No garden is spared from pests. Aphids, snails, voles and the like take every opportunity to attack your lovingly cared for ornamental and useful plants. This list of tried-and-tested tips reveals how you can effectively combat the most common culprits without using poison.
How do you fight pests in the garden without poison?
To combat pests in the garden without poison, you can use soapy water against lice, use cloths soaked in turpentine or carbolineum against voles and keep Indian runner ducks to combat snails.
Lice surrender to soapy water – this is how it works
They are there just in time for the start of the gardening season. Aphids, scale insects and other plant insects colonize the leaves in order to suck the juice out of the young, freshly sprouting life. We resent this behavior and define them as pests that need to be combated. To get rid of the pest, you can safely avoid chemical insecticides. The parasites regularly lose out with this home remedy:
- Heat 1 liter of water to dissolve 30 to 40 grams of pure curd soap
- Pour the cooled liquid into hand sprayer
- Spray infected plants every 2 to 3 days
Repeat the application until you no longer find any pests.
Stink scares away voles - non-toxic repellents
Voles have the same love for vegetables in the garden as the gardener. Flower bulbs and rose roots are also on their menu. Therefore, the voracious tunnel builders are defined as pests that are allowed to be controlled. Anyone who stays true to their basic ecological principles when it comes to pest control leaves poisonous products behind and drives away voles that are sensitive to smells with a stink.
Among the home remedies, cloths soaked in turpentine or carbolineum, which are stuck in several places in the hallways, have proven to be effective. If you exercise the necessary caution, you can scare away voles with butyric acid. Specialist retailers have ready-to-use repellents available, such as the poison-free vole gas from Neudorff (€9.00 on Amazon) or the odorous balls from Dr. Stahler vole-free.
Ducks versus snails – fighting in harmony with nature
Pesticides have had their day in controlling snails if you care for Indian runner ducks in your garden. Even a small flock of these flightless water birds keeps the entire area free of the voracious slugs. When the lively ducks waddle through the garden, they don't shy away from insects, beetles and other pests.
So that the powerful troops feel comfortable in your garden, there should be water sources nearby, such as a pond or stream. A fence that is at least head-high keeps foxes, martens or other deadly enemies away. In addition, a small stable offers the busy beneficial insects a sheltered place to retreat from rain, cold and snow.
Tip
If ticks invade the garden, they don't target the plants, but rather the gardener. Since combating bloodsuckers is very difficult, preventive measures are very important as part of care work. Always keep the lawn short, cut back trees regularly and avoid dark, damp niches. Things finally become uncomfortable for the beasts if you remove abandoned nests as potential winter quarters in autumn and clean nest boxes.
