Natural garden pest control comes with a wide range of benefits and there are so many reasons why you should try it. Besides being an inexpensive way of keeping pests out of your farm, it is much safer to the environment, your garden, you and your family. And besides, some of the natural methods used to control pests are even much more effective than applying pesticides not to mention the serious risks that these pesticides have on your health and the environment at large.
Natural prevention measures- organic gardening
Perhaps the easiest ways of ensuring that your garden is not invaded by pests is to discourage these pests from coming into your garden in the first place. As every pest control expert will tell you, a healthy garden has the best defense against pests. To achieve this, start by pulling out those weak plants because chances are high they might already be attacked by pests or attached by other diseases. Focus more on building healthy soil organically by use of natural composting methods such as top- dressing the soil with natural fertilizer and compost and mulching. Other preventive measures include disinfecting your tools before attending to your garden, keeping foliage dry, minimize pest habitat and rotate and interplant crops in your garden.
- some of the natural methods used to control pests are even much more effective than applying pesticides
Organic gardening is ideally done at the backyard with an understanding that healthy and happy plants in good and highly nutritious soil helps a lot in prevention of harmful insects and most diseases. While organic gardening doesn’t necessarily eliminate all pests in the garden as most pesticides do, it is always very important that the garden is kept watered, mulched, and clean of debris and weeded in order to prevent many pest related problems.
Introduce beneficial insects
There are some beneficial insects, which prey on pests and they can save you from having to use pesticides in your garden. While you can attract these insects naturally in your garden, some are also available for purchase from catalogues and play on harmful pests, insects and their larvae. Some of these very beneficial insects include ladybugs, brachnoids and Ichneumon wasps, Lacewings, Hover- flies, praying mantis and nematodes among others.
Garden ‘mini- in sectary’’ is something else that you should consider also. This refers to the setting up of a small piece of your garden and designing it in a way that it is capable of attracting and harboring beneficial insects. Such ‘good’ insects prey on a wide range garden insect pest thus providing the gardener with a natural, safer alternative to pesticides.
Homemade and non- toxic remedies
Besides being inexpensive, homemade remedies for pest control are preferred by many since you will know exactly what you are putting to your garden. These homemade sprays are quite effective and offer very good results when are used for controlling harmful insects. These remedies are made with natural ingredients and these means that they are non- toxic such as cayenne, garlic, horsetail or stinging nettles. You simply dilute these waters and spray them on your pests which kill the pesticides. It is essential that you spray the plants very well including below the leaves since this is where most of the pests hide.
