There is nothing better than having your own home garden in a backyard. It will make you enjoy the tribulations and trials of the farmers growing food.
Between weeds, insects, and weather, not to acknowledge the challenges of fertility of the soil. It can be an especially humbling experience to try to deliver food on the table with the grown foods of the home garden.
It is much tricky especially when complying with organic protocols which do not await fast, yet potentially dangerous solutions such as pesticides, herbicides, and conventional fertilizer.
Homemade herbicides can help you to have control of invasive or noxious weeds without as much hard work and labor as hand weeding.
Common Pests
There are some common pests the homeowner may have faced. They are
1. Gall Mites: These pests stuck on the leaf and sucked out of it. It damages the growth of the plant.
2. Red Spider Mites: These mites stay under leaves leaving a yellow spot. They suck the sap of the leaves. They can vanish by rising humidity.
3. Leaf Miner Damage: When different types of moths, flies, beetles, and sawflies feed within leaves, they leave larvae. Those larvae go trails on leave causing damage to the blade. However, the costs are harmless though.
4. Winter Moth: These pests are usually seen in spring. They web the leaves of trees together and hide inside of them.
5. Codling Moth: They are seen in apples. They eat and stay in apples.
6. Adult Vine Weevil: These are flightless, nocturnal, and make notches in leaves.
Popular Organic Pesticides
Natural Pesticides are the best way to kill harmful insects. They are less harmful than chemical ones to the plants of the garden.
1. Soap Spray Pesticide
Soap spray pesticide is effective and costs less. It is very useful for controlling aphids, mites, beetles, white flies, and other little insects.
Making soap spray pesticide is very easy. You will need ½ teaspoon of soap and 1 liter of water. Stir the mix of soap and water for one or two minutes.
Apply this pesticide directly on the insects as well as infected areas of plants. This pesticide can be smeared if necessary.
You should apply it during the evening or early morning. It is recommended not to use this pesticide during the hot sunny day because may harm your plant.
2. Oil Pesticide
This pesticide is similar to soap pesticide and easy to make. This pesticide is made from vegetable oil with a little bit of soap. This pesticide can have a calamitous effect on some harmful insects like thrips, mites, aphids, beetles, and so on.
Making this pesticide is pretty much essential and similar to soap pesticide. You will need one cup of vegetable oil, one tablespoon of soap, and 1 quart of water.
Mix all of them and shake thoroughly. Spray the pesticide on the surface of the plant directly. This mixture coats the insect bodies and makes them suffocate. Because it blocks the breathing pores.
3. Garlic Pesticide Spray
Garlic is famous for its acidic aroma, which is distinguishable to some insects and yet awful to other insects. The scent of garlic goes strong when it is used as a natural pesticide in your garden.
We can not surely say that garlic is a pesticide or insect repellent, but it does its work. This pesticide can knock out, knock down insect infestations in your home garden.
To make this spray, you will need two whole garlic and put them into the blender to blend it. Before mixing add a little bit of water so that it can mix well. Keep the blended garlic overnight.
Strain blended garlic into a jar. After that add ½ cup vegetable oil, a little bit of soap, and a decent amount of water to fill the pot. Don’t use this pesticide too much.
Pesticides Using Safety Precaution
Pesticides are harmful to the human body. So your safety depends on applying some safety precautions. You need to select the appropriate product before following the procedure. There are some tips before using pesticides:
1. You need to choose your clothes very wisely before applying pesticides. Wear long-sleeved shirts or clothes, long pants, closed shoes, gloves, and goggles.
2. You have to make sure that no pets, or kids are in the area of creating and applying pesticides.
3. Make your pesticide outside of the house.
4. You have to avoid using excessive amounts of water during the making of pesticides.
5. Take out any kind of food, toys, or anything that shouldn’t be there.
6. Always keep a first aid kit near the hand.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
There are many pesticides available that you can make on your own like Neem oil pesticide (mixture of neem oil and soap), Diatomaceous earth pesticide, Chile pepper pesticide (mixture of chile, pepper, solvent), Tomato leaf pesticide, milky spore (microbe), BT(soil microbe which is toxic to insects), nicotine (extracted from bulk tobacco as a tea), iron phosphate (mineral toxic to snails and slugs), pyrethrum (extracted from different daisy).
This natural pesticide will give you a better starting point for making your self-made version of homemade insecticide.
Every gardener tends to have a way of blending ingredients in their ratio. If you pay attention to every recipe, then you will be able to create and modify the best pesticide that will suit the garden. I am not kidding, it is possible.
You must remember before using pesticides that killing all the insects in the garden must not be the chief ambition. Pests are not suitable for your garden, but for balancing the ecosystem, you should not kill them all. They have demerits as well as benefits too. Remember that with high power, comes great responsibility.
