Traditional Pest Control Methods Old-Style Ways of Controlling Your Insect Enemies

Just like any living thing existing on this earth, plant life forms are also subject to diseases. I believe plants are prone and susceptible to more insect attacks, than bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases, and that is why even if you are really determined to make sure that your plant is completely disease -free, you are going to find them suffering from their insect enemies, sometime or the other, during their growth cycle.

Aphids

It is a known fact that there is no plant in the world, and absolutely no zone where some sort of insect enemy is not going to attack your plants. During the height of World War II and the Battle of Britain, it was well known that a very worried Winston Churchill used to escape into his rose garden, not only in order to relax and recuperate and to think out some new strategy to protect a very ill-prepared-for-battle England, but also to protect his roses from the attack of the green aphids.

And even when his Generals felt irritated just because they thought that he was wasting precious time, he was doing two things simultaneously – making plans, and fighting against those green rose louses by spraying them with pesticide.

Aphids and Red Spiders

Aphids are not only the most common of your insect enemies, but because they are found so profusely, all over the world, you can recognize them immediately. The moment they are visible upon the stalks or the leaves of the plant, you know that you are in for a long siege.

However, you are going to be surprised to know that aphids do not do as much injury as does the red spider, though of course, the efforts are going to be very destructive if they are allowed to have their own run of your garden without any sort of check.

A red spider is minuscule. That is why you may not suspect his presence upon your plants, until after they have started showing symptoms of error spider infection. In fact, many people whose plants are wilting due to this infection may think that it is due to some other cause, just because they have not seen any sort of red spider crawling on their plants. But it is there, believe you me.

In olden times, there was only one way in which the red spider infection could be controlled and that was with the use of fumes of tobacco to kill this little minuscule pest. Tobacco fumes are very dangerous, especially if you inhale them. That is why this was only done by professionals who knew how to cover their noses well, and took lots of preventive measures, before fumigating the atmosphere with puffs of tobacco smoke.

Onion/Garlic Remedy

 

Onion and garlic to control aphids, whatever will she think of next, you may say. But believe it or not, this powerful combination is capable of getting rid of a large number of insects, especially as onions and garlic have been known to be traditional pesticides for a long time – pieces of onion and garlic, chopped up and put into water and used as a spray – and so you may want to try it out.

This is, of course, a very effective method to be used by all those people, who do not mind the smell of onion and garlic. And also, in many eastern and European kitchens, where garlic and onion is an important part of their cuisine, they do not mind spraying their herbal plants and keeping them totally aphid free.

Scale Insects

The first symptom that you notice in a scale insect infestation, is that the stalk and the foliage of your plants begin to look scaly, instead of smooth textured. If you have palms, just on the leaves over and look at the midribs. Do you see anything white there, dry, flat, and small? Those are those scaly insects.

On oleanders and on lemon trees, where the leaves are thicker, more fleshy and firm in texture, you are going to find these scales, about as large as a little grain of rice.

The first symptom that you notice in a scale insect infestation, is that the stalk and the foliage of your plants begin to look scaly, instead of smooth textured. If you have palms, just on the leaves over and look at the midribs. Do you see anything white there, dry, flat, and small? Those are those scaly insects.
On oleanders and on lemon trees, where the leaves are thicker, more fleshy and firm in texture, you are going to find these scales, about as large as a little grain of rice.

A healthy lemon tree

It is going to be grayish green in appearance, with a shining sort of surface, and with a pulpy look about it. In other plant varieties, you may find scales appearing as dark brown and dry scales on the surface. But whatever the color and the appearance, the first priority of the scale insects is to suck all the juice dry of your plant, and leave it wilted and sap less.

These scales are there to stay, and once they stick onto a surface, they try their level best to stay there permanently. You cannot get rid of them just by a mere brushing because they are very stubborn. Powders do not work here in the form of pesticides, and so here I am going to give you the best traditional way, in which you can get rid of scale insects.

What about Insecticide Soaps?

Using a really powerful chemical based pesticide means covering your nose from the toxins. Do you really want to poison your system too?

Many people have begun looking at other options out there, in the form of insecticide soaps, which are going to have a number of essential oils in them. These essential oils include neem oil soaps, fir tree oil soaps – how come people have stopped manufacturing soaps with fir tree oil extract, don't you know, that this is just about one of the most powerful of natural pesticides out there, – and these are used on the leaves and the stalk of the plants, just like you are bathing a baby.

Many times the pests stick to the body of the soap, when you are doing the rubbing of the plant with the soap in your hand.

Here is one way in which you can make this soap on your own. Take one hundred grams of ordinary soft soap. Put it in 2 L of boiling hot water and heat until it is completely dissolved. To this, you are going to add 10 drops of fir tree oil.

This book has given you a good idea about how you can control a number of natural pest attacks with natural processes, without any use of powerful insecticides. Insecticides are the secret cause of the slow and steady extinction of a large number of plants, insects, and birds, in our area – I have not seen a vulture, crow, or ordinary house sparrow for the past 40 years in my area, and I have heard, that they are getting extinct in other parts of the world, too, thanks to human encroachment and pesticides.

And that is why people are trying traditional ways of controlling pests, which are safe for their babies, as well as the babies of little birds and animals. Start growing eco-friendly.
Now a little bit of human interest stories, from all over the world, about pest control. My mother was attending a NAM Summit in Harare, in the 80s, and when she came back, she told me that this was the first time she had seen hotel employees wiping the plants of the five-star hotel with a solution of milk and water, in order to keep the leaves, glossy, and dirt free. It also kept the whole plant pest free, especially in a humid atmosphere.
When she was coming away, she wanted some plant cuttings, seedlings, and seeds, but she was told that she would not be permitted to take them home due to international custom reasons. So she still remembers the lush greenery of Africa with fondness, and a young pretty girl polishing the leaves of an Indian rubber plant gently with milk and water, and singing to it a gentle humming song…
So the next time you do your spraying, try a little humming and you are going to feel really relaxed and happy.
Live Long and Prosper!

 

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