"Organic Pest Control"

Integrated Pest Management

Selecting garden and plant varieties best for local growing conditions, and maintaining healthy crops, is the first line of defense in pest and disease management.

In agriculture, integrated pest management is a pest control strategy that uses a variety of complementary strategies including: mechanical devices, physical devices, genetic, biological, cultural management, and chemical management. These methods are done in three stages: prevention, observation, and intervention. It is an ecological approach with a main goal of significantly reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides while at the same time managing pest populations at an acceptable level.

Acceptable pest levels: The emphasis is on control, not eradication. Wiping out an entire pest population is often impossible, and the attempt can be more costly, environmentally unsafe, and frequently unachievable.

Preventive practices: , crop rotation, plant quarantine and 'cultural techniques' such as crop sanitation (e.g. removal of diseased plants to prevent spread of infection).

Monitoring: Regular observation, inspection and identification.

Intervention : Should a pest reach an unacceptable level, mechanical methods are the first options to consider. They include simple hand-picking, erecting insect barriers, using traps, vacuuming, and tillage to disrupt breeding.

Biological controls: Natural biological processes such as cover cropping, and inert materials can provide control, with minimal environmental impact, and often at low cost. The main focus here is on promoting beneficial insects that eat target pests. Biological insecticides, derived from naturally occurring microorganisms (e.g.: Bt, entomopathogenic fungi and entomopathogenic nematodes), also fit in this category.

Natural Insecticides: such as pyrethrum and neem extracts are made by plants as defences against insects.

Natural Fungicides:
Plants and other organisms have chemical defenses that give them an advantage against microorganisms such as fungi. Some of these compounds can be used as fungicides:

Tea tree oil
Cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamon essential oil
Jojoba oil
Neem oil
Rosemary oil

Whole live or dead organisms that are efficient at killing or inhibiting fungi can sometimes be used as fungicides:

The bacterium Bacillus subtilis
Kelp (powdered dried kelp is fed to cattle to protect them from fungi in grass)

Animal Repellents are products designed to keep certain animals away from objects, areas, people, plants, or other animals.
Repellents generally work by taking advantage of an animal's natural aversion to something, and often the thing chosen is something that the animal has learned to avoid (or instinctively avoids) in its natural environment.
Repellents fall under two main categories, odor and taste. Odor repellents work better in the warm seasons and taste repellents work better in the cold months. Taste repellents only work after the deer or other animal has taken a bit out of the plant. If you have a plant you don't want nibbled on at all, use an odor repellent or a combination of both.