Regarding natural ways to keep bugs away...

[Lisa0825]

I have read about cayenne pepper to keep ants away, and soapy water to spray on leaves. Do these things also keep away good bugs too, like ladybugs? I don't want to chase away my lady bugs, but I am getting quite a lot of ants in and around the garden.

[Blue Gardener]

1. I heard today at a gardening fair

That you could sprinkle grits around the anthills. I guess they eat the grits, the grits swell up and it kills them. I have no idea if this is true or not. I might give it a try since I have several ant hills in my yard. I also heard they avoid areas where you sprinkle baby powder.

[Lisa0825]

4. Cool!

That sounds like an interesting pest control method! And one that would be more specific in which pest it affects.

[DrDan]

12. this grits thing works - I have used it successfully

[Quantess]

2. I worked in the Garden Center at....

...the Home Depot last year for a couple of months.

There are products you can purchase that are organic, non-toxic, garden friendly, and effective. Insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, that are organic and effective.

Lowes sells them too, and they are a better, bluer, corporation than HD. I didn't favor Lowes until after working at The HD. Funny, huh.

[Lisa0825]

5. Yeah, I'd heard that about Lowes...

and it is closer to me anyway. My concern is that pesticides will kill or chase away the good bugs too, even if they are organic pesticides. I don't want to chase away my ladybugs :-)

[Kittycat]

3. Marigolds around veggie plants :)

I read about that, and that it's a great way to keep pests away from tomatoes, in particular. I did it last year, and they did far better than the year before. I'm hoping to have similar results this year (just planted).

[Lisa0825]

6. Ya know, I did plant marigolds, but they have not been thriving.

I went ahead and planted seeds in the areas where I had planted the plants, so hopefully those will grow.

[KSinTX]

7. If you can find the hills, an orange oil solution works wonderfully

A couple of teaspons of orange oil with a drop of dish detergent in a gallon of water makes a great douse for the anthill. We've got fire ants all over the place down here and we've used this now for two years and have very few on our property. Also, Green Light puts out a line of organics but the one with Conserve (Spinosad) really works best.

[crispini]

8. I use orange oil and cayenne

and so far, I have not harmed any of my beneficials. That's the whole point of organic, to just chase away the bad bugs, not the good bugs. You should also make sure your plants are well-fed and happy, as they will be more able to fight off bugs themselves if so.

[KSinTX]

9. What does the cayenne do?

:hi: Howdy

If cayenne and soap somehow do the same thing, I'd prefer it to the dishsoap, which just helps keep the orange oil in contact longer. Do you use nematodes as well? I found they've done wonders for every square foot of the yard/garden.

[crispini]

10. I think it mostly keeps away the larger critters

squirrels, raccoons, etc. I've had good luck with it though! I haven't done nematodes as yet. So far (knock on wood) things are going well enough that I haven't felt like chasing them down. Did you get yours from a garden store or order them?

[KSinTX]

11. Definitely garden store!

The online type is in powder form and from all I've read is a mixed bag. Go to your absolutely fave garden center and they should have them tucked away in a fridge somewhere. In these parts, we have grubs, fire ants, fleas and no-see-ems up that whazoo and in the three years I've been using the nematodes have put quite the dent in the population. Now, my neighbors on the other hand ...

:shrug:

[Lisa0825]

13. Cayenne gets rid of ants too.

Worked like a charm for me!

[Kolesar]

14. Apply soaps and the leaf-eating caterpillars will ingest the soap when they eat the leaves

Then they will quit eating and die. Buy soaps from the garden center. Murphy's Oil Soap is not advised. Ladybugs are predators and will not ingest the soap.

There are "engineered" bacteria called Bt that target certain species of cabbage or squash eating insects. Bacillus thurengensis, or something like that. You make a solution and spray it on the plants.

[Lisa0825]

15. Cool, thanks!

It's good to know the soap won't affect the ladybugs! I'll be heading back to the garden center to look around this weekend.

[Kolesar]

16. I recall that the soap is called Neem (the brand name)

We had good results with the soap and with the Bt bacteria. The Bt is self-multiplying in the sense that once a few caterpillars die of it, their infected bodies distribute more bacteria onto the plant. The business grows itself !

[wildeyed]

17. I used dog hair.

Seriously. That and a good dusting of diatomaceous earth seems to be keeping the sow bugs off my bean sprouts. Sow bugs are usually harmless, but I Had a swarm and they were definitely damaging the seedlings.