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Scarecrow

natural pest control recipes?

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All right, so I've been curious about using as-natural-as-possible means to repel insects from my plants. This thread is for sharing ideas/recipes for natural pest control. For example, I've heard crushed eggshells work well to stop snails and slugs in their tracks. I'm sure lots of you would have picked up some neat tricks!

However, I do have some ulterior motives in starting this thread. At the moment I seem to have some scarid flies moving in to the plants I have inside during winter (where even did they come from????), and I want to get rid of the little bastards before they become a big problem (my plants are struggling enough as it is).

Apart from using sticky strips to cull the population, using essential oils as a repellant sounds promising. But I'm not sure which oils to choose for these pests specifically. I'm wondering if anybody has any firsthand experience with this? Or perhaps other ideas? Maybe an all-purpose pest repellant recipe? :lol:

My mum also would love to hear about any other tricks to get rid of the snails/slugs that are eating her okra.

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slugs and snails hate bands of copper, have used strips of it wrapped around the trunk of things.

Diamataceous earth can also work , but its better for dryer periods works by being "sharp" to the molluscs.

Chickens, and for slugs ducks are even better. They eat 'em you get eggs and meat if you eat it.

Wood ash for pear and cherry slug.

Ants tend to avoid pennyroyal plants, oil may work as well (?).

Napalm when shit gets ugly....lol...best all purpose I know of.

Will tap a few more when the grey matters working better.

EDIT - beer traps for slugs/snails. Put container in ground lip at ground level, pour in beer, the drunkets go into get "pissed" and drown (happy death I'd like to think).

Edited by waterboy
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I've heard Nicotiana Rustica is a very potent deterrant for pests, making a spray from the juices of the plant would be one way to apply it I suppose. I'd definitely wash it if it's food products that you apply them too. It's also grown next to plants that the gardener doesn't want to be attacked, that way there's no nicotine getting put onto your plants.

Regarding your slug problem bury an open beer bottle (with beer inside) so that only a bit is poking out from the surface. Slugs are attracted to the beer and end up drowning themselves.

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dont waste ya beer 4 fuk sake lol!! any soft drink will work just let it sit in the sun 4 a couple of dayz!!!

also good 4 flys inside a lil in the bottle and sit it near ya window/plants!

i have tried eco oil on my mite problem 4 my niteshades but fuk it i dont think it works toooo well :wacko:

Edited by bullit

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vegemite in water , left for a day or two will also work Bullit...lol...sorry mate dont drink beer only scotch.

I think anything that will get yeasty works.....

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However, I do have some ulterior motives in starting this thread. At the moment I seem to have some scarid flies moving in to the plants I have inside during winter...

i think you most probabably mean sciarid flies (fungus gnats). The bane of all indoor plant & fungi growers lives !

Its very hard to eradicate them fully. Research their life cycle, and then act accordingly.

Inside, home, small scale, i use these.

dont hang em, position them down as close to the soil surface of your pots as you can.

If you've got a large infestation (20+ flying adults) you will also need to do a soil soak to kill the existing larvae which will be

feasting on your plants roots. I find a mix of pyrethrum & neem works well.

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i think you most probabably mean sciarid flies (fungus gnats). The bane of all indoor plant & fungi growers lives !

Its very hard to eradicate them fully. Research their life cycle, and then act accordingly.

Inside, home, small scale, i use these.

dont hang em, position them down as close to the soil surface of your pots as you can.

If you've got a large infestation (20+ flying adults) you will also need to do a soil soak to kill the existing larvae which will be

feasting on your plants roots. I find a mix of pyrethrum & neem works well.

all right, i'll have to buy some. at the moment i'm just using some double sided tape... not working too well haha

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I have used tobacco for mites and worked pretty well. You need to re-apply every few days until the problem goes away though.

I currently have my old man trialing a tobacco spray on his veggies as a deterrent for whatever is eating his stuff.

The beer trap has worked for me as well. Although i hear that only full strength beer works (??)

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A chilli, garlic, sunlight soap spray?

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I had a problem with fungus gnats on one of my plants. I used a soap based spray, natrasoap I think it was called, and those sticky yellow cards. I also let the soil dry out completely and left it dry for a few days. Seemed to work really well.

That natrasoap worked well for some mealy bugs I had too.

Edited by Psyentist

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it's looking like I also have some aphids all up in my poor caapi cuttings.... and some spider mites seem to be taking over my echinacea. so i've done some research on essential oils, here's what i've found out:

- spider mites:
-> rosemary, capsiacin
- aphids:
-> Cedarwood, peppermint
- sciarid flies/fungus gnats:
-> peppermint, clove
- slugs/snails:
-> cedarwood, pine
- general:
-> garlic, soap, orange

insect genocide formula:
- soak 1 crushed garlic clove and 1 crushed chilli in 2 cups of water for a few days.
- add 5 drops each of rosemary, cedarwood, peppermint, and orange essential oils.
- :uzi:

any thoughts on this? i can't spend too much money so i have to pick and choose a bit, but from what i've read, if this doesn't kill the bastards it'll at least make their lives hell :devil:

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lol...give 'em hell scarecrow...intrigued to know how the oils go

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Spider mites seem invincible......does anyone have a remedy they have tried that works, absolutely for sure?

I have about given up, and just wash my plants with a pumped up pressure spray thing.....

It removes lots of them, until they return to party with their friends the scale again next week.

The guests that NEVER leave.....so far.......

Commercially, forget Azamax.

It deterred them, but they returned.

I would appreciate ANY remedy, which someone has proven themselves, natural or not.

Natural is a philosophical concept.

We are products of nature ourselves, ergo, whatever we produce is 'natural'.

But I do know what you mean by natural methods....

Dicofol, anyone?

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What about fruit fly? Bastards got into all my apricots, mandarins and lemonades this year, and starting to get into my calamondins now... How do you trap and kill these feckers?

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Tiny frogs?

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Spider mites seem invincible......does anyone have a remedy they have tried that works, absolutely for sure?

regular and very thorough spraying of many products work for mites.

i've used neem extract with success- your aza product contains the same active

you must spray every couple of days for 7-10 days to get rid of all the adults and freshly hatching eggs

pay careful attention to the underside of leaves and nooks and crannies the eggs can be hiding

spray all surrounding surfaces and other plants- even if they dont seem to be affected.

once gone/ mite prone plants can use a preventative spray every month or two

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What about fruit fly? Bastards got into all my apricots, mandarins and lemonades this year, and starting to get into my calamondins now... How do you trap and kill these feckers?

them fukers!!! dont think any natural shit works aye?? try them fruit fly traps, but when way bad i use the bad stuff 4 them.. lil fukers :devil: i ''borrow'' this stuff @ work [ i will find out the product 4 ya] that u spray on the lower part of the tree that atracts the biatch fly... after landin on the sprayed leafs it sterilizes the fly

Edited by bullit

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all right, i still haven't done the oils thing yet. struggling to find a good essential oils supplier in australia, with reasonable prices, that takes payment via paypal... anybody know of any?

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Apart from using sticky strips to cull the population, using essential oils as a repellant sounds promising.

indoor i'd make sure there was a killertrap set at the door to the indoor room.

A cat tray full of disinfectant or take shoes and socks off , spray feet with isopropyl.

outdoor, plant companion plants that naturally work up mojo towards the negative bugs in your garden

lastly, i'd ditch a bad infected plant. burn it with my sex documents........then sterilize the area and start again with a more vigilant approach.

chilli,milk,water,in variuos combos work welll eh. plus fart juice infused in geranium soaked h2o.

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all right, i still haven't done the oils thing yet. struggling to find a good essential oils supplier in australia, with reasonable prices, that takes payment via paypal... anybody know of any?

Have you looked at doterra's website?

Not sure if they do paypal, but they are very high quality.

http://store.do-essential-oils.com/single-essential-oils/

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"regular and very thorough spraying of many products work for mites.

i've used neem extract with success- your aza product contains the same active

you must spray every couple of days for 7-10 days to get rid of all the adults and freshly hatching eggs

pay careful attention to the underside of leaves and nooks and crannies the eggs can be hiding

spray all surrounding surfaces and other plants- ......."

I think the problem is, I am indoors with carpeting.

I am having the carpet pulled up in that room.

Was spraying Azamax once a week.

I had to move every plant three times to do this.

They are in five gallon planters, it is physically demanding.

On the positive side, lifting plants gives one 'abs' (stomach muscles)

I drink an energy milkshake, then exercise!

Insect war is hell.

Lately, it seems that merely spraying the plants with high pressure water,

Removes mites every bit as effectively, and with no chemicals, as Azamax.

Before, with Azamaz, the bugs were just back in a week.

Now, without Azamax, the bugs are just back in a week.

But I spray with chlorine and water instead.

Same result, less money, less toxic.

It is difficult to deal with bugs on plants, when you sleep practically next to them in the room.....

Edited by shonman

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I was reading some voodoo spider mite medicine water that claims to have a 'resonant frequency'

that kills mites....as per some Tesla theory..

It would be great if somehow they could all just be zapped with electricity, or something....

Another thing said to work, but I do not know if it does...is 'caps bennies'

It's like bacteria and fungus that dont hurt the plant, but kill mites.

I have avoided that one, because I don't think it would work well with my micropropagation projects....

Just adding more contamination!

Mites seem to get resistance to Avid eventually,

so it seems like one would just end up spraying super toxic stuff

More and more often, with less and less effect....

Edited by shonman

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Good tips for a difficult subject - difficult b/c a solution to a targeted "pest" could also destroy a beneficial visitor, or a desired guest could end up destroying other plants:

I grow a Passiflora, in part, for a wonderful orange butterfly that in previous years and in one summer's several generations successfully killed the plant. Certainly one would want to pay close attention to the scale that is slowly sucking the juice out of her tricho companion, or those tiny black jumping bugs that can swiss cheese a solana seemingly overnight.

I do use neem in dire aphid times, beer when slugs are aplenty, and spider mites need hot and dry, so i just hose those down...

But I am also hip to the idea that the gardens that we care for are also habitats, and with any habitat there are predators on plants and predators on predators, etc. Do we bemoan the Black Swallowtail caterpillar that enjoys the parsley as much as we do, or do we work out an arrangement? It seems that each year in my garden there is a shift of abundance. This year is so dry right now that the usual predators like monkey spiders and predator wasps and robber flies are absent, thus I now have a proliferation of small grasshoppers that the still small praying mantises don't manage. And a neighborhood cat that I am fond of has discouraged the lizards. If a habitat is allowed the time to iron out these imbalances, top predators make their home there and a harmony of pollinators, plantmunchers and pestmunchers settles in... until the next disturbance.

Obviously for some of the plants that we grow we have to be concerned and step in, but for this gardener, the less of my interference the better...

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