Organic Garden.. How do i get rid of bug without pesticides?

Question

I recently started sprouting vegetables on my plants.. and they have seemed to attract these weird red bugs that latch onto my tomatoes. My mother said that adding a few drops of dish soap to the water will help get rid of bugs and i have done that for about 3 days and it hasn't helped out with getting rid of those bugs. I need a non-pesticide way of getting rid of bugs without ruining the integrity of my organic garden. Have any ideas.

Answer 1

rawr.

Answer 2

You don't want to get rid of the bugs. You want to achieve a balance between the pest insects and the beneficial insects. the "get rid of the Bugs" mindset is a chemical gardening mindset and not an organic mindset. You cannot get rid of all of them or your garden will fail as you will have no pollinators, you will have no decomposers to help break down organic matter into forms the roots can use, you will have no food for the birds, reptiles, amphibian, etc.. you will have a sterile environment that will most definitely not be organic.

Controlling insects is a multifaceted affair in organics. Soap is fine for soft bodies insects such as aphids or mites but useless on about everything else. The best control is beneficial insects and other critters that eat pest insects. To have them you need to have food for them which are the bugs doing some damage to you plants (the plants BTW can lose 70% of their foliage before they are too harmed to produce well). Once there is enough to eat the predators will come and and do their work. It will look messy for a few weeks but as long as you are not poisoning the predators by poisoning their food they will come.

Other techniques I have used successfully in my market garden is row covers, crop rotation, companion planting, growing healthy soil (very important), keeping grass short around beds (no place for bugs to hide) hand picking and knowing bug identities (very important, if you do not know what a bug is you do not know if it is friend or foe).

Answer 3

Your mother is correct - LEMON scented dish soap with water more than 4 drops and keep spraying.  also lavender oil mixed with water - it can be expensive but it works.  Try spreading orange peels and lemon peels around the plants, that will be a deterrent to bugs, they hate the smell of citrus.  There is not much else that I know of to help out.

Answer 4

cinnamon and salt

Answer 5

need to first identify the bug...could they be assassin bug nymphs or lady bug larvae that will be helping you keep the pest insects off of your tomato plants