NONCHEMICAL CONTROLS - ORGANIC ALTERNATIVES to kill insects

NONCHEMICAL CONTROLS;
ORGANIC ALTERNATIVES
It's not always necessary to use a chemical
insecticide in your vegetable garden even if you have
no particular personal objection to its use. In some
cases organic controls can give acceptable results if
you don't mind putting in a little more labor for a
little less reward at harvesting time. And if you're an
organic gardener, there are a few things you should
know about helping your vegetables survive attacks
by pests.
Planting problem-free vegetables
First of all, you can take the simple precaution of
planting only varieties that are not susceptible to
major pest problems. There are a lot of vegetables
that pests usually don't attack, or don't attack in large
enough numbers to cause you any real grief or
require the use of nonorganic methods of control.
All these are fairly problem-free vegetables:
artichokes, asparagus, beets, carrots, celeriac,
celery, chard, chicory, cucumbers, dandelion,
horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, okra,
onions, parsnips, peas, radishes, rhubarb, salsify,
soybeans, spinach, turnips, and almost all the herbs.
Some vegetables are almost always attacked by
caterpillars that can be controlled by Bacillus
thuringiensis, an organic product that is harmless
to humans and animals. These include all the cabbage
family plants — broccoli, Brussels sprouts,
cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, and kohlrabi. The
other insects that commonly attack the cabbage
family plants can also usually be controlled by natural
and physical methods.
Some vegetables are almost always attacked by
large numbers of insects that cannot be controlled by
natural or physical methods. This is not to say that
you can't grow these crops without using pesticides;
you can, but usually your yield will be low. These
vegetables include most of the beans, Chinese
cabbage, sweet corn, eggplant, lettuce, mustard.
peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, rutabagas, sweet
potatoes, tomatoes, and watermelons.
Squash are not included in any of these
categories, because although the squash vine borer —
their main enerpy—cannot be effectively
controlled without using a pesticide, most squash are
prolific enough to give you an acceptable crop even
If you do lose some to bugs.
Physical controls
Sidestepping pest problems by planting vegetables
that are least likely to be seriously threatened by pests
is one practical way to protect your crop. Another is
the physical, do-it-yourself method of removing the
offenders by hand. If you're going to do this, it's
essential to identify pests in the early stages of their
attack. It's not a big deal to pick a couple of dozen
aphids off your broccoli; but when the attack is well
under way and your plant is covered with aphids,
you might as well forget about hand-picking, because
it's not going to work.
If you slip up and let a pest problem get past the
early stages, you can try a good blast of water from the
garden hose to knock the insects off the plant. Try
to do this on a dry day so that the leaves won't stay wet
for too long; wet leaves make the plant more
susceptible to disease and may give you a new
problem to replace the one you've just solved.
Other physical control methods can be effective
with specific pests. These methods are discussed in
detail later in this chapter.
Natural controls
These have to be the original "organic" ways of
controlling pest problems in the garden — you're
simply relying on harmless insects to destroy the
harmful ones. The effectiveness of these natural
methods of control is questionable; in some cases
you're probably just perpetuating old wives' tales. It's
true that insects like ladybugs, lacewing flies,
praying mantises, and aphis lions feed on bugs that are
destructive to your crop and should, therefore, be
protected when you find them in your garden. But it's
also true that they can't offer a complete answer to a
pest problem. If these helpful creatures visit your
garden, welcome and protect them. But don't
expect them to control all the pests that bother your
plants. That's asking too much of them.
It's possible to buy ladybugs, praying mantises,
and the like through the mail from garden supply
companies. However, you're likely to be wasting
your time and money by doing so. All these insects are
winged, and they're all very shy of people. The odds
are they'll wing it away as fast as you put them out,
deserting your vegetable garden for a more
secluded spot. Also, the beneficial Insects that you
import may not consider the specific variety of pest
that you have in your garden to be a particular
delicacy. In this case they'll fly off in search of more
appetizing fare. Either way, they're likely to let you
down as far as solving your pest problem is
concerned.