Eco-friendly ways to manage garden insect-pest
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We
experience to see several insect pests lingering, feeding, enjoying, and
damaging our garden crops. To manage them one must know their feeding habit. Feeding
habit varies with the type of insects. some feed by sucking like Aphids,
thrips, some can bite and chew like beetles.
we
have several options of insecticides and pesticides against them while these
chemicals kill these notorious insect-pest, however, pose toxic negative
impacts on the health of organisms from micro to macro-level but most
importantly after a period of use, make insect-pest resistant to these
chemicals and also increase possibility of secondary pest outbreak.
Here
is why I came up with some Eco-friendly ways to manage insect-pest in your
garden total control is not suggested reason due to presence of natural enemies
that feed on them.
1. Daily inspection
You need to inspect your garden daily to see if there is any incidence of insect-pest, disease, or require necessary intervention of watering, weeding, fertilizer application etc. Inspection to see if there is any eggs, larvae, pupae, and adult in your garden crops and taking necessary steps of hand picking, scooping with scoop nets and destroying it can manage the population of insect pest and ensure good plant health.
2. Sanitation
Sanitation is
to be maintained on your garden. Removal of dead, diseased, insect pest
infested parts of plant and their proper disposal by either burning or burying
is essential. Weeding should be performed to destroy the habitat of harboring
insect pest. For an instance, weed in or around the field serves as an
alternative host for some bugs. Simple activity of uprooting and destroying the
crop readily after harvest can destroy their shelter.
3. Preservation of natural enemies
Insect pests have
their own natural enemy. For example: Borer have Trichogramma as their natural
predator. Larvae of 12 spotted lady bird beetle feeds upon soft bodied insects
E.g. Aphids. Hovers fly lay eggs inside snail and slugs and kill them. You
should provide the alternative food source and adopt plant diversity in your
garden to preserve these natural enemies.
4. Install traps
Installation of
traps like yellow sticky traps to capture and kill aphids, white flies,
fruit-flies and some beetles, pheromone trap to trap the opposite sex of
insects especially male one for an instance, use of Heli lure to trap male
butterfly of pea pod borer.
for molluscan like snails and slugs salt can be used to prevent their invasion to garden plants and to kill them.
Similarly,
light traps can be used for trapping adults of white grubs, borers, and potato
tuber moth. Furthermore, simple task of placing weed near your garden or plants
helps you capture and kill the larvae of cutworms in the morning.
Also, some
crops serve as trap crop like soybean for an instance is used to trap borers.
Nasturtiums acts as trap crop for Aphids, white fly. Also, Urtica dioica helps
trap aphids from damaging your main crop.
5. Use of Bio-pesticides
Bio-pesticides are Eco-friendly and proved to be effective against various garden pest. Unlike chemical pesticides bio-pesticides do not interfere or pose negative impacts on environment. Bio-pesticides application not only help manage the pest population but also found to increase the population of natural enemies like spiders, Beetles, lacewing, long horn grasshopper etc.
Locally available raw materials can be used to prepare the bio-pesticide which is cost- effective as well as environmentally friendly. Easily available plant materials which have insecticidal property like Artemesia vulgaris, Azadirachta indica, Adhatoda vasica, Garlic, Pepper, lemon grass etc. and cow urine, salt, water can be used for the preparation of local bio-pesticides.
According, to the principle of
integrated pest management combination of the ingredients that imparts sour,
spicy, salty, bitter taste and cow urine have the potential to manage pest as the extracts of these interfere with
biology of insects. These pesticides make insects lose their appetite and
ultimately insect-pest dies due starvation.
6. Inter-cropping and Multiple cropping
Inter-cropping of crops belonging to different family can aid in management of insect-pest. You can grow cauliflower with tomato or mustard plant to control Notorious pest of cauliflower Diamond back moth. Tomato acts as a repellent to these pests as they release allelochemicals. Similarly, mint deters cabbage moths, Allium cepa repels Japanese beetle, fruit and stem borers, mites etc. incorporating these herbs can protect your garden plants from damaging your garden plants.
Multiple cropping is another way to
manage insect-pest. Growing two or more than two crops at a time helps develop
the micro-ecosystem within the garden.
Gardeners should grow trap crops, repellent crops, and companion crops in unison in their garden. Trap crops helps distract those pests from damaging main crops, while repellent crops produce allelochemicals to interfere with their natural behavior, and companion crops discourage pest from feeding while also ensure suitable environment for natural enemies to prosper.
So, here are the Eco-friendly ways to manage insect pest in your garden. These activities ensure
environmental health and is also cost effective to gardeners.
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