Organic Control for Pests in a Vegetable Garden

Prevention

• The best thing for a garden is to ensure a fertile nature. Compost improves soil and allows no deficiencies that would attract harmful insects or disease. Controlling weeds gets rid of hiding places for harmful insects and crop rotation confuses them so they do not get used to having their favorite food in the same place year after year. Insects tend to reproduce in the area where food is available and if it is no longer there, they will reproduce elsewhere.

Hand-picking and Trapping

• Hand-picking harmful insects and trapping go hand in hand. Lay boards in the garden and pick them up to find slugs hiding from the sun in the morning. Rolled newspaper traps earwigs to be removed and destroyed. Japanese beetles are easy to pick off rose bushes and cabbage worm is easy to see on leaves. Just drop them into a jar or bucket of soapy water to drown them.

Companion Planting

• The herb feverfew imparts a bitter, strong scent -- enough to overpower an insect's sense of its favorite food. Plant feverfew with vegetables and flowers. It has daisy-like flowers that looks good in the garden. Orange-blooming nasturtiums protect squash and cucumbers from harmful predators. Dill and basil protect tomatoes by deterring hornworm. Japanese beetles hate castor beans, zinnias and garlic, which grow well with roses. Horseradish deters pests from potatoes while rosemary, sage and thyme get rid of cabbage moth. Chives in the rose garden deter aphids. Plant common marigolds in and around the vegetable garden to deter cucumber beetle and keep rabbits and deer out.

Beneficial Insects

• Cutworms are a delicacy to nematodes that also enjoy Japanese beetle grubs. Lady bugs and lacewings eat aphids and thrips. Predacious damsel bug and spined soldier bugs eat most harmful caterpillars. Most garden centers keep stock of these insects for sale.

Biological Deterrents

• Bacillus thuringiensis, Bt, remedies a caterpillar infestation. This is a natural bacteria that ruptures the gut of the insect. It does not affect bees, ladybugs, pets or birds. Mexican and Colorado potato beetles are also affected. Spinosad controls fire ants and beetles. Pyrethrums are made from chrysanthemums and Rotone is made from tropical plants and get rid of caterpillars, aphids and beetles. Diatomaceous earth is sharp and hurts the bodies of soft-segmented insects like slugs.

Other Organic Deterrents

• Insecticidal soap works against all soft bodies insects like spider mites and aphids. Apply by spraying on leaves and wash off after a few hours to prevent burning sensitive plants. Having a flock of fowl goes far in ridding the area of harmful insects. Chickens, ducks and geese eat ants, grasshoppers, Japanese beetles and more.