Country Living Skills

Via: Alameda Sun

You don’t need to use toxic products to keep the bugs away from you or your garden. Try these natural remedies for bug problems.

• Beer is delicious for snails and slugs. They drink, they drown, no problem. Place a pie pan or shallow dish of beer out in the garden, under shade (flat, leftover beer is fine for them). At night your slimy friends will come out and drown, but they’ll die happy.
• Eggshells will cure tomato blossom end rot — simply save your eggshells and then crush them gently. Don’t completely pulverize them into powder, but leave them in small shards. That will also dissuade snails and slugs, as well as give needed calcium to your tomatoes.
• Ladybugs are a perfect solution to an aphid problem. Your local nursery (such as Encinal, Thomsen’s or Evergreen) will carry ladybugs. Praying mantises are also great bug-eaters.
• Simple dish soap and water (we prefer basic blue Dawn brand) will also kill off aphids when sprayed on your roses and other plants. Keep a spray bottle handy for aphid emergencies in the garden.
• Consider interplanting marigolds with your tomatoes and squash. The scent of the marigolds will help keep pests away from your veggies.
• The scent of lavender is pleasant to people but mosquitoes don’t like it — they can’t smell us over the scent. So rub your hands over some lavender blossoms or leaves and smooth over your arms, neck and legs. Lavender is also an aromatherapy scent which will help calm you when nervous or sleepless.
• Got yellowjackets? Don’t spray them with poison. They are only doing what nature intended when looking for food. You can distract them with baited traps. No trap? Put a piece of bologna or lunch meat on a string and hang it inside an empty milk jug. Fill the bottom of the jug a few inches with soapy water. The yellowjackets will go for the meat, fall in and drown.
• Don’t have to kill flies, either. You can shoo them toward a door or window and then let them out. Keep doors and windows shut or screened to keep your food and home safe from flies.
• Always let bees outside rather than kill them inside. Leave spiders alone, too, especially in the garden. They kill and eat mosquitoes, flies and other pests.
• Sprinkle salt or diatomaceous earth into your carpets, let it sit overnight, then vacuum in the morning. Say bye-bye to your fleas.

We have flea beetles on our potatoes, mainly. Last year they destroyed our eggplants, so this year we are waging war against them - non-chemical warfare, of course. So here is what we do:

Flea beetles, much like potato or cucumber beetles and other unwanted critters, can be deterred with an infusion made of nicotine. If you have a smoker in the family, gather the cigarette and cigar buds instead of throwing them out. If you have about 25 of them, boil the tobacco without the filters in water, let stew for a few hours or overnight. Stain, dilute, and spray on the foliage of your plants. Repeat if necessary.

If you do not have a smoker in the family, buy cheap snuff and use a tbsp to brew the infusion.

If you want a stronger repellent, add three cloves of crushed garlic and a tbsp of red pepper flakes to the tobacco.