Home Pest Control
Ten Ways to Keep Pests out of your Home (Does it mention that a snake won’t cross lime powder?)
Garden Pest and Disease Control
Visit this guy.
- Hydrogen peroxide (HOH) strengthens your plants.
- Seeds can be pre-soaked in HOH.
- Plants can be sprayed with 8tbs/gallon or more to kill diseases and blight.. You can work up as high as 12 tbs/gallon. Spray and wait 48 hours to see if there is damage. If so, cut back next time. If not, go stronger next time. If you get an outbreak, spray every other day several times.
- Baking Soda will prevent diseases and blight. HOH will kill but it doesn’t prevent. Wait a day after the HOH application.
- Diatomaceous Earth kills worms and crawling insects like aphids.
- Flowering plants can be scattered among the producing plants in order to discourage the bad bugs and draw in the good ones, namely bees. The type of flowering plant should correspond to the insect problem. So if someone wishes to capture insects in order to feed fish or chickens, then in a certain section of the property, they plant those flowers which actually attract certain insects.
- Building bird feeders and bird houses in the area is an excellent insect controller, not to mention an essential element for a permaculture design.
- There are plants which produce tiny thorns on their leaves. Certain bamboo shoots have these. The leaves can be picked and soaked in water. This solution is later sprayed on the desired plants to protect them.
Yellowing Leaves
Over watering, bound roots, or compacted soil can be the cause. If not these, then identifying which leaves turn yellow first and how the yellowing starts provides clues to common mineral deficiencies1 such as these:
- Nitrogen deficiency shows up as a general yellowing. Older, inner leaves turn yellow first. As it progresses, yellowing moves outward, eventually reaching young leaves, too.
- Potassium deficiency shows itself when leaf edges turn bright yellow, but the inner leaf stays green. Older leaves show symptoms first, and leaf edges soon turn brown.
- Magnesium deficiency starts as yellow patches between leaf veins on older leaves. Veins stay green as yellow moves from the leaf center out. Leaf edges turn yellow last.
- Iron deficiency also shows as yellowing between leaf veins, but it hits young leaves on plant tops and branch tips first.
- Sulfur deficiency starts with the newest leaves, turning them yellow throughout.
Potassium Bicarbonate, but not Copper Sulfate
Baking Soda (for mildew):
This basic recipe comes from The Natural Gardener in Austin.1) The recipe they recommend is as follows (link to original recipe here):
Ingredients
4 level teaspoons or 1-1/3 tablespoons of baking boda
1 teaspoon of mild soap (e.g., Dawn or Ivory—should be biodegradable with no phosphates)
1 gallon of water
Companion Planting downloadable guide.
Fire Ants
Grits or Corn Meal (from fire ant.net)
One person uses cheap corn meal bought at her local discount grocery store. She spreads it around and on the fire ant beds. The workers will carry it into the mound to the queen. When she eats it, it will swell up and kill her.
Another person said: Try grits. A person at the San Antonio Zoo told me that is what they use. It is safe for all other animals but when the ants ingest it, it swells up inside and they can not get rid of it. They also can’t eat anything else so basically they starve to death. We tried it at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport and it really works.
Grits on Steroids (From Steve Molnar):
Here is the method I have used successfully for years. It was taught me by a friend when we lived in Louisiana on 3 1/2 acres by a lake. Cost was a big factor because of the size of the property. We now live in Southeast Texas and I have taught it to all my neighbors and friends.
I take two pounds of fine corn meal and mix it with I cup of sugar and 10 TBS of Orthene Fire Ant Killer (acephate). In a container large enough to hold all of the above, I shake it up really well. On an average mound I sprinkle about 1 TBS, less on smaller mounds. It works great, however it seems to be more efficient in hot weather and I never put it out unless I know it will not rain for a day. In the winter I use Home Defense. My one acre property stays ant free most of the time because I stay on top of it.
Use Splenda
Pouring urine into fire ant mounds is effective. This may require more than one treatment, and I don’t know whether they die or move away.
Use Nematodes against Soil Pests (including fire ants).
Mosquitos, Gnats, and such
Purple Martins eat mosquitos. You have to put up nesting boxes or gourds for them and then police the nests to ensure that starlings and house sparrows don’t use them.
- The Martins arrive as early as February.
- Mount a group of boxes/compartments/gourds 10′-15′ high on a pole placed at least 40′ away from trees or buildings or the Martins won’t use them.
- Place within 140′ from any building. Near or on a pond, lake, or stream is a plus.
- Use telescoping poles or mount on a pulley system to lower the nests for inspection to prevent unwanted birds from nesting.
- Ensure adequate ventilation and drainage.
- Cutting a half circle shaped entry hole (flat side down) helps prevent unwanted birds from nesting. Face the opening south to west, not east or north. The opening should be 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 inches in diameter with the bottom edge 1″ off the floor. Source
- Floor space should be about 6″x 6″ and height inside about 6″ (8″ high for gourds). Source
- Making the nests inaccessible until you see Martins returning for the year helps prevent unwanted birds. Place a handful of pine wood chips in each compartment when opening the nests for use.
- Decoys and recordings help attract the Martins.
- More: Source
36 Plants that Repel Mosquitos
Moles and Snakes
Get the Large I suppose if you have snakes. And see my Snake page.
Draw a line of lime around any area you don’t want snakes and some crawling pests such as ticks. I’m told they won’t cross it.
Inside Pests
Icliks Incoming 