Gardening

Natural Pest Control

Natural Pest Control

Gardening can be a rewarding endeavor, but keeping your plants alive sometimes means doing a little crowd control! Conventional poisons can harm soil, children, and pets, so here are some natural solutions I found:

 

 

Earwig Sauce Trap:

2 tbsp soy sauce 

½ c cooking oil

Shallow bowl/container

Mix together, leave overnight. This catches earwigs, centipedes, ants, and cockroaches. Keep away from pets. 

Ant & Spider Spray:

Water bottle

Water

5-10 drops peppermint or cinnamon essential oil

Mix and spray. I found that ants avoided places sprayed.

Ant Syrup:

½ c powdered sugar

3 tbsp borax

Enough water to make a thick syrup

Mix together, drop near ants. This killed some ants and the colony moved away. Keep away from pets & children.

Boozy Slug Trap:

Beer of choice

Shallow bowl or container 

Leave bowl out overnight. Dispose of caught slugs/snails.

Plants/Herbs for pest control: 

Marigolds - Mosquitoes, aphids

Nasturtiums - Aphids, beetles, squash bugs

Basil & Lavender - House flies, mosquitoes

Lemongrass, lemon balm, mint, rosemary - mosquitoes

Thyme - whiteflies, cabbage loopers & maggots, corn earworms, hornworms

Dill - aphids, squash bugs, spider mites, hornworms

Fennel - slugs, aphids, snails

Allium Family (chives/onions/leeks)- Slugs, aphids

Borage - Hornworms, cabbage moths

 

 

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Shae Brackett, our Customer Service Director and Social Media Manager, has been with RidgeCrest since 2016. Shae is a licensed massage therapist, and guides the customer care team, is our culture caretaker, and serves as our creative oracle across social media, blogs, and meditations. She describes herself as creative, thoughtful, nature-loving, compassionate, and nurturing. Her favorite herbs are Ginger and Lavender, and she proudly recommends SereniZen® (formerly Anxiety Free), PhysiQOL™, SinusClear®, and Belly Be Happy®.

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