Alternatives to Pesticides and Chemicals

January 21, 2011

Pesticides are designed to kill and destroy biological creatures. You, your family, your neighbors are all, biological creatures.

About 1/3 of pesticide use is extremely toxic to humans and contain carcinogens, neurotoxins, and reproductive toxicants.

Pesticides are in everything nowadays with over $11 Billion dollars worth getting spread around our communities each year.

The pesticide industry has exerted intense pressure on the U.S. Government, farmers and the general public giving millions of dollars to state and national election campaigns.

If you think you are not causing harm to yourself, your family, your neighbor, your community and the environment by your continued use of toxic chemical pesticides and herbicides then you are a fool.

Here are my recommendations.

#1 Stop being so uptight. Bugs deserve some space. They will keep each other in check too. Beneficial insects and beneficial insect plantings work (see list below).

#2 Use a vacuum. I’ve tried this and it works. We had a sugar ant infestation and I simply vacuumed them up for about a week until they stopped coming in the house. No biggie. Caulking works too. Spiders, same thing. The only thing the vacuum hasn’t worked all that well on are house flies. haha.

#3 Crack open a book on organic farming.

#4 Research pesticide toxicity. Our number one rule is if we don’t know what that ingredient is, or where it comes from, we don’t buy it or put it on anything around us.

#5 Use some common sense.

Plant Repellant list:

Ant: mint, tansy, pennyroyal
Aphids: mint, garlic, chives, coriander, anise
Bean Leaf Beetle: potato, onion, turnip
Codling Moth: common oleander
Colorado Potato Bug: green beans, coriander, nasturtium
Cucumber Beetle: radish, tansy
Flea Beetle: garlic, onion, mint
Imported Cabbage Worm: mint, sage, rosemary, hyssop
Japanese Beetle: garlic, larkspur, tansy, rue, geranium
Leaf Hopper: geranium, petunia
Mexican Bean Beetle: potato, onion, garlic, radish, petunia, marigolds
Mice: onion
Root Knot Nematodes: French marigolds
Slugs: prostrate rosemary, wormwood
Spider Mites: onion, garlic, cloves, chives
Squash Bug: radish, marigolds, tansy, nasturtium
Stink Bug: radish
Thrips: marigolds
Tomato Hornworm: marigolds, sage, borage
Whitefly: marigolds, nasturtium