Good site! Low tech sustainable (mostly) ways to do Y2k bug remediation around the house and garden. Stumbled on this while looking for info on diatomaceous earth. These tips looks good, I hope it's not all redundant for seasoned gardeners. I hate bug sprays.

http://www.symbios-witticism-page.com/bug.htm

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), May 13, 1999

Answers

Old Git did you change your name on us?

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), May 13, 1999.

No, I LIKE my name! Debbie's been posting here for a while, maybe longer than me-- good catch, Debbie! I love this sort of info, very useful for Y2K and just as useful for non-Y2K. Am now eating good, toxin-free lettuce and the tomatoes are nearing tennis-ball size! Okay, I cheated and bought Johnny's big plants from Home Depot. Who wants to wait until late June-early July for that luscious first tomato?

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), May 13, 1999.

Good Morning!

We just recently were hit hard by aphids on the roses and apple trees (imagine THAT[g]). Used water and fingers to wash/crush off the worst of them and then purchased lady bugs and ordered green lacewings. With the lady bugs the population started to decrease but when the green lacewings got here it was only about 2 days and there were only a few isolated aphid clusters for them to hunt down. It felt great to not spray poisons on our food (yes I put a few rose petals on our salads) and to begin to establish greater populations of beneficial insects in our area.

Also ordered trichograma wasps to get caterpillars and such - don't know how that went, were only seeing a few even before releasing wasps. Haven't seen one since. I will be impressed if they make a dent in the tomato hornworm population once they show up. Will also purchase Bt to use for the 'pillars. Thanks for the link!

-- Kristi (securx@Succeed.Net), May 13, 1999.

Kristi,

If the insects have a hard time keeping up with the job (or if they decide to fly the coop), try Hot Pepper Wax. It's a mixture based on ground-up chili peppers. Just spray roses or veggies with it every few weeks and after rains. Bugs and animals take one bite and get a mouthful of fire. Washes off and doesn't effect the taste of the produce. Comes in a commercial mix or you can make it yourself.

Here's a recipe from Howard Garrett's site for Garlic/Pepper spray:

To make garlic/pepper tea, liquefy 2 bulbs of garlic and 2 hot peppers in a blender 1/2 to 2/3 full of water. Strain the solids and add enough water to the garlic/pepper juice to make 1 gallon of concentrate. Use 1/4 cup of concentrate per gallon of spray. To make garlic tea, simply omit the pepper and add another bulb of garlic. Add two tablespoons of blackstrap molasses for more control.

Hope this helps.

-- David (David@BankPacman.com), May 13, 1999.

Old Git and all you knowledgable gardening types, Have you ever heard of this?

Some researcher in the western states was working on make it yourself insect control potions. One of the most promising was for grasshoppers. You capture a bunch of the insects, put them in the blender, add water, turn it on high, dilute, and then use that in your sprayer. The idea was that various germs and such that are detrimental to the insect would be found in/on the bug and make the insects sick. IF memory serves me, you were supposed to let the brew set for a few hours to let the germs and such grow.

I heard this many years ago and never heard of it since. Anybody else heard of this?

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), May 13, 1999.

Debbie-Thanks for the great info. I'm bookmarking it for more in-depth reading later. Linda

-- newbiebutnodummy (Linda@home.com), May 13, 1999.

Hi Ken,

You wrote: "You capture a bunch of the insects, put them in the blender, add water, turn it on high, dilute, and then use that in your sprayer. The idea was that various germs and such that are detrimental to the would be found in/on the bug and make the insects sick"

Yes, this works, at least for worms on cabbage, broccoli, etc. It's gross to do, but effective.

-- Dean -- from (almost) Duh Moines (dtmiller@nevia.net), May 13, 1999.

That does it! No one will ever borrow my blender again.

-- A. Hambley (a.hambley@usa.net), May 13, 1999.