Most gardeners take a medieval approach to battling pests – grab the sprayer, declare war, and do a lot of guessing. But what if the best solution isn't about fighting pests, but working with a different kind of system? Your garden already has the most advanced, naturally occurring, pest control system available.
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Check Price1. Constructing a Living Fence with Trap Plants
Clever gardeners use nasturtiums and marigolds to trap and divert aphids and cucumber beetles from their other crops. These 'trap crops' draw pests into their area, creating a feast for the garden's beneficial predatory insect population. By planting these trap crops 10 feet away from main crops, gardeners can direct pests away from their tomatoes and other veggies'.
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2. Create Housing Developments for Beneficial Insects
Just like workers need homes, ladybug, lacewing, and predatory wasp insect hotels can be made by using hollow stems, small logs with holes drilled in them, and loose bundles of bark. By using these structures, you can create permanent homes for your pest removing workers in your garden. Before adult lacewings reach adulthood they consume 200+ aphids.
3. Battle Strategy for Companion Planting
Some plants can protect their neighbors from pests using their own natural chemical signals and scent masking. For example, plant basil next to tomatoes to confuse and repel tomato hornworms. Cabbage can be protected from cabbage worms by surrounding it with thyme and oregano, which can overpower the attractive scent of cabbage. The wonderful thing about these companion planting strategies is that the additional plants help to increase the levels of natural defenses of each plant.
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4. Send Out Ground-Level Patrol Units
Beetles, spiders, and rove beetles make up a big part of your garden's night security team who are constantly battling cutworms, slugs, and grubs while you are sleeping.
Encourage beetles by building stone pathways and leaving spaces between pavers so beetles have daytime shelters. Ground beetles are estimated to consume 50 pest insects a night!
5. Set Up Strategic Water Oases
To keep beneficial insects in your garden, they will need to be able to access water. You can create shallow water sources that encourage predatory insects to land without giving mosquitoes a spot to breed, by placing small dishes filled with pebbles. Place these shallow water sources near the plants that are most prone to pests in order to keep your army of beneficial insects close to where they are needed most.
6. Schedule Your Gardening Tasks Like It Is a Military Operation
If you inspect your garden in the early morning, you will be able to catch pest like slugs, cutworms, and caterpillars while they are still sluggish from the cold, and they will be in easy to reach hiding places. You can collect the pests by hand and place the water into soapy water. When you water your garden in the evening, you will pull in helpful insects who will hunt during the cool while also deterring daytime pests that prefer hot, dry conditions.
7. Create Variations in Your Defense System for Greater Protection
Monoculture gardens attract pests. By mixing flowering plants and vegetables, varying the heights of plants, and adding native plants that support local beneficial species, you improve biodiversity. This attracts different predatory species to help with pest control problems.
Among pest-free gardens, the most successful are those that are not battlefields, but instead are harmonious communities where all the different beings have their place. Understanding the partnerships and working with the ecosystem's natural processes means spontaneous and self-sustaining pest control will develop over the years.
