GET RID OF THOSE GARDEN PESTS

Suggested Home Remedies

Do those cute furry critters romp through your garden?  Do you need a few ideas on how to redirect them elsewhere?  Here are a few tips from your fellow gardeners?

·         Use chopped garlic or sprinkle chili powder over your garden soil to keep squirrels, rabbits and other rodents out of your veggies.

·         Spray Listerine on your plants to make an undesirable home for those aphids.

·         Use chocolate flavored Ex-lax to keep chipmunks and moles from destroying the growth of your garden.

·         Ladybugs, lacewings, and praying mantises can be purchased at a garden center. Ladybugs will eat aphids, white flies and mites. Lacewings hunt aphids, and lacewing larvae eat other insects. Praying mantises will hunt almost any insect pest that enters your garden.

·       Homemade Sticky Traps made from Vaseline spread on yellow plastic cards. Place them above your plant canopy to attract and trap pests.

·       Plant a border of basil to deter flies and mosquitoes; asters and chrysanthemums will repel most insects; plant borage to prevent tomato worms; garlic will repel Japanese beetles; nasturtiums help prevent aphids and squash bugs; and tansy keeps most flying insects away.

·         To control an attack of powdery mildew on plants, use baking soda as a natural fungicide and preventative. Mix one tablespoon of baking soda, ½ teaspoon of liquid soap, and one gallon of water. Spray susceptible plants during humid or damp weather on a weekly basis to greatly reduce powdery mildew in your garden.

·         Some people claim that spraying a solution comprised of one beaten egg and 1 1/3 cups of water on plants will repel deer, elk, and in some cases, rabbits.  (Egg shells make great fertilizer)

·         Discourage rabbit activity in your garden by placing wire or metal oven racks around your garden plants. It is said that the rabbits do not like stepping on the racks and will look for food in other places.

·         Soak corn cob halves in vinegar for 24 hours to create a natural rabbit deterrent that works wonders in a flower bed. Replace this gardening home remedy every two weeks. It is the smell of the vinegar that drives rabbits away.