Pest management in the garden

The heat of summer brings both joy and heartache to the gardener. Plants sense the shortening days and explode in a hurry to reproduce seed for the next generation. This means making the fruit for which we grow them. It also means the dinner bell has been rung for all of the insects that also adore our crops. There is little worse than to go into the garden to harvest vegetables only to find plants writhing with bugs devouring leaf and fruit. Back when humanity was stupid, we used to use chemical pesticide sprays and powders to kill these insects. Oh, wait… some of us still do that. The rest of us now know that there is a cost we may not be able to pay associated with this easy out. More on that, in a bit. Thankfully, there is a great deal we can do to minimize losses while actually improving the ecology!

Beyond organic

A regenerative farm is a super organism. It is a collective living thing comprised of thousands of symbiotic beings. A factory farm is a life dessert, chemically sterilized for the “benefit” of one crop. Even large certified organic farms have an industrial feel, merely supplanting an approved spray for the chemical alternative. A truly integrated farm practicing methods like permaculture, bio-dynamics, and restoration agriculture is far beyond “organic”. Rather than turning to some bottle of nifty gick to rid our gardens of insects, we design systems that support complete food chains, and balanced ecosystems. This will become increasingly important for the survival of humanity. As recently reported , insect populations are plummeting. The way farming has been corrupted is directly to blame. Till and spray mono-crop agriculture will kill us, and nearly every living thing on the planet, if not immediately abandoned. That’s not going to happen, so it’s a good time to grow your own food, while creating habitat for as many invertebrate refugees of chemical warfare as you can.

It starts with soil

The role of pests and disease, in nature, is to eliminate weak, unhealthy plants to make room for what will thrive. Therefore, if we provide optimal conditions for our plants, they will thrive, and bugs will pass them by. How to achieve healthy plants is a broad subject about much has been written. I will continue to add to that lexicon, but for now lets look at one aspect of the equation which is critical to pest management, as well. During the winter, predator insects (the ones who eat the vegans who eat our plants), toads, and lizards often hibernate in the soil. If the gardener begins the season by firing up the rototiller and pureeing the soil, most of these allies will be killed, along with 30% of the soil life, and almost all symbiotic fungi. The addition of chemical fertilizers will also make the soil inhospitable for these garden friends, and soil microbiology. By adopting no-till methods, the gardener can greatly expand the army of vegetable defenders, year after year. Future posts will explore these methods in greater detail.

Homes for wayward predators and pollinators

As mentioned in that NatGeo article (linked above) loss of small, family farms, equates to a loss of hedgerows, brush piles, and woodlands. To be able to farm thousands of acres with a GPS driven mega tractor, all fields must become chalky parking lots, free of obstacles. To encourage both pollinating insects (such as mason bees, honey bees, butterflies, etc.) and predatory insects (dragonflies, ladybugs, praying mantis…) it is good to have piles of brush, firewood, weedy areas, ponds, and woodlots around, Even in a suburban back yard habitat for such fairy warriors can be created. It doesn’t have to be ugly, but it cannot be sterile. Providing such shelter and resource for these helpers will encourage them to call your home theirs, and start a family. Often, it is the larval form of these insects which do the heavy lifting, in terms of pest eradication. For example, a ladybug nymph will eat their weight in aphid eggs, every day. That’s about fifty. Worst omelet ever? Perhaps, but good on them. A dragonfly will eat its weight in mosquito in an hour. #bestbugever. In general, if there is a bloom of pests, and also habitat, the right predator will arrive to take advantage of the buffet and then become part of your farm organism. I’ve linked to lady bugs for sale, below, if you want to speed up your predator population. Mantis’ can be had, too.

Employing poultry

The co founder of permaculture, Bill Mollison, is famous for saying, “You don’t have an excess of slugs, you have a deficiency of ducks!” In other words, as you tweak your systems, the addition of certain birds can be a real game changer. One of my favorites is the African guinea fowl. These chicken sized birds will cover a 1,000 foot circle, every day, clearing out grasshoppers, ticks, squash bugs, and many other unwanted bugs. They offer a meat yield, and an egg yield, while being light on the garden, unlike chickens. If grasshoppers are a problem, nothing keeps them in check like turkeys. Chickens have a role, too. They are great for turning over gardens in preparation for planting, as they will scratch out old roots looking for grubs and eggs that could cause problems, down the line. They are particularly effective when run under fruit trees, in the fall, as they eat the dormant moths that can destroy a fruit crop, the following year.

Mechanical methods

Sometimes, in acute outbreaks, more direct means of population control are needed, particularly in immature systems. For example, squash and cucumber plants can be wrecked in a matter of days by certain beetles. My guineas seem to be keeping them at bay, this year. Last year, however, I got hammered. Thirty minutes of golf ball sized hail tattered the gardens, and everybuggy came over to finish off the damaged plants. I had no guineas, so I deployed yellow sticky traps. There is a link to buy these at the bottom of the page. If I have trouble this year, I plan to make my own by spray painting solo cups “squash blossom yellow”, coating the inside with spray glue, and baiting them with clove oil. Set a few yards from the plants, on bamboo skewers, these should attract and remove most of the bugs that like to eat squash and cucumbers. One can also hunt such prey. Manually picking bugs off, and either squishing them, or feeding them to the chickens works, but is low on my list of hobbies. With some pest eggs, once located and identified, you can use masking tape to remove them from undersides of leaves. One particularly destructive critter is the squash vine borer. This is the larvae of a moth who lays eggs at the base of things like pumpkin and summer squash. I haven’t seen them here, in Eastern Colorado, but I understand that the eggs can be spotted on young squash stems, right at soil level and removed, early in the season. Over on Instagram, @hen_of_the_woods posted about using a little hand held vacuum to suck cucumber beetles off of the vine. This technique is handy, as you can then just dump the contents in the chicken run, and turn bugs into hollandaise!

Companion planting

Another way to protect your crops is with other crops. These come in two general classes. The first are deterrent plants. Things like marigolds will discourage certain pests, including flea beetles. Alums like garlic, chives, and onions repel others, including, but not limited to slugs. Having a good planting mix, and a solid rotation pattern, goes a long way to reducing pest pressure. Rotation also helps by planting crops away from where their pests bedded down, last year. Another strategy is the use of trap crops. That nasty vine borer, for example, loves blue hubbard squash, above all others. If they attack your squash, but you want zucchini, plant some hubbards twenty feet away. They will go eat their “ice cream” and leave your zucs alone, for the most part. Sometimes, it comes down to varietal selection. Where crook necks get victimized butternuts may thrive. Another way to balance pest pressure is to save your own seed, oddly enough. Not only will the epigenetics of the plants experiences get passed down to future generations, but the withering leaves after the bolt will act as a trap crop. The seeds will still ripen while the pests eat the part you didn’t want, anyway. After all, if there are NO pest insects on the farm, what will the predators eat? The greater your diversity, the greater your chance of success.

Diatomaceous earth

In the sea, tiny algea called diatoms abound. Their cell walls are made of silica. When they die, they carpet the ocean floor to staggering depths. Deposits of their fossilized remains are mined, here on land. DE, as it is often called, has many uses. It keeps grain free of infestation, removes intestinal worms from livestock, and some people use it to repair gut issues. It is also a non toxic pesticide. Its effect is due to the sharp geometry of its microscopic shape. The pointy bits scrape the waxy coating from insect exoskeletons, leading to rapid dehydration and death. Use it cautiously, as it is an indiscriminate insect killer, and will take down bees and aphids, alike. Also, a dust mask and eye protection are wise to wear while applying it, to avoid lung and eye irritation. Once, in the soil, and wet, it becomes inert, in large part, but I use it judiciously. Link below.

Sprays

Soap kills bugs, too. In high concentrations, it will also burn plants. A few drops of Castile soap, or dish soap, in a spray bottle of water will take out most garden pests. It will also kill bees, if you spray them, so be care full. Neem oil, extracted from an India conifer, is another great tool. It can be added to the previously mentioned soap spray. The soap emulsifies the oil, enabling it to be sprayed in dilution. Neem oil has the unique ability to eradicate or repel a wide range of pest insects without harming pollinators, or earthworms. Fruits and vegetables sprayed with neem oil should be well washed prior to consumption, as it is toxic if ingested. It is use in some topical products, such as soaps and hand creams, however. To make neem oil spray, mix 4 teaspoons of oil with 2 teaspoons of liquid soap, then stir that into 1 gallon of water.

Redefining success

Ultimately, even if some bug steals all of your favorite garden goody, chances are your second favorite will produce admirably. If we can let go of the need for everything to work, every time, we leave more room for natural processes to arrive at a productive balance. One type of plant will thrive where others have failed. If you learned something while watching a plant be eaten alive, you still have a yield. One thing is certain. The longer you pour your love into the garden, the better it will do!

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