Dear Kitty,
I have so many bugs in my garden its barely fun to go in there. Aphids everywhere and some kind of green worm eating my strawberry plants. Help, I want to get rid of them without spraying poisonous chemicals.
Thanks I’ve got bugs.
Dear I’ve got Bugs,
There are many people who are asking for the same advice. The rain, then hot, then cool but damp, then hot again weather is really helping the insects multiply with glee.
Aphids are really becoming a serious pest, gardens/parks in the bigger cities are really overrun.
The first thing to remember is that along with the pests there are also insects which are beneficial and we don’t want to wipe out everyone.
Here are a few ideas you can start with.
Encourage beneficial insects to come to your garden. You can plant flowers that attract lady bugs, praying mantis, lacewings, and wasps, all of these will help eliminate harmful insects.
You can also eliminate insects you don’t want by hand picking. This is best for the worms eating your strawberry plants. Its a little time consuming and sounds yucky but a little bug squishing everyday should prevent you from an infestation. Be sure to look under leaves for the bugs as they will hide. Luckily they say it might even be a little therapeutic to battle the bugs and win by picking them yourself!
If you have slugs and or snails put down little strips of copper or lines of salt where you see their trails into your garden. Remember not too much salt near your plants.
The use of soapy or oily water sprayed on the underside of leaves of your plants will suffocate the bugs especially aphids. You will need to reapply it after a rain and it doesn’t usually affect the good insects who are a bit bigger.
There are other ways to eliminate pests but I have found these few insecticide/herbacide free ways work very well.
Happy bug picking Kitty
