Control insect pests without pesticides

Dragon fly eating a fly

Non-Spay based insect control methods for the garden

• Sticky yellow or blue cards

  • Insects are attracted to yellow and blue as these bright colors are close to the UV light spectrum and on either side of the green (or most plants).

• UV-based light traps

  • Insects can see both in the visible and UV light spectrums, this means that electronic UV light traps work so well in attracting and killing off insects like mosquitoes and flies - this also applies to flying insect pests such as beetles.

• Companion planting/ Catch crops

  • In organic farming companion planting and catch-crops are used to provide a deterrent (companion planting) and an alternative food source for insect pests (catch-crop).

• Don’t over-fertilize or fertilize at the wrong time of the year

  • Over-fertilizing results in plants growing faster than they should, which creates a physically weaker plant that is high in nutrients (particularly Nitrogen), this is like ringing a dinner bell for insects, as they require these nutrients to grow and complete their own life cycles.

• Physical barriers – virus netting, etc.

  • Netting and virus netting is used in agriculture to prevent insects from entering into production structures, virus netting is an extremely fine mesh that performs the same function, but will keep extremely small insects such as Thrips out.

• Encourage natural predators in the garden

  • While beneficial insects are normally found in much lower numbers in the garden they can be voracious, a normal Lady bugs can consume up to 50 Aphids each day.

• Reduce outdoor light at night

  • Garden lights left on at night attracts insects: moths, beetle, mosquito, etc.