Biological Pest Control for the Garden
If you are a gardener, then you know that maintaining a productive garden can be a lot of work, and you are constantly trying to find a good balance between food, water, sun, shade, and soil quality. You also know that certain pests can mean the negation of all your hard work.Many gardeners are tempted to use chemical sprays or other methods to eradicate garden pests, but this may in fact cause more harm to your garden than good. Many types of insects, in particular, are beneficial to a garden, and blanket sprays may be just as detrimental to their population as they are to the pest populations. In fact beneficial insects are often more sensitive than pest counterparts, so you may find that chemicals work most “effectively” on the good guys.
One way to avoid using chemicals, or to minimize the type of chemical you are using, in your garden is to understand the process of biological pest control. This term refers to the use of living organisms to control pests within the garden. There are several different methods of biological pest control, we will take a look at them below.
Hands on approach
The living organism in question here is the gardener. With a lot of hard work, you can eliminate bad pests from your garden. Picking produce just before it ripens and allowing it to ripen indoors will help, as will picking any pests out yourself. This approach also implies a certain amount of knowledge before you begin gardening, such as understanding which types of pests you are likely to encounter based on your environment and what you are planting.
Natural predators
Like everything else in the natural world, garden ecosystems are a cycle circling around predation, death, and birth. If you are interested in high drama, the wars of the garden insects would be a fascinating study. Not all insects you find in your garden are detrimental; in fact, remember that the ones you are likely to consider pests are probably plant eaters, and thus at the bottom of the food chain.
What needs to happen for biological pest control is the encouragement of the “meat eaters” of the insect world, those insects which prey on the pests, their eggs or their larvae, naturally. There are dozens of different species which can be purchased or found naturally for this purpose, usually suited to a specific pest. They aren’t all tiny either; a dog is a very effective biological deterrent to rabbits!
Microbes
Microbes are single celled organisms which cause diseases in different types of insects. Again, there are a surprising number of microbial treatments available commercially to help deal with garden pests.
Protective plants
Planting different kinds of plants among your garden plants may also help to protect them. Most pests are attracted to specific plants, so if you plant tomatoes among your squash, for example, the wretched tomato horn worm will be less likely to find them. The scent from the other species disguises that of the at risk plant. Specific pheromones and other plants may also serve to repel or confuse harmful garden pests.
As you can see, the best thing you can do for your garden is to arm yourself with a lot of knowledge on what you are likely to encounter, and the best combative measures. There are many pest control companies with extensive knowledge of typical garden pests and great biological combative measures, and it’s a good idea to consult and use them until you are familiar with the practices yourself.
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