Saturday, January 16, 2010

What is a natural way to control bugs on fruit trees?

I have a lime tree that has some small green colored look like aphids and I am looking for a natural way to control and kill them! I do not want to put unhealthy chemicals on the treethat may possibly end up inside the fruit..What is a natural way to control bugs on fruit trees?
Use ladybugs. They work great and LOVE aphids. I haven't had hardly any problems since I got mine. I bought them from www.insectlore.com for $7.99 which is a good bit cheaper than what you can buy them for in a gardening store for a larger quanity.What is a natural way to control bugs on fruit trees?
Buy a bunch of plastic fruit, all colors. Coat the fruit with petrolium jelly and hang about the tree. When bugs land on it they will stick. Keep underneath the tree clean of any branches and leaves at all times. Don't just run over them with a lawnmower, but get them off your property by burning or garbage. The bugs overwinter in the deadwood.
If they are aphids, you can do something even simpler than using insecticidal soap (soap with some water)! You can blast them off with your hose. Do that enough, and they'll be dislodged. There is a nice website for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which means using means other than pesticides to get rid of pests if you can. The website is from the University of California, Davis IPM. Check it out! They have a lot of stuff for farmers, but some for us too! Here is for pests, and I'll put the general link below. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/menu.inve鈥?/a>
i use lady bugs and praying mantises on my flowers.
I was told many years ago that grandma would put her dishwater on the tomato plants to kill bugs. And when I had my own back yard garden I would us the M-Grow container that hooks up to your water hose and put some dish soap in it when i watered. It seemed to work I never had any bugs on my veggies. debora
Ladybugs! Ladybugs are voracious aphid eaters, you can typically find them at your local nurseries. There are some online sources too. Put the container on the trunk of the tree where the limbs start at sunset. The ladybugs will go up in the tree and start looking for a meal. Problem eradicated, cheap, easy and safe.
A friend of mine uses water with a little bit of dish soap added to spray on her fruit trees and I use it on my veg. garden. It works great. Just add enough soap to the water so that it leaves a soapy film on the tree.
Order lady bugs, they will eat the aphids, but depending on the fruit you have, they may eat the leaves off the trees. You can use lime but it might contaminate your fruit. It works great on tomatoes.
take those cig butts add water soak for a bit (till you get a rich nicotine color). pour into a spray bottle. presto. instant killer.
I have controlled aphids by spraying them with soapy water. They suck on the leaves and the soapy water gives them diarrhea, causing their death. To keep the soapy water on, I've used baby oil in the mixture. I put water in a sprayer, add some dish soap and a bit of baby oil. Mineral oil would also be fine. The mineral oil and dish soap will easily rinse off the fruit. Sorry I can't give you more exact measurements.
get tree frogs and set free in the tree
It depends on what kind of bugs you are dealing with. Most of the best ways I know is to elimate the bugs when they have not yet reached the tree. For japenesse beatles there are smaller bugs known as nemitodes, I may have spelled it wrong, but they feed on the larva, it will also help your grass and other flowers.


a good mulch around the base is also important. It will help build up the trees immune system, and many ';good'; bugs will live in it.


contact your local farm association, they may have tips for your area.

No comments:

Post a Comment