Want to get rid of pests? Read on to learn the Best Organic Pest Control approaches to make things easier.
Discover essential Organic Pest Control methods that every gardener should master. Learn effective techniques to naturally ward off pests without harmful chemicals, ensuring a thriving and eco-friendly garden.
Learn Using Apple Cider Vinegar for Pests here
Best Organic Pest Control Approaches Every Gardener Should Know
Here are the most effective pest control solutions in an organic manner:
1. Go with Poultry Predation
Introduce poultry, such as chickens or ducks, to your garden to naturally control pests. Poultry help by foraging and consuming insects, slugs, and other garden pests, reducing their populations, and protecting your plants.
2. Attract Beneficial Insects
Attracting beneficial insects and birds to your garden is an amazing Organic Pest Control approach. Ladybugs, lacewings, and birds like wrens and bluebirds feed on harmful insects, providing natural pest control and maintaining a balanced ecosystem in your garden.
3. Applying Crop Rotation Strategy
Rotate your crops each season to prevent pests from establishing permanent populations. By moving plants to different areas, you disrupt pest life cycles and decrease the risk of widespread infestations.
4. Use of Diatomaceous Earth
Utilize diatomaceous earth, a natural substance made from fossilized diatoms, to control pests. Sprinkle diatomaceous earth around plants to create a barrier that damages the exoskeletons of insects, causing them to dehydrate and die.
5. Garlic-Pepper Spray
Create a homemade garlic pepper spray by combining garlic, oil, dish soap, and water for the best Organic Pest Control spray. This potent spray repels pests when applied directly to plants, deterring them from causing damage.
Here is How to Make and Use Garlic Water Pesticide for Plants
6. Horticultural Oil
Mix dishwashing detergent and vegetable oil to create a horticultural oil spray. This spray effectively smothers and kills pests like scales, mites, and aphids, providing an eco-friendly solution to pest control.
7. Handpicking for Smaller Infestations
Regularly inspect your plants and remove pests by hand, especially during smaller infestations. This simple but effective method helps control pest populations and prevent further damage to your garden.
Note: You should avoid handpicking pests like beetles, caterpillars with stinging hairs, or venomous species to protect yourself from potential harm and ensure personal safety while tending to your garden. Go for other organic pest control methods.
8. Organic Sprays
Create homemade organic sprays using simple ingredients like garlic, neem oil, or soap. These natural concoctions can repel pests when applied directly to plants without causing harm to beneficial insects or the environment. Here is the DIY.
9. Taking the Help of Beneficial Nematodes
Beneficial nematodes are microscopic organisms that attack and kill soil-dwelling pests, such as grubs and larvae. Apply nematodes to your garden soil for Organic Pest Control and to target specific pests and reduce their populations effectively.
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10. Companion Planting
Boost your garden’s defense by strategically planting certain plants together. Companion planting, such as growing marigolds alongside tomatoes, can deter pests through natural scents and repellent properties.
11. Physical Barriers
Prevention really is better than a cure, which is why you should erect physical barriers like fences, netting, or row cover to prevent pests from reaching your plants. These barriers act as a shield, preventing insects or larger pests from causing damage.
12. Mulching
Looking for simple Organic Pest Control methods? Apply organic mulch, such as straw or wood chips, around your plants to deter pests. Mulch acts as a barrier, making it harder for pests to access plant roots and causing them to seek easier targets elsewhere.
13. Insecticidal Soap Spray
Make an organic insecticidal soap spray using liquid soap like Castile mixed with water. This spray suffocates soft-bodied pests, such as aphids and mites, while being safe for beneficial insects and plants. Here’s the DIY.
Here are DIY Insecticidal Soap Recipes for the Garden to Kill Pests
Organic Pest Control for Common Pests
There are hundreds of garden pests that need to be treated, but here is how you can control the most common ones:
14. Aphids
For small infestations, physically remove or clean with water pressure; for larger infestations, use insecticidal soap, attract bug-eating birds like bluebirds, or apply neem oil.
Here are Natural Ways to Kill Aphids
15. Armyworm
Control with beneficial insects such as Trichogramma wasps, ladybugs, lacewings, and beneficial birds; horticultural oils and neem oil can also be effective.
16. Asparagus Beetle
Handpick beetles and use soap water spray; neem oil application and introduction of beneficial insects can provide additional Organic Pest Control.
17. Blister Beetle
Take the help of beneficial insects like praying mantis, flicking them into soapy water (avoid handpicking, or you may get blisters on your hand).
18. Cabbage Root Maggot
Try insecticide as Organic Pest Control to cover the soil around the base of your plant, use birds to kill cabbage root flies and prevent them from laying eggs.
19. Cabbage Worm
Deter egg-laying butterflies by covering plants with row covers, handpick when possible, use yellow sticky traps, or introduce predator wasps like Trichogramma wasps.
20. Carrot Rust Fly
First, you need to cover the seedbeds with row covers and avoid leaving any carrots in the ground over winter. Use a crop rotation strategy & plant them in raised beds.
21. Corn Earworm
Lure the beneficial insects like Trichogramma Wasps, soldier beetles, and green lacewings, or use insecticidal sprays, but be aware that these sprays may harm honeybees.
22. Cucumber Beetle
Poultry predation like using chickens around the garden, use of neem products, and handpicking.
23. Cutworm
Rigid collars, Bt (Bacillus thuringiens), diatomaceous earth from fossilized aquatic creatures is enough for cutworm Organic Pest Control.
Click here to learn the Amazing Natural Pesticide Recipe that can Kill any Pest
24. Flea Beetle
Use insecticidal soap, apply garlic-pepper spray, or employ row covers to manage flea beetle populations.
25. Harlequin Bug
Handpick bugs, practice good garden sanitation and apply neem oil for effective Organic Pest Control.
26. Japanese Beetle
Handpick beetles, cover plantation rows with row covers or consider the use of milky spore disease for management.
27. Mexican Bean Beetle
Handpick the adults if possible, remove the eggs, and bring beneficial insects to your garden, such as ladybugs, green lacewing, and minute pirate bugs.
28. Slugs & Snails
Handpick slugs and snails or utilize poultry and birds as natural predators to manage their populations if you want Organic Pest Control for slugs.
29. Squash Bug
Control squash bugs by handpicking, maintaining good garden sanitation, and applying neem oil as an organic solution.
30. Squash Vine Borer
Manage squash vine borers by growing resistant varieties, practicing crop rotation, or using beneficial nematodes for control.
31. Stink Bug
Handpick stink bugs, ensure good garden sanitation practices, and apply neem oil to deter and manage their populations.
32. Tarnished Plant Bug
Handpick tarnished plant bugs, practice good garden sanitation, and utilize neem oil as a natural control method.
33. Whitefly
Manage whiteflies using insecticidal soap, attract beneficial insects, or apply horticultural oils for whitefly Organic Pest Control.
Here is How to Get Rid of Whiteflies on Plants
Birds for Organic Pest Control
Birds are excellent allies in Organic Pest Control as they naturally prey on insects and other garden pests. By attracting birds to your garden, you can create a balanced ecosystem that helps keep pest populations in check.
Install bird feeders and birdbaths to provide food and water sources for birds. Plant trees, shrubs, and flowers that produce berries or attract insects, which serve as food for birds. Consider nesting boxes or birdhouses to encourage birds to make your garden their home. By welcoming these feathered friends, you can enjoy their melodious songs while they help you maintain a healthy, pest-free garden.
Here’s how to invite birds to the balcony garden
How to Attract Beneficial Insects
Did you know that many insects are your friends when it comes to Organic Pest Control? Here is how you can attract beneficial insects to the garden:
34. Predatory Bees
You can attract predatory bees by planting bee-friendly flowers such as bee balm, pineapple sage, dandelion, and parsley in your garden.
35. Ladybugs
These beneficial insects are great for controlling aphids and mites. Attract ladybugs to your garden by planting chives, angelica, dill, cosmos, and cilantro.
Here is How to Attract Ladybugs to Your Garden
36. Minute Pirate Bug
These bugs feed on small insects and their eggs. To attract minute pirate bugs, consider planting carvi, cosmos, alfalfa, and spearmint in your garden.
37. Assassin Bug
Despite their somewhat creepy appearance, assassin bugs are beneficial insects that prey on unwanted garden pests like termites, ants, aphids, bedbugs, and provide Organic Pest Control.
38. Damsel Bug
Similar to mantises, damsel bugs consume various insects smaller than themselves. If you have a pest problem, they can be attracted to your garden by planting goldenrod, fennel, and spearmint.
39. Mealybug Destroyer
These beneficial insects are natural predators of aphids, mealybugs, and soft scales. Attract mealybug destroyers by planting dill, angelica, sunflower, and yarrow.
Check out our article on getting rid of mealybugs here
40. Soldier Beetle
You can attract soldier beetles by growing milkweed, goldenrod, marigold, and various daisy varieties in your garden if you’re looking for Organic Pest Control without much work.
