Natural pestisides

[bullies3]

We have fruit trees and can't seem to keep the bugs off and my husband wants to use pestisides....does anyone know what to use to keep them off my peaches and apples? Thanks

[Apasaraw]

On our farm back in day, we hung jars of vodka in the trees with a piece of fruit in it and the bugs went for that and would drown, leaving the trees to be. Sounds cruel I know. Biologists still do this to catch fruit fly samples...I believe they use POPOV only and no fruit.

[exurb]

can you find out what types of bugs you're dealing with? there are certain methods for certain bugs in general. There are also broad spectrum organic pesticides like rotenone and pyrethin, but you don't want to use those in general if possible.

Some organic apple growers use kaolin clay on their apples to keep bugs off the actual apples. BT (a bacteria bacillus thuringiensis) is used on oblique banded leafroller in apples. You can also buy traps for certain bugs. You really would do well to figure out what you are dealing with first.

Maybe your public library has a book for you to help you identify what you're dealing with and what method of control. Some good titles I know of are "The organic gardener's handbook of natural insect and disease control" edited by Ellis and Bradley, or "The Encyclopedia of Natural Insect and Disease Control," edited by Yepsen. Both those have pictures of the bugs too and recommend methods.

Why your husband is misguided in reaching for the pesticides is not only in the toxicity. If you manage your trees properly through organic methods, you will have a natural ecosystem with beneficial insects that eat the bad insects. If you just hit them with pesticides, you will kill the beneficials too, put the whole ecosystem out of whack, and lead to more and worse outbreaks of the bad bugs. And those bugs can also develop resistance to the chemicals also. Plus you kill your pollinators so you're more hard pressed for fruit in later years if you keep doing that. BTW, we lose more crops due to insects after pesticides came on the market than we did before.

Those book titles I mentioned will also explain to you which bugs are beneficial, because you really don't want to kill them. When you see bugs on something, always make sure that they're not beneficial before you kill them.

[bullies3]

My husband said on the peaches its worms not so much bugs. The apples are not quite ready so nothing on them yet. MY mistake.

[rawpriestess]

gosh, ours just grow, we don't use anything on them at all.


the only thing that Dragggon uses is his hair draped on the bushes, to stop the deer from eating all the tender baby leaves in our strawberry patches and on our almond trees.

we did use some organic sluggo one year, I think it was last year, but no slugs this year.

we are blessed.

we have no critters, who are eating our produce-- but US!!!

[spicyfull]

Hope you find something that works. I just finished eating my white peaches. They were hard and a little past green and the critters don't even know they are gone................

[Linda1970]

how about a net to cover the tree?

[Dragggon]

Nets work good for birds but the bugs just crawl throught the holes and it wont help if there are worms in friut already