Banish pests with friendly control (Growing and Caring for Herbs (in General))

Member Name: enlightened_one

Product:	Growing and Caring for Herbs (in General)
Date:	03/03/07 (2111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Eco - friendly and safer to eat

Disadvantages: The biological method can be expensive

Herbs suffer pests and diseases just the same as other plants; this review is how to spot them and also how to deal with them. As you may have guessed I am very into organic gardening, which I use in my garden and on my allotment. It's not easy being organic as some pests are not very nice to pick of, but hopefully I will give you some advice to keep that dreaded chemical out of the garden.

**Biological control

Biological controls are becoming very popular with people demanding them, even on "A year at Kew" shown on the BBC was using them a few weeks ago.

What is Biological control?

Well it can be expensive for a start, to treat a 12 square meter area to control say vine weevil it will cost you about £10. But I look at it this way, you are introducing nature's way of keeping pests down and we really don't want to be putting poisons into the ground where in a few months you will be eating what you grow do we?

Its away of controlling pests using natural predator, it works by introducing predator insects that feed on the pest. When you are introducing biological controls you are really making an eco-system where the insect pest becomes there food. The ladybird is one of the biological means you can introduce it loves greenfly and will eat the eggs and the insect, the ladybird also hibernates over winter so you will have more the next year breeding. There is also parasitic wasps which lay their eggs on or in the body of an insect host, which is then used as a food for developing wasps.

**Organic sprays

These are becoming popular in most garden centres; make sure the product has the Organic recognized symbol. You can get a liquid soap called "Savona" which you mix with rain water and use.

**Companion planting

This method is for planting certain herbs next to your main plants to deter and help keep away pests. It's not scientifically proven (Yet) but it works and it has been covered in papers the monks of 100's of years ago have written.

Some very useful herbs can deter pests in the garden and in the vegetable plot.

Basil - keeps away flies and mosquitoes.
Catnip - Help stops flea beetle.
Horseradish - keeps away potato bugs.
Mint - keeps away white cabbage moth, ants.
Nasturtium - keeps away aphids, squash bugs and striped pumpkin beetles.
Pot Marigold - keeps away asparagus beetles and tomato worm
Peppermint - keeps away the white cabbage butterfly.
Rosemary - helps stops cabbage moth, bean beetles and carrot fly.
Sage - keeps away cabbage moth and carrot fly.
Thyme - keeps away cabbage worm.
Wormwood - keeps away animals from garden, good for cats.

**Pests

There are SO many pests I could mention but the review would be huge, so I have kept it down to the nasty ones. When I mention destroy the plant, don't put it on the compost bin or in your recycle bin you, I put the effected plant on a fire.

Aphids, Greenfly, and Blackfly

From about spring you will probably start to suffer from greenfly, if not on the stems they will be on the leaf somewhere. The best way to get rid of these is to use the liquid soap I mentioned above, if you have a massive infest of them get the biological control. It says in books to use a high pressure water hose but you can't use it on certain plants as you could damage the fragile stems. If the pests are on a potted plant you can easily wash the plants under tap water. You really want to get rid of the pests so I would use the liquid soap.

**Carrot fly

This fly doesn't just attack the carrot, the grub from the carrot fly tunnels into the roots of plants in the summer. A sign of damage is the yellowing of the leaves and stunted growth, Small herb plants like Parsley can get effected and the best way is to destroy the plant. The bigger herbs plants will survive, just pull of the effected leaves and give the plant a boost by given it a feed of liquid seaweed.

(See Carrot fly damage picture)

**Caterpillar Cabbage White

A nasty little pest that can cause a fair bit of damage, not just on cabbages but also on large leafed herbs. I actually pick these of and put them on the bird table, you can use a horticultural fleece to protect the young plants in the spring this will stop the butterfly from laying its eggs.

(See Caterpillar Cabbage White Eggs picture)

**Leaf Miners - (See Leaf miner picture)

These pests eat through the leaf, creating silver looking tracks. They can affect Lovage, Celery and certain mints

**Red Spider Mite - (See Red Spider Mite picture)

This pest loves hot dry conditions and can be found in the greenhouse as it's a perfect place for it. A good early sign is speckling on the upper leaves, if you look under the leaf with a magnifying lens you should see minute red spiders. You can also keep an eye out for cobwebs on the plant as this is also a bad sign on Red Spider mite. You can spray the plant with the Liquid soap or by introducing biological control using Phytoseiulus, this is a tiny mite that will eat between 5 adult/25 eggs a day, usually comes in a small glass tube with an average of 500 mites for about £9. (See Phytoseiulus Mite Picture)

**Slugs

I am not a fan of the slug, but I am getting brave by picking them of and feeding them to the chickens on the allotment next to my allotment, something about them I just not keen on. I have a friend who gets them and stamps on them (Yuk). The slug will eat almost anything and just causes damage; Slugs feed on the foliage, flowers, stems and roots of the plants. They require water for reproduction and are able to breed throughout the year.

Apart from the above the best way to get rid is using biological methods, but again it's not cheap. The best product around I have found is "Nemaslug" and I think I found it cheaper at Wilkinson's than anywhere else.

What is Nemaslug I hear you ask, Nemaslug is a nematode bacterium that loves slugs and snails, you mix the solution in a watering can and spray on you soil, don't worry this brings the nematodes to life. The nematode enters the slug through the slug mantle (on its back). Once there the nematode releases a bacterium which multiply and this is what the nematode feeds on, and within a few days the slug stops feeding and will burrow underground to die. (See Nematode Picture)

You could use beer traps but I think it's a waste of good beer :)

**Vine Weevil

This is probably the gardener's worst nightmare, the grubs will eat the roots and the beetle itself will eat the leaves. It doesn't care what it eats it will eat almost any plants, a really nasty piece of work. Vine weevil can be found in either the garden or in containers, and has become more prolific in recent years. Its so devastating it can actually kill container plants if not stopped.

The adult feeds on the leaves in the summer and the autumn; it makes a "U" shape in the leaf. The adult is about 1cm long; with brownish/black in colour with drab yellow spots on its back it's also nocturnal and unable to fly. The real problem is the Larvae; it will attack the root system of the plant from the summer until the spring the next year. The larvae can grow to be about 1cm, and are a creamy white in colour with a dark head and are crescent shaped.

You must check your container's as they seem to love it in the bottom of them.

The best way is to treat with "Nemasys Vine Weevil Killer" each small pack has 6 million nematodes, these are naturally occurring parasitic nematode which seeks out the larvae and when found enters the Larvae and then poisoning it and then feeds off it to increase their numbers. Once the Larvae have been destroyed the nematodes hunt down more larve to feed on. It takes about 2 weeks for the infected larvae to die.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas on pests in the herb garden and in the garden in general. I think I prefer the expensive biological methods; it's a way of introducing a predator on a large scale. If you have a big garden or even allotment like me you may not have the time to be picking of pests as the time is taking up by either work or planting or even going on holiday for a few week. If you have to go away it's ok asking someone to water, but I don't think they will be happy to pick up the slugs for you.

Biological control maybe expensive compared to say the chemical option but if you going to eat the herbs and produce you grow at least you know it's safe to eat.

Thanks for reading my reviews, and thankyou for rating them.

Tashi Delek (May everything be well)

enlightened_one © 2007

Summary: We cant keep putting chemicals in the ground, then eating the produce.