Organic Pest Control Strategies
STRATEGY |
RECIPE/METHOD |
CAUTION |
CONTROLS |
| Hygiene | Clear dead/diseased fruit/material |
Burn if diseased | Over wintering larvae, pupae, spores, etc. |
| Hand picking | Daytime At night Affected leaves |
Caterpillars Slugs Leaf miners |
|
| Barriers | Collars around brassicas; Fleece over entire stand; Chicken wire under raised bed |
Cabbage root fly Flying pests; birds, rabbits Burrowing animals: moles, gophers |
|
| Decoys | Comfrey leaves around crops | Distracts slugs | |
| Traps | Yoghurt pots on canes. Unwashed bottomless milk cartons as collars around seedlings. Wrap sacking around tree trunk in summer, Slabwood (or roof tiles) between rows |
Check often Burn early autumn |
Traps earwigs
Distract slugs while plants grow away Traps apple blossom weevil Traps slugs, millipedes |
| Grease hand | Use on paper for young trees, directly painted on 3 year-old trees | Capsids, winter moth, etc. | |
| Soft soap | Green soft soap, 4oz in 3 gallons water (pref. rain) | Aphids, small caterpillars | |
| Urine | Spray neat on tightwinter buds, and on fallen leaf, Dilute 1:3 in water, on leaves just before leaf fall | Apple and pear scab,gooseberry and blackcurrant mildew | |
| 'BT' Bacillus thuringiensis | Make up suspension in water | Insect larvae. esp. caterpillars | |
| Quassia in soft soap, | Boil loz chips for 1 hour in 2pt water, strain and add loz soft soap/2oz flakes. Dilute 1:5 water Dilute 1:3 water | Fairly weak remedy | Aphids Sawfly. caterpillars, mites |
| Elder spray | 1 lb fresh leaves boiled 1 hour with 6pt water.Strain, use cold (keeps upto 3 weeks) | Kills hoverfly | Fungus including mildews and black spot, small caterpillars, aphids |
| Borax | Mix 1:1 with icing sugar, sprinkle under cover along runs | POISONOUS Use only if essential |
Ants |
| Derris | Dust as bought is a non-persistent plant alkaloid | Kills fish, amphibians, and ladybirds | Caterpillars, aphids, weevils, flea beetle, asparagus beetle |
| Derrisplus soft soap | 5% solution: 4oz/gallon 2oz/gallon |
As above As above |
Caterpillars Thrips, aphids, red spider mite |
| Nicotine | Buy 2%, in soft soap readymade. Use in evening | POISONOUS, kills bees |
Aphids, capsids, sawfly, blackfly, whitefly, leaf miners |
