What is a "green" way to keep pests off of plants?

Question

My Dad grew some tomatoes, cucumbers, and chili peppers, but often had to use bug spray to kill and keep all kinds of insects away. What is a non-toxic solution I could buy or make to use on our garden plants, that will kill/ keep the bugs away, yet not harm the plants themselves?

Answer 1

organic gardening101 say to take tobacco and put in old pantyhose,attache to end of hose with rubber band and spray,safe for everything and one of the best nutrients for soil.And I don't think you need to worry about causing cancer unless you smoke your plants lol

Answer 2

marigolds, bugs hate the smell

Answer 3

try looking for natural pesticides/insecticides in the internet...these days, there are a lot of natural products that has anti-insecticidal properties...the 2 links below might help you.

Answer 4

All natural organic neem oil. Available at indoor gardening, or exotic plant stores.

Answer 5

tomatoes, cucumbers, and chili peppers don't need any bug spray, they do fine by themselves. May be you are living a warmer climate and had some bug problem. Here are some natural and green methods : release some lady bugs, they eat a lot of bad bugs. Or use bug juice spay, garlic juice spray, soapy water, one of them would do the trick for you..

Answer 6

Besides the neem, you can also "companion plant" marigolds near your plants. Sounds funny, but they help deter many common vegetable pests naturally!

Answer 7

I've heard that liquid dish soap diluted in water keeps bugs off plants

Answer 8

Stand there and shoo them away.

Answer 9

i use a spray bottle with water and a small squirt of dish soap... its  green friendly!   wont hurt anything and safe to use on veggies you are going to eat as well!

Answer 10

For many plants you can now buy natural predators that will attack garden pests,  and this is one of my favorite methods, as I'm not adding anything that doesn't exist naturally.  

Otherwise,  insecticidal soaps are fatty acids that will kill most insects, and cause no harm to the plants - as with other sprays, don't spray in bright sunlight, otherwise you can scorch your plants.  Diluted dish washing liquid can be used as an alternative.   There are some examples of this type of spray here: http://homeharvest.com/insectspraysinsec...

There are also sprays that you can make from garlic, tobacco, neem oil, cedar oil and other plants.  Some of these, like nicotine and garlic should kill the insects. Cedar and neem act as deterrents.

Tagetes works well as a white fly deterrent,  and I also grow this near to plants that are prone to infection.  Otherwise, buy ladybud/ladybirds as larvae and add them to your crops - the larvae and adults eat insect pests.  If you get the young larvae, you've got a longer period of protection.  

Hope this helps.  Good luck!  Rob

Answer 11

Ladybugs are an option. There are a lot of natural repellent recipes. On of them is to make an infusion of wormwood (artemisia absinthum) or stinging nettle (urtica dioica) and spray the infusion all over the plants. Urtica dioica is also a great fertilizer, especially for tomatoes. Soapy water is risky, because soapy water solutions are used as weed killers and might affect your plants. You must choose the right concentration. Also have in view not to spill water on the foliage, especially on tomatoes. They will develop diseases.

Answer 12

plant trees