Just because it's marketed as natural doesn't mean we should take face value and assume it's safe. When we decide to spray a synthetic pesticide, it hurts the beneficial bugs and disrupts the natural balance of things. The majority of bugs are actually beneficial! Here's some tips to identifying and getting to know your bugs:
Search the internet using body types and the plant they're on. For example: "green caterpillar on cabbage" or "tiny black jumping bug on tomatoes".
Not all caterpillars are bad! I know this sounds crazy, but often, they may cause such little damage and turn into beautiful butterflies, like the Swallowtail butterfly on citrus or parsley or dill!
Many beneficials like ladybugs show up at different stages and look like bad bugs!
Most bad bugs come in phases and if you can dedicate 1-3 rounds of hand picking and smushing, you save the balance of your garden! The more you spray, even organically, the more work you'll have for yourself in the future. Even if it means a failed crop one year because you didn't have the time to manually remove them, you're doing a great justice to your garden to encourage the beneficials to move in!
There's only three products I keep on hand:
Neem Oil - derived from the neem tree, Azadirachta indica, and used as a mild miticide/insecticide/fungicide. Different parts of the tree can be used medicinally for humans. If I choose to spray Neem, the only time to do so is at dusk, when beneficial flying insects are inactive. I would also not use this if I saw the presence of any beneficial bugs.
Diatomaceous Earth - ground-up diatoms or fine minerals that can break apart pests' exoskeletons or soft body tissue. I use this as a preventative for squash vine borers, ground application for fungus gnats, snails, and slugs, and a miticide in the chicken coop!
Super Tea Blend - hands down my favorite biodynamic fertilizer, along with of the compost, to add real Life to the garden. There's a small amount of kelp meal plus inactive, dehydrated beneficial bacterium that activate with water and help optimize nutrient absorption, disease, and pest resistance. If you add an aerator to it, it multiplies the production of beneficial bacteria! Use code INSTAR for a discount. For Aeration, use the Air Stone, tubing, and pump.
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