of control.

There are several safe ways to control the number of slugs in your garden, one you may have heard of is beer traps. Snails love beer and if you sink small containers filled with beer in your garden you will soon find them full of slugs. A garden pond complete with wild life (not fish) is
another 'must have'. Frogs and toads love eating slugs and will spend the night foraging on your behalf. If you have a quite area in your garden try sinking a wooden box, tilted at an angle so that water doesn't lie in it and you have a hedgehog home, and hegdehogs just love slugs too.

If you have apple trees and don't want your fruit full of maggots try placing a sticky greaseband completely around the trunk in October and leave it in place until March. By doing this you prevent the wingless female winter moth from being able to climb the tree and lay it's eggs on the branches. You can also buy specialist traps that contain a female pheromone that attracts the male codling moth. Hang them in your trees from May to September and you will see how effective the trap is by the number of moths caught on the sticky paper.

By keeping your soil healthy (a home made compost is great for this- see my article on home made compost) your plants will grow strongly and then they will be able to resist attack from pests. However, despite my best efforts, very occasionally I have to resort to spraying with a very mild chemical called
soft soap to control black fly on my runner beans. Soft soap can be bought at garden centres and can be used to control white fly and aphids. It is one of the few garden chemicals approved by the soil association for use by organic gardeners.

For other pest control information also see my organic gardening article.

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