Veggies

Introduction

If you are going to grow your own food, you are going to attract pests to a greater or lesser degree and as much as you don’t want to share with them you are bound to lose some and the trick is to contain your losses to an acceptable level. The current agricultural practice of wholesale chemical use is unsustainable and in the long term counterproductive for the following reasons -

• 98% of even the best applied pesticide spray damages non-target organisms ie pest predators, fish, bees, humans – you get the idea.
• The pests have the ability to evolve almost as fast as we can make new pesticides so in the end we lose.
• Pesticides in use are oil based so as the oil becomes more expensive so too do the pesticides.
• They are made by big business/big chemistry and can’t be home produced.
• They can build up in the environment – organochlorine compounds like DDT, Chlordane etc.  are a case in point

So, there must be a better way and indeed there is, looking after your fruit and veggies organically! Unfortunately over the years we have all been brainwashed by too many pesticide ads on TV, you know the type – “if you have problems with this type of bug just grab your can of BugBeGone, spray to your heart’s content  and your bug problem will be gone!”. The organic method of protecting your crops is more holistic than the spray-em-dead approach and while the use of environmentally friendly pest control is part of the process, it is only part of the process. There are some things to think about before reaching for the spray.

Which Bug?

There are a wide number of both good and bad bugs out there,” good” bugs include –

• Ladybirds (most species)
• Ground beetles
• Rove beetles
• Dragonflies
• Earwigs (Australian)
• Lacewings
• Predatory flies
• Praying mantis
• Springtails
• Predatory wasps
• Hover flies
• Assassin bugs
• Centipedes and millipedes
• Spiders

While “bad” bugs you might see in your garden could be -

• Ants
• Aphids
• Ladybird (26 & 28 spotted)
• Weevils
• Shield bugs
• Cabbage moth
• Cabbage white butterfly
• Loopers
• Budworms
• Cockroaches
• Crickets
• Locusts
• Grasshoppers
• Earwig (European)
• Flies (inc Fruit Flies)
• Scales
• Snails and slugs
• Thrips

The moral of the story is that there are a huge number of types of bugs out there, good, bad or indifferent and you need to know which ones you have and you can do this by a combination of observation and research. Get hold of some books from you library, join an online organic growing forum (Like Aussies Living Simply) or get hold of leaflets from your local Dept of Agriculture, often also available free on line and identify the ones, both good and bad, that you need to look out for.

The Organic Approach

Rather than go for short term bandaids in the form of pesticides (no matter how enviro-friendly) we need to look at our backyard crops as being part of our backyard ecosystem and then try to keep the ecosystem in balance. We can also be smart and avoid pest problems before they get to the point where a spray is necessary by using some or all of the following strategies.

Observe your back yard and make notes about what you find. Take the time to look at the types of pests and the types of predators already existing in your garden, and do it regularly because things change over time. This summer alone I have identified three or four new types of insects that I haven’t seen before in our back yard. So take the time and really observe what is happening in your garden so you will know what you are up against, action early on can prevent a major infestation later in the year.

Start with a healthy soil – healthy soil means healthy plants and healthy plants means they are less likely to become a target for pests. If you follow organic principles and use organic manures and fertilisers, if you mulch well, use green manures and maintain soil organic matter and avoid cultivating and exposing your soil to the sun you are much more likely to have healthy soil. Check and adjust your soil pH if necessary as well, as soil that is too acid or alkaline can be rough on the microbes in your soil as well as your fruit and veggies.

Attract predators to your back yard – We alter the natural ratio of predator to prey when we use pesticides because we kill of both but the pest bugs make a quicker comeback so we need to attract predators to our growing are and keep them there. Providing a source of water in the form of a pond or birdbath is one way, so is allowing some of the veggies we grow to go to seed, because the adult forms of may predators are attracted to the nectar in the flowers. Not using pesticides will obviously help as will allowing some weeds to grow and flower to provide predator habitat.

Practice companion planting and interplant – Nothing is more like ringing the dinner bell for pests than monoculture – a large block of one sort of crop. So grow some strong scented herbs and flowers in your veggie beds to confuse pests and grow differed crop plants interspersed with each other like basil with tomatoes and onions with carrots. My personal experience with companion planting has been mixed and in practice no amount of companion planting I’ve tried has ever confused the cabbage white butterfly but give it a go and see how it works for you.

Plant resistant varieties – The varieties of vegetables available today is very small in comparison to years gone by, even in plant nurseries the variety of seedlings is only slightly better than the stuff we can get in the supermarket. Fortunately there are specialised seed suppliers like Eden Seeds, Phoenix seeds, Greenpatch seeds and  Green Harvest who can supply a broader number of varieties and some will be more resistant to than others to the pests  in your back yard eg  Roma tomatoes and cherry type tomatoes are more resistant to fruit fly than many main crop varieties. A little research can pay off big dividends in the war against pests.

Time plantings to avoid pests – sometimes, if a troublesome pest has a short season you can avoid planting susceptible crops for that time and this is where your time and trouble in observation will pay off. We have a problem with one of the brassica pests – Cabbage Moth (not to be confused with cabbage white butterfly) which forms webs on the plants and can denude and kill a seedling in a matter of days. Around here though they are a problem only for a month or so in late summer so not planting brassicas at that time can head off any hassles with them.

Non Chemical Pest Controls

If after you have put the above strategies in place that make sense for you and your situation you still have pest problems it might be time to set up a more targeted pest control plan like the ones suggested below.

Manual removal – In other words, picking the pests off by hand and squishing them, drowning them or feeding them to the chooks. This works best on the bigger but slow moving stuff like snails and slugs (ewww!), caterpillars, shield bugs or cockroaches (may be a bit fast...). The shield bugs are also called stink bugs for very good reason and the can eject a foul smelling and very irritating liquid when threatened so wear gloves and safety glasses if you are going after these buggers. I wouldn’t feed them to the chooks either, drown them in water with a bit of soap or dishwashing liquid.

Catch and hold – These are traps that attract and hold pests such as the slug and snail beer trap, made by getting a glass jar and burying it until the lip is level with the ground, then pouring in some beer diluted 50:50 with water, the snails and slugs are attracted, fall in and drown, but at least they die happy. There is also a bottle trap used with fruit flies that is described in another article on this site. Flying insect pests are attracted to red and yellow colours so a trap can be made by coating red or yellow cardboard with non-drying glue or molasses and then hanging them up where the pests are evident.

Barriers – by placing an obstacle between the pest and its target you can reduce the damage considerably. The barrier can take the form of a ring of irritant substance around a plant or plants to keep out slugs and snails such as wood ash, sawdust, lime, diatomaceous earth or alum. Care must be taken because some of these materials are soluble and can alter the pH of your soil, obviously they won’t work to well in rainy weather either. Panty hose or paper bags can be placed around fruit including tomatoes and capsicums to deter fruit fly and fine nets can be erected against flying pests including birds.

Environmentally Friendly Chemical Pest Controls

The following chemical controls can be used in moderation and in association with the other techniques covered in this article to treat infestation of specific pests.

Pyrethrum spray (commercial or home produced) can be used on most flying and crawling insects. The pyrethrum daisy can be home grown and the active constituent pyrethrum extracted using water or alcohol. The addition of a small amount of sesame oil or sassafras oil will improve the effectiveness of the pyrethrum spray.

Derris dust – can be applied as a spray or a dust and acts as a stomach poison for chewing insects. There is some toxicity to humans although Derris will not build up in the environment so when applying use a dust mask or respirator.

Oil – either light mineral oil or vegetable oil can be sprayed onto plants for scale and other bugs, it clogs up their air holes and suffocates them. Spraying needs to be done in the early morning or late afternoon and spraying in the middle of a hot day can result in burned leaves.

Bug juice – Yep, tastes as good as it sounds! Gather some of your target pest manually, mulch them up and place them in water, shake them around and then strain out the bits and spray onto the affected plants. For some reason bugs will keep away from plants sprayed with the innards of their relatives........mind you, so would I.

Chilli and garlic spray – See the article covering manufacture of this spray elsewhere on the site.

Nicotine – soak a quarter of a cup of cigarette butts in a litre of warm water overnight, filter out the butts and add a bit of liquid soap or dishwashing liquid to help the spray wet out and bottle. WARNING: this is a nasty so use gloves when handling and don’t inhale the spray.