Any home made remedies to protect plants from insects?

Question

some insect is eating my plant leafs almost all plants have small wholes in the leafs and now some r getteing yello ,i have strwberries ,green papers and some flowers i need help any ideas

Answer 1

http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_c...

Take a look at his website it gives you many ideas how to protect your plants naturally.

Answer 2

dilute a bit of dishwashing soap in water and spray the plants. that'll deter insects.

good luck!

Answer 3

a little bit of dish soap mixed with water helps with insects. Put it in a spray bottle and spray the plants and leaves. Get under the leaves too. It's harmless to the plants.

Answer 4

Little holes that then turn yellow on those plants are usually either aphids, or a bit of a fungus.  

However, if they are little holes that are all over the place, and the whole leaf is then turning yellow; and especially with the heat the way it's been this year:  I'd say you have flea beetles!  Nasty, nasty munchers!

The first eats anything.  

The fungus doesn't care.  

The flea beetles love strawberries, doesn't usually mess too much with tomato (unless totally desperate), will mess with flowers, squash, and especially love eggplant.....

No matter which of these descriptions best fits your situation, unless you have a compost heap, or lots of home-hung, dried, hot peppers, a home-made remedy is going to be rough.  I know, i know...I do the organic thing myself, so....

Anyway.....If you have the dried hot peppers (or if you want to sacrifice a whole bunch of fresh ones), grind them up in your blender or food processer, put in a cheescloth bag (or tie up in about 4 coffee filters) and boil them in a pot of water until you can see "oil" start to accumulate on the surface.  Turn it down and keep cooking.  When it's reduced to half, carefully remove the ground peppers so that you don't accidentally absorb the oil......THATS the part you need the most (and why boiling store bought cayanne pepper won't work!)  

Cool and then fill a spray bottle.  (the kind you squeeze, not that you attach to a hose. that's also why you strain...the seeds are a real pain the the nozzle)  

Spray your plants. Make sure you get the underside as well....they love to hide!!  

And..uhm...watch for that breeze...this stuff really stings the eyes!!

If you have a compost heap, you do.....well.....pretty much the same thing, but you don't have to tie up the "stuff" to boil....you just have to strain it through a colander and put the solids back in the pile....but you get the idea

See....plant eating little critters identify their food sorce by the scent of the plant....the same way we can smell cotton candy, four rows over at the county fair...or pizza before it enters the front door.....or liver and onions  with brussel sprouts on the side from the car as we pull into the driveway......on this last (and the same goes for the bugs) it gives us time for the get away....and the bugs feel that way about plants that don't smell right, or if confused and take a taste....that don't taste right either.....

See...there are very few bugs that traditionally make their tummies full by eating the leaves, that even want to eat the actual fruit of a hot pepper plant (kind of like me with liver and onions....)....(but I like brussel sprouts)......so; the smell drives them to look for what their little sensory smell thingies recognize......which is no longer your hot pepper sprayed plant!

And let's face it:  NONE of them eat boiled egg shell, orange juice, tea bags, brown leaves, banana peel, and grass clippings!!!  At least not once it's been boiled together!  The bonus to the compost "tea" is that it is also a natural fertilizer and will help your poor munched on plants recover faster from the attack of the six legged critters......or how ever many legs your critters may have!!

They also do carry organic sprays at most of the local garden centers now....but you need to have a good idea on what you are attacking....I mean...controlling.

Now.....don't care about organic??  bummer.....but....o.k....

The dishwashing detergent isn't as bad as some measures people take, but make sure it's well diluted, sprayed on lightly, and spray in the  morning so that it doesn't encourage growth if it's a fungus.  (now remember...dishwashing detergent is NOT organic!! Unless you are using phosphate free etc.....you get the drift....it's about your level of caring!)

Another way that works is straight up , boric acid in a flour sifter.  But be careful: It not only affects the critters that are eating your plants...but can also affect the benificials that are polinating and keeping away the larger, more damaging garden pests.  They too , are exoskeletal.  (you don't really want to hear how this stuff works on the buggies do you??  How their tissues swell and they get crushed from the inside out against their skeleton exteriors........naaah....didn't think you did....)  Now....on a less gruesome note:  It won't hurt the kids, the cats, the dogs, the moles, the voles etc.....they all have their bones on the inside...they'll get a numb toungue if they l**k an unwashed leaf, but.....who does that???..... but it does a real number on the buggies.  Especially ants!!

Hope this helped, sorry for the long wind.....

Good luck and happy gardening!!