There are times when it just seems that there are more insects than previously. Perhaps it is the warmer winters and wetter summers helping them breed more easily, or possibly it is because fewer people are using pesticides in their gardens. It is quite understandable that a lot of people do not want to use chemicals on their gardens, but not using anything at all results in a growth in the insect population.
Over the last fifty or so years, people have become more and more accustomed to using chemical insecticides to kill household and garden insect pests because they are a quicker and morecertain killer. So what do you do if you want to control the number of garden insect pests, but do not want to use chemicals?
Well, you would have to revert to using natural insect pest killers, although most families have forgotten what their great-grandparents used to use to eradicate insects. The following is a list of some of the natural ways of killing insect pests. However, not all techniques or plants will be available in all countries.
Stinging nettles: if you cut down a bunch of stinging nettles and immerse them in water for a week or more, chemicals will leak out of the vegetation into the water. Strain the water off and spray it over your plants. It will kill or put off most garden insects. You can also use it as a plant food, but you will have to be careful how strong it is.
Rotenone: is a natural insecticidal. It is made from the roots of the derris plant. It kills by attacking the stomachs of insects. However, it is rather slow-acting and has to be reapplied often in order to get the utmost effect.
Washing Up Water: soapy water of any kind will kill aphids or greenfly among other garden insect pests. This is a very easy control to dispense. Just strain your soapy water into a spray gun (like an empty window spray gun) and blast your greenfly.
Corn meal: you can dust this around plants or skirting boards to kill insects. If a tomato hornworm or a cockroach eats some, the cornmeal will puff up in the insect's stomach with the bodily fluids in there and the insect will ultimately pop.
Pyrethrum: will paralyze an insect, but it will also wear off, so it is often mixed with a poison to finish the insect off. Otherwise, you can pick them up.
A combination of cow's milk, flour and water can be used as a natural insecticide, funnily enough. It is very good at killing the eggs of insects. It also destroys insects themselves by blocking their breathing holes. In other words, they suffocate.
Neem is a very common tree in India and has medicinal as well as insecticidal uses. This natural insecticide repels insects by means of an active constituent that mimics an insect hormone. It makes it hard, if not impossible, to digest food and it stops their cycle of reproduction. It works most effectively of all on insects that primarily eat leaves.
More Information:
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on many topics, but is at present involved with
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