natural bug killers for vegetables?

[Kennas_Kritters]

I haven't been gardening much lately due to the whole family battling with covid. Now that we are all better I am wanting to start growing some vegetables again. Before I do so I need to figure out how to keep the stupid bugs off of them! I would like to hear what kind of natural remedies you use to get rid of bugs! I will be growing black eyed peas, tomatoes and okra first. We have problems with ants, tomato worms, grasshoppers ect. I need to get rid of them but I don't want something that is going to harm the honeybees and butterflies. I want my pollinators to stay but the bad bugs to go.... what can I use? Please comment the best home remedies for this! I have heard people using things like baking soda, vinegar and even spoiled milk around their plants. I am open to trying anything. Thanks!

 

[DaisyG2317]

I haven't been gardening much lately due to the whole family battling with covid. Now that we are all better I am wanting to start growing some vegetables again. Before I do so I need to figure out how to keep the stupid bugs off of them! I would like to hear what kind of natural remedies you use to get rid of bugs! I will be growing black eyed peas, tomatoes and okra first. We have problems with ants, tomato worms, grasshoppers ect. I need to get rid of them but I don't want something that is going to harm the honeybees and butterflies. I want my pollinators to stay but the bad bugs to go.... what can I use? Please comment the best home remedies for this! I have heard people using things like baking soda, vinegar and even spoiled milk around their plants. I am open to trying anything. Thanks!

Neem oil works wonders

 

[Sally PB]

A few years ago, I had a lot of soldier beetles on my tomatoes. For the last two years, I've planted some marigolds near them, and have not seen a single one.

For hornworms, I rely on hand picking and squishing them with my shoe. I am ruthless when it comes to the "bad bugs" in the garden.

 

[STACEYH]

I plant marigolds near my vegs. deer rabbit and most bugs don't like them.

 

[Acre4Me]

Any caterpillar, like a hornworm, can be managed by using Bt spray - it is a natural bacterium that prevents the caterpillars from eating any more, so they die. Easy to find, often indicates for caterpillars, in a concentrate you dilute in a small garden sprayer. Don’t forget to check for hornworm cocoons in the soil-they pupate in the soil. And the wonderful parasitic wasps is always helpful when you find a chubby hornworm that is paralyzed with many white eggs on its back…it is playing host nursery to the parasitic wasp babies.

Marigolds are helpful.

okra-not sure anything is really a big pest with them, but I’m in Ohio, so maybe no real okra pests here. My neighbor grows a lot okra every year (he’s from Louisiana) and we grow some okra. Neither of us has had any issues with okra pests.

avoiding bees: if you need to spray a pesticide, spray it late, when bees are not around. It is dried and is no longer in the air by next day. They only want flowers, so the flowers they will visit will open in the morning (those flowers will not have bloomed when you spray the evening before). Sometime you find you’ll need a pesticide to manage or knock back a pest. I try to minimally use pesticides, so watch, pick off, wait, spray soap spray, plant marigold, check for egg clusters and remove those, but sometimes, one has to go further if the balance is tipping in favor of the pests.

I’ve heard mixed reviews on neem oil. Some cannot stand the smell (not only a bad smell to some, but it lingers), so be aware of that. Some say results aren’t much different than when they didn’t use neem, and others swear by it. I do not have personal experience with it. Spoiled milk… not something I’ll likely try on my garden plants. My spouse poured out some milk in the compost pile last year -OMG! The smell…for days!!!

Good luck.

 

[Percheron chick]

Chickens.
Makes me so happy when they dismember those pesty pests.

 

[Acre4Me]

Parasitic wasp eggs using a paralyzed tomato hornworm as a nursery!

Tomato hornworm pupae in the soil. They are big! So, if you see one, kill it!

 

[Ascholten]

My biggest problem right now are these HUGE friggin locusts. Not even the chickens will eat these grasshoppers. I don't want to split the gut sack open so when I see one I take the pruning shears and just decapitate it. So far seems to be doing an ok job of keeping them in check. Otherwise Neem Oil seems to be working wonders keeping the cateripllars off the plants too.

Aaron

 

[Brooks_]

I use a soap spray first, then neem, then neem with pyrenthrins as a last resort. AzaMax is very good too, but pricey.

 

[Brooks_]

Not even the chickens will eat these grasshoppers

You mean the Eastern Lubber?