Pest control without killing

[lisasian86]

I've heard of using broken egg shells and copper to prevent bugs and pests getting to your plants, does anyone know any other friendly pest control methods to protect your plants without resorting to harmful sprays and powders?

 

[marlingardener]

Egg shells and copper will deter slugs, but don't do a thing for flying insects. There are organic sprays you can make yourself to get rid of aphids and soft-bodied insects, and companion plants that will either keep the pests off the desirable plants or repel them completely.
I assume "without killing" refers to the plants. I've never met a gardener yet who feels sympathy for aphids!

 

[Beverly]

Soapy water (pure ivory soap is good) spray, water/milk mix spray for mildew, lady beetles for aphids...the list of homemade, nontoxic ideas here is amazing. Cruise the "Organic Gardening" forum and you will see what i mean. If you have a problem with a specific type of infestation, start a thread and ask how to control it organically, you can also access prior posts and threads via the search box. This site has quite a large population of knowledgeable organic gardeners with great ideas so you will find many like minded people here.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

Without resorting to harmful sprays, I guess you can try the old school way. One, you can add eggshells and sawdust to the soil, apparently it helps stave off slugs (according to my aunt). You can also keep the pots elevated, she did that too during the rainy season, as well as having barriers on windows that would act as a shield that would stave off larger bugs and insects from coming in. That's basically it, her garden was her life, and she really had fun with it.

 

[Corzhens]

The only friendly pest control I know is the water hose. Particularly for the aphids, I would see my husband training the hose underneath the leaves of tomato or pepper which are infested by aphids. Right now we have a pepper that is fruiting heavily but with aphids in some leaves. The spurt of water in the hose destroys the shelter or nest of the aphids although they tend to come back. But somehow those white pests are deterred.

For a stronger pest control, we use liquid dish washing soap in water. However, the pepper's leaves are fragile that sometimes they wither. But surely the aphids are eradicated.

 

[MaryMary]

There is some evidence that slugs don't like coffee grounds. Added benefit is that worms love them, and they're good for your soil. I imagine you'd have to refresh them after a good rain.

The same guy runs two other experiments using eggshells and Diatomaceous earth.