Organic Pest Management Thank you for purchasing Free Spirit Gardens Organic Pest Management White Paper. This paper gives prevention, treatment, and companion plant suggestions for dealing with 9 of the most common vegetable garden pests that we have encountered in the Georgian Bay Area. We did our best to be succinct, and thorough, however with over 2 billion species of insects in the world, we have clearly missed a couple. For that, we suggest good ol Google. See below the chart for a description of the various supplies mentioned. The Suspect The Victim Management Flea Beetle Makes many small holes in: Radish Arugula Kale Lettuce Spicy Mustard Greens Nasturtiums PREVENTION: Row cover/netting*. Once seeds are in, cut a piece of row cover big enough to cover the area and provide slack for the plants to grow and lift up. COMPANION PLANTS: Thyme and the mint family mask the scent of the beetles favorite plants. TREATMENT: Plant nasturtiums as a trap crop near by. They may like the nasturtiums better than your plants. Dust with diatomaceous earth*** reapply after every rain or irrigation. You can also try blasting them with a hose or shaking them all off and then laying down row cover (might be tricky). Cucumber Beetle Transmit a bacterial wilting disease to: Cucumbers and Melons And eat leaves and stems of cucumbers and melons PREVENTION: Row Cover. Create bat habitat. COMPANION PLANTS: Calendula, catnip, goldenrod, nasturtiums, radish, rue and tansy. TREATMENT: Prune off vines that have shown signs of wilt. Hand pick beetles and dispose of in soapy bucket of water. Plant a crop of early cucumbers and sacrifice to beetles, then plant your actual crop later in the season (July) when
Squash Bug Slugs Colorado Potato Beetle Cause wilting of leaves of summer and winter squash plants and will feed on the leaves and sometimes fruit. A large plant can recover from squash bug damage. Young bean plants, tomato plants, lettuces, swiss chard, beets. Tend to exist in clay soils where things stay moist for long periods. Will eat holes in leaves of potato plants, tomatoes, eggplants the beetles have left our climate to overwinter south. Use a vacuum early morning to suck them up! Make sticky traps (look online for what to use to attract them) Water/spray plants with BT solution**. Diatomaceous Earth may work to reduce the population. PREVENTION: Row Cover, making sure to clean up garden from previous infestations, remove potential overwintering locations, if you see a couple, get them early COMPANION: scatter some good size dill leaves on squash plants TREATMENT: Find the eggs (small red clusters) on the bottom of leaves and scrape them off, squishing them as well. Hand pick bugs and place in bucket of water. Use a shop vacuum early morning. Put aluminum foil around the base of plants to reflect the sun under the leaves. They like to hide in the shade. You can also create a squash bug trap: place boards on the ground around plants, then turn over boards and squish bugs PREVENTION: Crush egg shells or diatomaceous earth around susceptible plants, slugs don t like to cross the sharp egg shells and the diatomaceous earth will kill them. You can also use copper collars around plants (it is said that slugs don t like to cross copper) COMPANION: Marigolds, lavender, garlic, thyme all may repel slugs TREATMENT: Set small containers (yogurt containers or water bottles cut in half) in the soil so the rim is at soil level close to the plants. Fill with beer or yeast dissolved in water. Leave overnight. Empty container each day and re- fill. PREVENTION: Row cover over potato plants, use grass or straw mulch around plants COMPANIONS: Plant coriander, dill, sweet alyssum, fennel, and cosmos around your potato patch to attract the beneficial insects TREATMENT: Hand pick off adults, look for egg clusters on leaves and destroy, use a dust buster or shop vac to suck them up and squish them, dust diatomaceous earth onto them. Spray BT on plants to kill larvae. 2
Tomato Hornworm Leaves of tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes PREVENTION: Hoe the soil up early spring to expose overwintering pupae. TREATMENT: hand pick at night with a flashlight or on a full moon and drop in bucket of water. Spray BT on leaves of plants. Aphids Could attack any vegetable crop TREATMENT: Insecticidal soap, pyrethrin, and neem oil. For these products, vegetables can be harvested from treated crops the same day of application. Aphids also have many natural enemies, including ladybugs, parasitic wasps, and hoverfly larvae. Cabbage Moth/Worm Brassicas: Kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, turnip, cauliflower PREVENTION: Row cover over seedlings. Create a skirt protection around plants with a slit for the seedling so that the moth can not lay her eggs in the soil around the plant. TREATMENT: Spray BT on plants. 3
Squash Vine Borers Zucchini, patty pan squash, pumpkins, winter squash. Adults lay eggs at the base of plants Larvae then eat the inside of the stem. Leaves of plants will wilt in the sun. PREVENTION: During the last week of June and early July keep an eye out for the adults. You can create a trap with anything yellow filled with water. Row cover works, however be sure to remove the row cover by mid July to allow for pollination of flowers. TREATMENT: If you had noticed adults flying around your plants and you didn t use row cover, then try coating the stems with BT so when the caterpillars hatch and go to feed, the BT will kill them. You can also try a dusting of Diatomaceous earth. Last resort is to slice open the stem and remove the caterpillars, covering the new cut stem with soil and compost. 4
Beneficial Insects for Vegetable Gardens BRACONID WASP Injects her eggs into cucumber beetles, flea beetles, aphids, caterpillars, and tomato horn worms. Grow sweet alyssum, chamomile, feverfew, catnip, buckwheat, dill (let flower), and fennel to attract him. The wasps are native almost everywhere so if you plant it, they will come. These common insects consume aphids, mites, whiteflies and scale. They can be attracted to your garden by planting members of the daisy family (Compositae), tansy or yarrow. LADYBUGS These large insects have an appetite for most garden pests. Praying mantis eggs are set out in the garden where they hatch and quickly grow to adult size. PRAYING MANTIS Some garden pests not covered in this booklet but you may have: Cutworm sink a collar (1/2 yogurt container) around the stems of seedlings if they are being mysteriously cut off Rabbits = fencing Deer = fencing, or motion sensor sprinkler 5
General Good Practices Attract birds and bats Add compost/manure to your garden soil each fall and/or spring Make your own compost Plant flowers and companion plants to attract good bugs Rotate your crops (especially if they had bug problems) Clean up all plant matter from garden in the fall to prevent overwintering bugs and to eliminate any disease (do not put diseased plant matter in the compost) Keep chickens or guinea fowl and use them to eat the bugs up (but of course, do your research first! This is not like saying grow flowers ) Materials Mentioned in Chart: *Row Cover/insect netting: available to purchase online in 50 lengths or from Free Spirit Gardens in 12 lengths **BT (K): (Bacillus Thuringiensis), is a bacterial organism which kills caterpillars. It is non- toxic to humans, animals, beneficial insects, birds, or fish, and the use of BT is permitted under organic standards. It controls cabbage worm, tomato hornworm, caterpillars, and gypsy moth. Available for purchase at nurseries or online. ***Diatomaceous Earth: Fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard- shelled algae. A mild abrasive and mechanical insecticide. Be conservative with use because it is not a selective insecticide, thus beneficial insects can be harmed as well. Safe for pets and human consumption it is food grade and used as a parasite control method for livestock. Available for purchase from farm supply stores or Free Spirit Gardens 6