How to Practice Safe Pest Control in Your Garden

Pest control has to be done with safety in mind, not just for the plants, but for the animals and humans that visit your garden. This is especially true if you are growing a vegetable or organic garden.

Since the main purpose of growing vegetables organically is to not have your vegetables be tainted with pest control chemicals, using those chemicals to take care of pests would defeat the purpose of an organic vegetable garden.

Here are some long-term pest control tips that are environmentally friendly.

1. Whenever possible use a physical pest control process.

This can be done by picking off the pests and grubs by hand, creating traps, and barriers and plugging up holes in your garden. Snails like to hide in damp places under rocks and by the base of those plants that have straplike foliage.

2. Use biological pest control.

Do what you can to encourage predatory insects like green lacewings and dragonflies to feed on the insects that attack your plants such as aphids. All you have to do to do this is to place a shallow bowl of water in your garden. Dragonflies love water and will come to hover around it. Bacterial insecticides like B. thuringiensis can also be used if you have caterpillars eating your plants.

3. Try safer pest control substitutes.

Here are a few alternative pest control recipes.

To get rid of cockroaches-You can add boric acid dust to cracks and or entry points where these pests enter. Also bay leaves on your pantry shelves can help in warding off these pests.

If you want to get rid of aphids and mites-Mix one cup of vegetable oil with one tablespoon of liquid soap. Next dilute one teaspoon of this solution in one cup of water and then add it to a clean spray bottle and spray on the aphids and mites.

A general natural alternative pest control recipe calls for 1 cup of rubbing alcohol, 1 cup of water, and 1/4 of a cup of dish soap. Combine this in a spray bottle and use it on your plants that are the most affected by pests.

One final point is to make sure that any chemicals you use are created specifically to kill the insects that you are targeting.

4. Never turn to chemical pest control except as a last resort.

Organic pest control processes can be successful and the ingredients for many different kinds of recipes can be found in your kitchen cupboards. If you find that you have no choice and a chemical spray is the only option, do your best to find one that is not very toxic. These can include horticultural oils, insecticidal soaps and dehydrating dusts to name a few.

Keeping these tips in mind will ensure that you are able to get rid of the pests in your garden without using toxic chemicals. Thus keeping both your plants, and family safe from any side effects that these chemicals may cause.