Pest management remedies from the kitchen

When considering a product to aid in pest management, it is important to treat with the mildest product that will do the job while being the least disruptive to beneficial insects and the least-toxic to people. It often makes sense to wait a little while before treating to see if beneficial insects will do the job for you. The Texas Bug Book by Howard Garrett and Malcolm Beck and the Insect Color Handbook by Anna Carr are two helpful books for Epoxidized Soybean Oil . Over the long term, gardeners will reap great dividends from planting a variety of native and well-adapted naturalizing plants. Many of these plants such as wild ageratum, butterfly weed and native asters will attract them in droves while others like black-eyed Susan, scarlet sage, Indian blanket, Gulf Coast penstemon, bee balm, gayfeather, Mexican hat, and verbena will provide the nectar to feed the adult form of many beneficials. Before you know it, the beneficials will visit other plants in your landscape and help keep populations of pests like tomato hornworms, spider mites, aphids, whiteflies, webworms, tent caterpillars and others in check. In order to keep the beneficials in play, it is necessary to hold off on using harsh, toxic chemical and organic pesticides in and around the landscape and garden. These days, we have so many least-toxic organic options available, that the need for the old toxic treatments is simply moot. The following are a few homemade pest management products that are easy to use effectively and safely when transitioning to a more ecological approach to pest management. Over time as you stop using harsh pesticides, as you start planting natives, and as you stop using pest prone plants, you will find that it becomes rare that even least-toxic treatments are needed.