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Spider Mites and Biological Predators

The most upsetting thing in gardening is to find your garden the victim of spider mites. Read more

The best pest advice anyone can give.

 

The best way to keep those little pests at bay is to start with a clean room. Sterilise in between uses with chlorine or bleach or some other potent form of strong cleaning fluid.

Also when taking cuttings or seedlings from the nurseries or friends drench them in something like Dead Red or some other general purpose insecticide. Really drench them cause the last thing that you want is other people’s problems in the form of pests and diseases.  Read more

Parasitic Wasps

Predator and parasitic wasps can be a great addition to your garden, indoors or out. Some species of wasp feed off of garden pests, and will be better for your garden (and you) that dousing it with chemicals.

Parasitic wasps dispatch garden pests in a unique, if not gruesome manner. When a parasitic wasp reaches maturity and needs to lay eggs, first it finds a suitable host. Read more

What Is Integrated Pest Management?

Integrated Pest Management or IPM Ecology and Out Door Living
This is the EPA definition of IPM:
“In technical terms, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the coordinated use of pest and environmental information with available pest control methods to prevent unacceptable levels of pest damage by the most economical means and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment”.

I don’t think it goes quite far enough myself. For it to realy be integrated, and comprehensive, it needs to do more than just integrate the means of treating the symptoms, it needs to find cures, and work on prevention as well. The pests we have in our out door living spaces, are a result of other decisions made earlier.
Read more

Basic prevention tips

Growing Hydroponically is a great way to avoid pests and disease. Soil borne diseases won’t be a worry if you thoroughly wash off any plant imported to your system. If the plants get the proper amount of nutrients they will be healthy and less prone to diseases and infestations.

Insect infestations should be taken care of immediately, the best way would be to use the pest insects natural predator. This way, you don’t add any potentially harmful chemicals, or anything unnatural to the plant.

Keeping your plants well ventilated and the proper temperature will be your best defense against mould. The temperature will vary depending on the variety of plants your growing.

If you are growing outdoors, you will want to keep the plants elevated or on a deck too keep wildlife from attacking your delicious strawberries!

Managing Pests & Diseases

As with soil-based gardens, hydroponic plants require good pest and disease maintenance controls. Failure to do so creates the same results as with ‘ordinary’ gardens i.e. spindly or dead plants. Since the majority of hydroponic plants are fruits and vegetables, that means the plants are not worth eating.

However, managing the hydroponic garden is even trickier, since disease and pests have it much easier in this setting. Plants are continuously kept wet, either immersed in water (‘true’ hydroponics) or continually sprayed (aeroponics) or reside in a permanently wet medium such as perlite or sand. Fortunately, as with soil-based gardens, there is an large array of available methods to manage the problem.

Using beneficial life forms is one popular way to control unwanted pests, including certain types of bacteria and fungi. These can help to control spider mites and other invaders by crowding them out, eating them or releasing compounds toxic to the pest. They’re known as beneficial organisms because they do all that without damaging the plants themselves.

Different types of pesticides are available, too.
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Spider Mites- How to eliminate them

Spider mites are a bane to indoor gardeners and knowing their life cycle is very useful in assisting you with eliminating them. Spider mites lay eggs when they are threatened with death. The best naturally occuring active ingredient to kill them is Pyrethrum (Pyrethrin) this active ingredient is extracted from the Chrysanthemum Flower and is the oldest natural insecticide known to man. Pyrethrin is a CONTACT kill product only ( must contact the pest to kill the pest) and has no residual activity-thus it is safe to use up to the day of harvest on all food crops.

The highest level of this active ingredient in the product that you chose to use is recommended. Insecticidal soaps which are recommended in a lot of articles and blogs are NOT EFFECTIVE-they contain the lowest amount of this active ingredient and contain high levels of soap which is very Phyto-toxic to your plants= they cause more damage than good.

Treating your plants with a very high quality pyrethrin based product will give you excellent results with the least amount of product used saving you time and money.

Spider Mites when treated with anything to kill them immediately lay eggs-this is there evolutionary defense. An indoor growing environment with high temperatures and humidity is the ideal environment for spider mites to procreate. In this environment they can go through a entire life cycle in 4-7 days. so to successfully eliminate them you must treat your plants every 3-4 days for 3 complete life cycles.

The best eradication method is to treat the underside of the foliage with a Plant Spray containing a high concentration of Pyrethrin .20% or higher. After treating the underside of the foliage it is time to Fumigate or Fog the growing area with a Total Release Bomb- Doktor Doom makes two excellent products for this application (Doktor Doom Botanic’s Insecticide Plant Spray-Canada, Doktor Doom Spider Mite Knockout Plant Spray -USA and Doktor Doom Total Release Foggers (Fumigators)- Canada or USA. repeat this application every 3-4 days for 3 cycles.

Additional growing area tips: Remove all dead foliage daily, do not allow pets or visitors into the growing area (spider mites are hitch hikers and can attach to all sorts of surfaces from the hair on your arm to the sleeve of your shirt) always use the same clothing for doing maintenance in your growing area and keep it laundered regularly in hot water and dried in a hot dryer. Be certain that the area that you are drawing fresh air from is either treated with Pyrethrin regularly or use very fine screens on your intake ventilation systems. Most infestations in indoor rooms occur near this source of fresh air! Cleanliness is very important- keep your growing area clean and free of debris daily.

Be certain that the source of your cuttings is a “Clean Source” to assist you with this treat your cuttings with the suggested Plant Spray from a distance of about 3-4 feet away-spray a mist in the air and allow it to land on all surfaces of your cuttings-do not soak the foliage- a light mist every 3-4 days is all that is required.

By following the above application and indoor growing area tips you should be well on your way to a spider mite free environment and produce excellent crops ready for consumption

Homemade pest control

The Coloradoan has a few suggestions for pest control around the home. Most are better for the environment, and cheaper than commercial solutions. You want to make sure your going after the right bugs though. Spiders, dragonflies, lady bugs and praying mantis should be welcome to anyone’s garden as they love to eat bugs, that love to eat your plants.

Plant selection can play a big role in keeping pests at bay. Strong smelling plants such as basil and chives will drive off annoying pests.

Mixing 2 Tbsp of liquid soap, or 2 oz. of powdered soap into water in a spray bottle will create a mixture that tastes pretty bad. Even to a bug. So if you spray down your indoor and outdoor plants with this deterrent, pests won’t find it as tasty anymore.

If flying insects are driving you nuts, smear some honey on a strip of yellow paper for a homemade sticky strip. If ants are what’s bothering you, mix 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp Borax, and 2 tbsp water and soak cottonballs in it. Place the balls on a jar lid and set it down near the infestation. Be careful with this around small children and pets, and only handle it with gloves on.
Source

Natural Pest Control

India’s online newspaper has an interesting article about ancient methods of pest control. Rather than use commercial pesticides, which can be expensive and difficult to obtain, these farmers have reverted to using the methods their ancestors used. And why not? These methods have proven effective and prevent many from going into debt.

In Kozhikottu pothai, a village in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, use of these ancient methods has been widely accepted. “These preparations can serve as a quick remedy to temporarily stop the increasing incidence of crop pests and also help farmers to phase out their dependence on chemical pesticides, which in turn will prevent them from sinking into debts,” said Mr. S. Aravindan, Social scientist.

For example, farmers use a pest repellant made from papaya leaves. It is made by soaking about one kg of papaya leaves in water (the entire leaves should be submerged) overnight. The leaves are then ground and mixed in a litre of water and sprayed over the crops.

Click to see the rest of the methods

How to Deal with Pests in your Organic Garden

Organic gardening has many rewards but it also comes with special challenges. The fact that you have chosen not to use chemical pesticides means that you will be rewarded with healthier vegetables come harvest time. But during the growing season, it means that you will have to find some alternative means to deal with pests that will try to make a meal of your garden. Here are a few of the most popular and effective ways organic gardeners protect their investment and ward off bugs.

Remove any Unnecessary Organic Material – The best way to deal with pests is by taking a preventative stance. A few dead leaves on the ground are an invitation to all unwanted pests. Keeping your garden tidy, including removing all unnecessary organic material, will give bugs less food to eat and therefore less reason to invade your garden. Read more

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