organic pest control

[passthemanna]

help!! harlequin beetles (i think) are devouring our garden. we know next to nothing about gardening. after 3 years we finally have some things growing and everything is getting eaten up by these harlequin bugs! we have some gorgeous tomatoes but something is eating them (the fruit) from the bottom up. it must be something at night. we've seen bright colorful bugs during the day- pretty sure they're harlequin bugs.

tell me abput organic pest control PLEASE

[sweetpeasmommy]

Food grade diatomaceous earth is supposed to be good.

[Macky]

I didn't answer your question originally because we don't have harlequin bugs here, so anything I tell you will be from my books.

Are you sure they're harlequin bugs? Really sure? My books list brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.), eggplant and radishes as the plants most attacked by this bug. Tomatoes aren't on the list, however they are in the same family (nightshades) as eggplants, so maybe it's conceivable? You need to be absolutely sure of the pest when you're talking about killing it otherwise the controls likely won't work. Diatomaceous earth, for example, is only an effective deterrent to crawling pests – slugs and snails primarily and ants apparently, too. As far as I know from my books, harlequin bugs fly.

Organic remedies include handpicking the eggs and destroying them manually, using trap crops (plant a crop that the bugs like better than what you're trying to grow, the bugs go to that crop instead, then you destroy or spray the trap crop – not the veggie you're growing to eat) and insecticidal soap (with rubbing alcohol added to help the alcohol penetrate the shells of hard-bodied insects). Sabadilla, rotenone and pyrethrin are listed as "organic" insecticides you can try, but PLEASE NOTE that just because it says "organic" on the label, doesn't mean it's safe. Rotenone is one of the most dangerous insecticides you can use on your home garden; there are safer synthetic chemical options.

[Damselfly]

Some friends of mine use a spray made from water, garlic and the hottest peppers they can find. They say it works really well for all kinds of pests. I don't know if it would work for harlequin beetles but it seems it would be worth a try.