Natural Pest Control for
the Indoor Gardener
Jason's Way
The best natural pest control is prevention. When that fails, do you really want to use a poisonous product that will stay in the tissue of your plants and kill your beneficial organisms? I love SM-90 for a foliar spray, but it will kill some of your beneficial micro-organisms if you use it to water your plants. When you find you have a bug problem, pest identification will help you prevent my bug woes.
A recent thrip problem has proven to me the importance of treating the soil when an infestation occurs. Thrips, fungus gnats, and even some mites spend part of their life cycle in the soil. While I would still spray my plants with SM-90, I have also decided to water some predatory nematodes into the soil to kill thrip and fungus gnat larvae.
Neem oil can be substituted for SM-90 when spraying for mites or fungus gnats, although you still want to treat the soil somehow in the case of fungus gnats. In the case of a future problem, I also plan to dust my plants with a little diatomaceous earth between spraying.
If all else fails, I would try a hot pepper/garlic spray called BANG! that is supposed to be very good. Very large gardens should consider integrated pest management.
Mites and thrips prefer dry conditions. On days you do not treat your plants, be sure to mist them heavily with plain water. You will slow down the bugs, rinse any built up residue from the plant leaves, and the plants just like it anyway. Finally, keeping the temperatures in your garden on the cooler side (especially during the day) will help you gain the edge as mite and thrip reproduction rates slow down considerably. Altogether, these are the methods of natural pest control I recommend...
Pruning First
When you have a heavy infestation, sections of plant with lots of mites or webbing should be cut away from the plant and removed from the garden. Problems with thrips and fungus gnats do not usually require pruning.
A product called SM-90 is my personal favorite for natural pest control. It is citrus based and works well against mites, thrips, and fungus gnats. Mix according to directions and spray 80 percent under the leaves and 20 percent on top. Repeat every 3 days, up to 3 times. You can use this up to the week before harvest, but make sure to wash any residue off the plants with heavy misting.
You can also use SM-90 each time you water your plants, to get the insect pests living in your soil. Unfortunately, if you are growing organically, it will also kill some of your beneficials. If you are using hydroponics, keeping SM-90 in your nutrient reservoir at 2-3 ml/gallon keeps fungus gnats at bay.
Another option for natural pest control is neem oil, such as Einstein Oil or K-Neem. Mix it up fresh before each use, and spray 80 percent under the leaves and 20 percent on top. In India, you can find neem oil in their toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and many other cosmetic and personal hygiene products. It is safe to use up to the week of harvest. Check the directions before using, but you normally use 3 applications about 7 days apart. I found out the hard way neem does not work on thrips, but it is effective against mites and fungus gnats.
There is no more natural pest control than this. Predatory nematodes are beneficial, microscopic organisms. They cost about 20 dollars for a little sponge that they say holds a million nematodes. You simply soak the sponge in room temperature water and either water it into your plants or use it in your hydroponics nutrient reservior. The nematodes will roam your soil killing thrip, gnat, and mite larvae. If you go this route, I recommend you pay the extra money for next day shipping to protect your living mail.
Also known as silica dioxide, at a microscopic level diatomaceous earth looks like a bunch of razor blades. To use this natural pest control, all you do is coat a feather duster with some, and lightly dust all the leaves of your plants (undersides too). It is perfectly safe to use up to the day of harvest. As little insects crawl and bite into your plants, they are cutting themselves to death. Reapply whenever the plants are dry, in between sprayings.
A homemade solution of a few crushed cloves of garlic in a liter of water is supposed to provide natural pest control. The same is true with a few hot peppers chopped and soaked in water. This product is made of both. The products you use as a gardener change as you learn, and this is the bug solution I would try next myself if the need came up.
Integrated pest management (IPM) is when you use mother nature against herself, one beneficial organism against one pest. It is a very natural pest control method. Using predatory nematodes is a form of integrated pest management. Because they are microscopic and do not migrate from their container, this is an easy method for a small gardener to use. Normally though, IPM involves large commercial greenhouses, calculations of pest populations, and targeted releases of thousands of ladybugs, praying mantis, or other beneficial insects to fight the pests.
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