Re: natural pest management

a few additions- you can also buy ladybugs at most garden centers. Release time is critical, I think it's dusk but look it up~

Praying mantis egg cases are also available for purchase~ and they are great fun to attach to plants, find a kid to help:)

The cayenne-garlic thing does not work as a spray, in my experience. It clogs the nozzle of the sprayer, it does work as a dump. We had a creature sampling our melons, the sampling stopped after the cayenne garlic mix was dumped on the melons.

Any ant control is species-specific, there are Sugar ants and meat ants.

The boric acid solution does work). We used a different recipe- poke a hole in the lid of a jar, add boric acid, Sugar and water and some cotton batting(I posted the precise quantities on the gardening forum long ago) and place jars near troubled plants/young trees. This was done for aphids, particularly, and it works. Ants "farm" aphids. Another important part of this is to identify ant/aphid "host" plants and pull them up.

Be sure to let weeds/native plants grow. We only destroy weeds that are in direct competition with garden plants for water. Weeds can protect young garden plants from birds and other creatures that like tender young shoots and dried up weed piles make marvelous nests for melons. Weeds also add nutrients to the soil and provide organic matter. And controlling weeds is WORK, so don't do more than necessary:)

Let some of your property grow wild, don't try to control all of it for your benefit. Birds like thickets, small creatures need hiding places. Tidy landscaping is only pleasing to "some" humans.

And speaking of tidy landscaping, it is the fact that so many tidy male plants are used with no females to receive the pollen that is adding to rising asthma/allergy rates. Plant some females and make the boys happy.

It would be wonderful to see people view their landscaping in a different way. Millions of unused, toxic lawns out there. Better to see some fruit trees planted and a few vegetables.

Also, the advice in that article to rub a dryer sheet on your skin is VERY bad advice indeed! Dryer sheets are toxic! Tweet