Natural pest management

Plants
#1

Greetings
I need help from the team .

what are the natural practices that can help me to control pests naturally?

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#2

Hi William,

What pests do you need to control or deter? Or what are the crops you are protecting from pests?

ECHO West Africa staff have been training farmers in the use of several different natural or “biopesticides” that either repel and/or control certain pests. They have shared the recipe and instructions for two different ones in a recent ECHO Development Notes article you can read here: Towards the use of biopesticides | ECHOcommunity.org

One is a Chili, garlic, onion, and neem almond powder biopesticide that is broad-spectrum meaning it has a wider range of pests that it helps combat. The other is a ash broth pesticide that mainly acts on soft-bellied insects.

Please let me know if you have questions about these recipes or if there is a specific pest you are targeting!

Stacy

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#3

Greetings
Essentially, pests generally for instance fleet beetles, and aphids.

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#4

Thank you for sharing each pest!

There are many different control options for aphids including:

  • Ash broth biopesticide from ECHO West Africa Staff
  • Simply applying wood ash over and/or around the plants. One ECHO Staff member mentioned at our weekly agricultural meeting today, that putting ash at the base around plants can help deter ants that are farming aphids on the plants and therefore help control the ants.
  • Soap and oil sprays (e.g. spray a combination of liquid dish soap and vegetable oil. Add 2 teaspoons [10 ml] of dish soap and 1 teaspoon [5 ml] of vegetable oil to a gallon [3.8 l] of water, in a one-gallon sprayer. After shaking the sprayer to mix the ingredients, spray the leaves making sure to get both sides and especially coat new growth).
  • More ideas can be found at OISAT.org here: Curative control

Flea beetles are more difficult to control in my experience. Looking at OISAT.org resources, some options include:
Preventative:

  • Encourage predators: lacewing and cricket
  • Monitor and control early (5 or more beetles per set of 20 seedlings or 10-20% leaf area showing damage).
  • Plant a barrier crop such as Radish or Chinese mustard to trap flea beetles and keep them from entering the field. Remove trap crops once they are infested!

Suppressive:

Reference:
Singh, R.; Singh, S. (2000): Neem for pest management: How to grow and use. Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute. New Delhi, India.

#5

Greetings from Tanzania, East Africa
The most important thing (if you want to honor the Creator and not just look for easy answers to extend your serving the devil in your agriculture) is to build an environment that follows what the Creator had in mind: probably some kind of forest in your area.

  1. So, step one: plant indigenous trees around your farm, or in rows. This alone will have a ton of benefits, like increasing precipitation and soil moisture, shading, wind bread, hosting beneficial animals to decrease your pest pressure, etc.
  2. Step two: do not repeat the same crop year after year. God does not do this either. Have you ever seen a forest with just one kind of tree? Also, whenever possible, plant two or more crops together, like sorghum and peanuts or chick peas, or maize and beans (and possibly gourds) etc.
  3. Step three: cover your soil, as God does this as well. Either by having a cover crop, or by spreading dry plant matter on your soil. God hates bare soil! Just look what he’s doing: as soon as we people leave soil alone for a while, God starts to cover it with plants.
  4. Step four: plant plants that repel pests or draw pests away from your crops. For example: Desmodium (repels maize stem borers), vetiver grass (attracts maize stem borers away from maize, but also has a ton of other uses), marygold (repels nematodes in vegetable gardens), lemon grass (repels insects in vegetable gardens) etc. There are many more of this kind.
  5. Step five: monitor your field early, to fight the beginnings of pest outbreaks
  6. step six: use some biological pesticides only if the steps before didn’t prevent the problem from even coming up (see the other responses for biological pesticides). On our farm here in Tanzania, we only use pesticides (mainly neem tree leaf extract and chili extract) on our maize seedlings, and in the vegetable plots.

All the best, and God’s blessings to you!

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#6

Studies show that some common organic treatments like garlic, chili powder, and onion have limited effects on insect control. These ingredients are often more effective as deterrents rather than killing insects directly. Neem oil, on the other hand, is somewhat more effective but not as potent as chemical pesticides. It works by disrupting feeding and reproduction in pests but requires frequent reapplication for lasting results. Neem oil slows down insect activity rather than killing them instantly, so while it may reduce damage, it won’t entirely eliminate infestations quickly.

Garlic and chili powder sprays may slightly repel certain pests, but they are not as effective as neem or stronger synthetic solutions. Neem oil requires consistency, often needing applications every 7-10 days to have an impact, especially in severe infestations, but its overall effect is slower and less potent than harsher chemical pesticides​.

You need to consider pyrethrum derived from a white chrysanthemum if you want something more effective that is natural. I would not mess around with neem and particularly not with garlic/onion & chili pepper. And then there are synthetic pyrethroids that are closely related that are longer lasting and even more effective. To me it is sad when people say they want natural pesticides because that means they want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. My personal experience is that people seeking natural pesticides or organic pesticides are usually not open minded about talking about what product is safest to use or what is economically efficient and very safe at the same. For example insect regulators which are not natural but synthetically manufactured are more safe than neem and naturally derived pyrethrums but yet because they are synthetic the natural or organic idealists will not consider using them. I find that sad. And it is even more sad when you consider that people make recommendations about natural products that actually do have harmful chemical residues such as Tephrosia and other rotenoids, tobacco, etc. (harmful to aquatic organisms, animals and humans). Natural does not mean not harmful and natural does not mean economically effective which is the case with garlic, chili, and onion which I think will fail to do much of anything for you.

There are some microbials such as Bacillus Thuringiensis, milky spore, beneficial nematodes, baculoviruses, etc. and by all means if your insect problem is a narrow range these products may address a particular insect species that they target. When you can identify your problem adequately and the approach address the problem these can be highly effective and you can buy prepared products which will save you time.

There is also push/pull techniques which you can research for such insects as army worms and cultural controls such as planting early or late. Then there are biologicals such as predatory insects which you can buy and release and also pheremone traps that confuse insects so they are much less likely to find a mate.

Wood ash may work against cut worms, aphids and slugs if it is fresh but the first time it rains you will lose most of your repelling action and will have to reapply. It will not work against most other insects.

Horticultural oil or vegetable oil works great for soft bodied insects and is often a product of choice if you are addressing such an insect. You have to spray some on a plant at the rate you are expecting to use and wait a day or two to safely test as all plants respond differently to oil sprays and some suffer phytotoxic effects, particularly if your rate is too much. Dormant oil works on scale on trees in the winter time.