All About Home and Garden

Something all gardeners know is that at some point, they will face bugs! Of course, the initial reaction is to run out and buy various commercial insecticides. The trouble with using conventional chemical pesticides is that it undermines the benefits of raising home-grown vegetables.

A healthier solution, though the outcomes are not as easily appreciated, would be the reduction and prevention of such a bug invasion to start with. Companion plantings are an old, yet effective approach to pest control and help with better vegetables, as well.

An example of a companion planting is growing tomatoes along side carrots. Carrots can attract insects that feed on other insects that would otherwise go after your tomatoes. But, for the beneficial insect-attracting properties of carrots to work, you have to leave them to flower.

Sage, rosemary, and radishes are suggested by some people as companion plants, yet listed by other people as incompatible. Allium inter-planted with carrots confuse onion and carrot flies. Marigolds will deter beetles and nematodes. Mints (such as hyssop, sage, and various "balms") repel slugs, the nemesis of lettuce and cabbages.

Or, you could fight bugs with bugs! Two bug fighters that an organic gardener can easily introduce to their organic vegetable garden are lady bugs and praying mantis. The simplest way is to just buy and release them directly into your garden. You could do more research and find plants and flowers you can plant to attract and keep them in your vegetable garden area.

And, finally, you can use organic and natural sprays that you can use as well, ranging from homemade mixtures of simple soap and water to an age-old solution that is gaining in acceptance, Neem oil.

Neem oil has been used in India as a pesticide, a miticide, and also fungicide for thousands of years. What is also interesting with regards to Neem oil is that it has also been used for its medicinal qualities as well!

Neem oil does not work the same way as commercial pesticides and does not "eradicate" garden bugs in the usual way. Insects absorb the Neem oil compounds just like natural hormones. Neem enters their system and blocks the real hormones from functioning properly.

Bugs "forget" to eat, to mate, or they quit laying eggs. Some even forget that they can fly. If they do manage to lay eggs, the eggs would not hatch or the larvae don't moult. Needless to say, insects that are too confused to eat or breed will not survive. The population eventually plummets and they disappear because the entire life-cycle has been broken.

The neat thing is, Neem oil does not hurt beneficial insects. Only chewing and sucking bugs are affected. It really is fascinating.

However, this is not something that happens right away. People spray Neem oil as an insecticide and expect everything will die immediately, since that is what they are used to from chemical poisons. When that does not happen many people conclude Neem insecticide does not do the trick!

It will deliver the results! But, it takes longer to work than commercial pesticides do. But, it's a much smarter way to deal with insect pests than to simply kill everything... good bugs and bad.

View the original article here