When deciding the best way to deal with garden bugs and pests, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. After all, what good is it to rid your yard of dangerous pests such as ticks and fleas if the chemicals used to eliminate them make your yard too toxic for kids and pets to play in? Thankfully, there are safe ways to control bugs that don’t involve toxic or environmentally harmful chemicals.

A Penny For Your Thoughts
There is a rumor that slugs hate copper. Apparently the slime under the slug produces an electric shock when they travel over the copper, or perhaps the copper is merely poisonous instead. This rumor is so persistent that copper strips are sold at most garden stores as slug repellents. Would it surprise you to know that this is actually the most ineffective method of pest control on the market? In fact, it doesn’t work at all. The rumor that beer kills slugs is true, but not for the given reason. It’s not actually poisonous alcohol or the carbonation that takes those voracious little pests out, it’s the drowning. As a matter of fact, grape juice works just as well. Slugs really are as dumb as they look, so just dig a little hole in the ground so a deep dish will be flush with the edges and pour in some sweet, sticky liquid. In the morning, if they aren’t dead of drowning yet (or just plain too drunk to move) you can always throw them into the top of a compost pile for the sun and heat to dry them out.

Slugs Hate Coffee
Don’t throw out those coffee grounds after you have had your morning cup of java. Chuck those grounds in the ground! Coffee repels slugs and can even help keep cats and deer at bay. If you don’t drink coffee yourself, just ask the local coffee shop for theirs.

Season Your Plants
Cayenne pepper doesn’t just make your beans and greens yummy, it repels insects and rodents while as well. Hot peppers contain capsaicin, the substance that makes them taste hot. Most animals and insects find capsaicin irritating if they have the right receptors. A spray mixture of garlic and hot pepper makes a good hot and odorous deterrent to add to your pest repellent routine.

Companion Planting
It’s not accident that oregano and basil go well with tomatoes in the kitchen. They accompany each other well in the garden as well. Pairing plants with strongly scented flowers and herbs adds another line of defense against their natural predators. This method of gardening has been tweaked to a science that is now called companion planting. African marigolds are excellent companion plants as they exude chemicals that strongly repel the more harmful pests. A good landscaping company can give great advice for the best plant pairings and help you find the right types for your climate and region. This is a long-term strategy, and like all things that take a little more effort, well worth it.

Natural Predators
One of the most harmful aspects of chemical pest control is that they can indiscriminately kill all insects, including those that normally keep the pest population under control. This creates a vicious cycle for which you must keep using damaging chemicals to control the harmful pests as well. Natural predators can be purchased and released into your environment as needed to increase their population instead. This is called biological pest control. Ladybugs eat aphids, fly parasites kill flies, encarsia formosa kills whiteflies and the praying mantis will kill and eat just about anything it can get its hands on. I once saw a battle between a praying mantis and a black widow. They were both thinking that the other would be dinner, but the praying mantis won. It is wise not to attempt this method till the garden has been free of chemicals for a while so the beneficial bugs won’t simply die on release. When the garden is ready, be sure to make a welcoming environment for these predators. If you’re lucky, they will reproduce and keep your bug problem under control for years to come.

If you need a little help building your battle plan for natural insect control, our experts are always here to help.