\u00a0 This little flower, nestled among the lettuces, down rows of kale and even between okra plants,is called Sweet Allysum. \u00a0According to Agricultural Research Service (USDA), this little flower has real power in eliminating aphid problems<\/strong> from organic operations. \u00a0“Lettuce growers in California\u2019s central coast plant alyssum to attract adult hoverflies that feed on the flower\u2019s pollen and nectar. After eggs laid by the well-fed females hatch, the voracious larvae prey on currant-lettuce aphids\u2014important primary insect pests of lettuce in the region.”<\/p>\n Other studies have indicated that interplanting as little as 1 allysum plant every 20 feet can be sufficient to control aphids in lettuce fields. \u00a0Pretty amazing pest control for a little flower.<\/p>\n This is our first year to interplant this particular flower. \u00a0I expect (hope) that it will reseed itself and come back annually. \u00a0That would be easier in a no-till garden (which we are not, yet.) \u00a0 \u00a0We’ll let you know how it goes.<\/p>\n Another companion planting idea we use is planting\u00a0radishes among the cucumbers and squash to discourage cucumber beetles and squash bugs and borers.<\/strong> \u00a0 A quick google search for “companion planting pest control” will take you to a variety of possibilities.<\/p>\n Encouraging the good guys:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n We generally have plenty of ladybugs in the garden and they and their larvae eat plenty of aphids and potato bug eggs, \u00a0but not all the helpful insects are well established in our garden yet, so we actually release extra every year.<\/p>\n Trichogramma wasps are really effective at reducing damage by all kinds of caterpillars<\/strong> – tomato hornworms, corn earworms, cabbage loopers<\/strong>, etc. \u00a0 \u00a0We introduce these by ordering wasp eggs that come attached to a small strip of cardboard. \u00a0 We tack a strip to bushes or trees in the garden area and allow them to hatch naturally. \u00a0We’ve done this a couple of times each spring for three years now with visible results.<\/p>\n This year, we also released Green lacewings, which are effective against aphids.<\/p>\n I admit to having been a bit of a skeptic about this one originally. \u00a0I couldn’t see how a few tiny wasps released into the big world could have much effect. \u00a0 I was wrong. \u00a0This works.<\/p>\n Insecticidal soap<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n Of course, fire ants<\/strong> are a problem for everyone in East Texas. \u00a0 We use old coffee grounds to encourage ants to choose another place to live (see below), but when a mound gets out of control, a drench with a blend of orange oil and soap will take it out without too much collateral damage. \u00a0 We use just one ounce of orange oil and a squirt of liquid soap to a gallon of water. \u00a0 Pour the liquid slowly into the ant bed to allow it to soak in deeply.<\/p>\n Soap itself is a broad spectrum pesticide – meaning, it will kill the good guys as well as the bad – and some soaps can contain chemicals we would not want to introduce to the garden.\u00a0 It works because the fatty acids in the soap “dissolve” \u00a0the cell membranes of the insect, allowing cell contents to leak out and the insect quickly dies. \u00a0We use Dr. Bronner’s pure castille soap – made from organic olive oil – and only in very controlled and limited applications. \u00a0 For example, in addition to the occasional drenching of an ant bed, we might use a mild (1 tsp per quart of water) solution to occasionally spray squash bug larvae if other control measures don’t provide adequate control<\/p>\n Be aware that soap only works when sprayed directly on the pest or when the pest contacts a wet solution. \u00a0It will not kill any bug that crawls over or even eats a leaf that has been sprayed and the soap has dried. \u00a0 Use it carefully in late dusk after the bees have gone to bed, to avoid accidental exposure of wet soaps to your honeybees.<\/p>\n Soap can be phytotoxic (damaging) \u00a0to some plants, so test just one plant and wait a day or two before using again so you’ll know how it affects any plant you choose to use it on.<\/p>\n Coffee:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Oddly enough, a good many bugs and other critters including ants, slugs, and flea beetles<\/strong>, \u00a0don’t seem to like coffee as much as I do.<\/p>\n Nice.<\/p>\n That means I can sprinkle used coffee grounds (or fresh really cheap old coffee grounds) around the perimeter of the garden and encourage many bugs to simply go a different direction.<\/p>\n I sprinkle them around the blueberry bushes and other acid-loving plants, as well – just to help keep the soil pH down in those areas. \u00a0I also sprinkle grounds down rows of lettuce or greens, around okra, etc. to help eliminate ant problems there.<\/p>\n The operative word here is “sprinkle”. \u00a0 Not large quantities. \u00a0 Small quantities can also be fed to worms or added to your compost.<\/p>\n A few other ideas that we use selectively include using basil tea (in off season, made with a drop of basil essential oil) to control aphids in the greenhouse. \u00a0And I will plant lemon balm and sprinkle crushed lemon balm leaves among the squash and melon plants to discourage squash bugs<\/strong>. \u00a0Note: \u00a0lemon balm is in the mint family – and it can become invasive if planted directly into the garden. \u00a0Try planting it in a pot that is buried in the location you want it – easy to pick up in the fall, too. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n You have ideas you use? \u00a0I hope you’ll post a comment and share!<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In with the good…. Generally our approach to pest control in the garden. This is a topic we get lots of questions about, so today I thought you might enjoy a look through how we…Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sweet](\"http:\/\/gopherknoll.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/sweet-allysum-aphids.jpg\")
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