Natural pest control

[Jeanette]

I was so excited to see ladybugs for sale at our local home depot store :mrgreen I bought two packs! I prefer to not use chemicals in our garden, but I have these little white things in the center of my spinach plants. I think they're eggs of some sort. My bell pepper plants are all getting eaten too :td Shouldn't the ladybugs be helping me out with this? Should I go buy some more?

[greenemama]

i've read that the ladybugs fly away when there's nothing left to eat -- did you have the pests leave, and then return?

here's an interesting article on keeping pests at bay.

hth!

http://www.gardening2u.com/word_pest.html

[righteous mama]

I spray Shaklee's Basic H (http://www.shaklee.com) onto my grass and plants. We have a snail problem which has been going away since I've been spraying. My grass is getting greener and my plants are looking healthier. I'm actually kind of surprised. I've been selling/using Shaklee for a long time and love every product...but I didn't think I would see such drastic results so soon. Within a week my backyard grass is greener...enough for dh to comment on it (who REALLY thought it wouldn't work)...the weeds are dying and the bugs don't like the taste. I wish I had compare and contrast pictures...um, or before and after...but they greened up/perked up so quickly I didn't get a chance.

And a bottle of Basic H is really inexpensive. I just put some in one of those garden sprayers...you know, supposed to be used for pesticides and attaches to your hose...and spray everything. The nice thing is that if it gets on you there is no need to freak out. And I could spray down the kids toys while I was at it. It's recommended to do this about every other month...or every three months. It said to start in April/May and do another spraying in August before Fall.

Oh...and one more perk...the kids can play on the grass and touch the leaves and such of the plants 'cause there is no side effects.

Boy, I sound like a commercial, but I'm seriously so impressed right now. I can get you a bottle if you are interested. They have a bunch of sizes from fairly small (16 oz) to super big (5 gal). PM me if you want one...I'll let you know the price.

[snlmama]

The best way to garden organically is to figure out exactly what the pest is and target that pest. Whatever you have may not be something the ladybugs eat. They primarily eat aphids, which are most commonly found on roses and tomatoes. They might be on your peppers, but you'd need to observe the actual insect to see what it is. Here's apicture of an aphid: http://tinyurl.com/n3pro

Once you figure out your problem then you look for a solution.

We buy ladybugs every year for our tomatoes. Sadly every time I've been to the store this spring they've been out so we still don't have any. :( We did get some preying mantis cases this year and they just hatched. They kids were totally crazy about it. And they are supposed to eat lots of kinds of "bad" bugs. We've also used beneficial nematodes, which attack under the ground pests like fire ants and grubs.

I'm not sure what Basic H is, but one thing that works w/ a lot of insects is to spray w/ either a solution of dish soap and water (1 TBSP soap to 1 Gal of water) or a pepper or garlic spray. Also, we had ants on our okra and the lady at the store told me to put baking soda around the stems and it worked - they're gone! :wow

Do you have any plant books where you can identify the pest or could you take a leaf to the garden store or just go describe it to try to figure out what you are dealing with? If it's visibly eaten, like *bites* taken out of it, it's probably some kind of caterpillar, worm, snail or slug. :think

[righteous mama]

Basic H is an earth-friendly cleaning product that has been made by Shaklee for about 50 years now. There is a link in my post above. It is safer for your children and you then dish soap.

[Jeanette]

Thank you all for your ideas :tu