Green Lacewing  How To Control Pests With Beneficial Insects Naturally Chrysoperla rufilabris or green lacewing is a beneficial insect widely used by gardeners to control the various insect pests in their garden. The body of the insect is light green in colour and eyes are golden in colour. The two pairs of wings of the insect are translucent that display some iridescence. Though the adult insects feed on sweet nectar and pollen of flowers mainly, the larvae of the insect feeds on soft-bodied insects and its eggs. These larvae are called aphid lions and consume about 200 aphids within a period of one week. The larvae look like miniature alligators and have flat bodies with pointed tail and six legs. They are very effective in controlling pests like spider mites, aphids, thrips, mealy bugs, leaf hoppers, white fly as well as scale insects. Green Lacewing Life Cycle The adult lacewing lays about 200 eggs on the foliage and the eggs are attached to the underside of leaves through a slender egg stalk. After hatching, the larvae move to the leaves through
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Neem Oil Foliar Spray – What is Neem Oil? Neem is very popular medicinal tree in India, especially in South India. The oil that is made out of pressing the seeds and the fruits of the neem plant is called the neem oil. It is used as a natural insect repellant as well as for several other medicinal uses. The oil comes in golden yellow, dark brown, reddish brown or yellowish brown colour and has a very strong odour. It is very bitter in taste as it mainly contains triglycerides that have plenty of triterpenoid properties. The most common methods of getting neem oil are: cold pressing and solvent extraction. How Does Neem Oil Kill Pests in the Garden? It is always a big challenge to find nontoxic, safe and natural pesticides for the plants in your garden. One of the most popular oils that you can use to control the pests in your garden is neem oil. It can be extracted from many parts of the neem tree, but the oil extracted from the seeds of the neem tree
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Attracting Ladybugs to Your Garden If you are having trouble with aphids in your garden, it is time that you attracted the most popular aphid killers to your garden. Well, ladybugs are your best friends that will help in getting rid of the aphids in your garden. An adult ladybug can easily account for 5000 aphids in its life span of one year. They are hungry feeders and they love to binge on aphids. The ladybugs sometimes called ladybirds in Australia have the capacity of eating as many as 50 to 60 aphids in a single day. It is not just the aphids they eat. They also enjoy eating a wide variety of insects and larvae that include: mites, scales, mealy bugs and leaf hoppers. They are a very beneficial group of insects and are also known as lady beetles. Attracting Ladybugs to Your Garden with Plants Ladybugs do not pose any threat to your garden plants and are only beneficial to them. Ladybugs love to eat pollen and this means you can grow numerous plants in your garden to
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Horticultural Oil Control Pests and Diseases One of the best and the easiest ways to handle the troublesome insect pests in your garden is by making use of oil based pesticides. They are very effective in treating some of the plant diseases and are also eco-friendly. The most popular among the oil based pesticides is the horticultural oils. It is very effective in treating sap chewing and sucking pests. The modern day horticultural oils are based on petroleum oils and are in the form of a thinner. The traditional type of horticultural oil is based on vegetable oil and is known as the white oil. This is the organic horticultural oil. How does horticultural oil work? The horticultural oils will kill the pests and other insects on the plant by suffocating them. The oil will not allow the insects to breathe as it blocks the spiracles and therefore they die of suffocation. The oil will cause a disturbance to the insect egg metabolism. They will also hinder the ability of the insects to feed. This way the insects will be
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Grey Water – Using Grey Water In The Garden Grey water is in between fresh clear water which is clean and black water which is extremely dirty. In residential areas, grey water comes from such things as washing dishes, laundry and bathing. It mostly comprises of high concentration of fats, grease, oils and also cleaning liquids. Normally, an average home can reduce their water consumption by around 30% by re-using grey water on their garden. However, the figures may vary from household to household regarding on the type or size of the house and the wastage of water. A regular household on a suburban block is estimated to use about 20,000 gallons of water on gardens and lawns. This means that the house could save around 50,000 litres of drinking water per year. If you live in the country you will know and learn that grey water can be reused safely in the garden. Did you realise from time to time grey water is released into the rivers? And people swim there! People that live in the country cannot be fussy
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Kill Weeds Homemade Organic Control Best Homemade Organic Weed killers A part of growing your own garden is learning how to deal with uninvited guest plants called weeds. Using harmful and poisonous chemicals to control weeds in your home garden are becoming a thing of the past. More and more people in Australia are switching to organic gardening traditions to tend to their patches of paradise. As an organic gardener, you want to find environmentally safe ways to control the problem of weeds. Weed seeds below the top inch of soil tend to not get enough sunlight to sprout, but those above the top inch that do sprout deprive the plants you want to grow and flourish in your garden, of much needed water, nutrients, sunlight and growing space. You want to remove them in a way that is the most kind and cooperative, while keeping in mind the beautiful garden of your dreams that you hope to have. Kill Weeds Homemade Organic Control There are several affordable, natural, easy and safe ways to organically tend to weeds in your
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Sustainable Gardening Frogs – Are Frogs Important to the Ecosystem? Sustainable Gardening Frogs The earth’s environment is made of mainly living and non living things which somehow interrelate to work together regardless of their sizes. A good ecosystem is the one with many species variety whereby it has less chances of being extremely damaged by natural disasters like climate changes or even human interaction. So as to help to keep the system healthy, each and every species has a niche in its ecosystem. Studies have been done in order to figure out the specific roles that each and every species plays in this ecosystem. In this case people including children are concerned and being taught in schools in Australia about the lesser amount of frogs in their habitats. I myself remember playing with tadpoles when I was a child and I am now worried about the decline in tadpoles as I do not see them any more on the sides of roads where I use to. There are about over 4,000 recorded species of frogs, whereby 85% that exist are
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Companion Planting Chart – Grouping Plants to Control Pests  Companion planting is important to the sustainable gardener. The use of toxic and dangerous sprays or chemicals to control pests is an absolute taboo. They want to use something that supports the natural ecosystem found within nature. Organic gardeners know that pesticides kiss beneficial soil microbes and cause a deficiency in nutrients to the plants they’re sprayed on. It is essential to note that a healthy garden, or yard even, must have insects to help in pollination and to feed larger animals as part of a natural food chain. Insects also help break down soil nutrients and compost. Aiming to have a pest free garden will not support a healthy ecosystem. However, there is a better, natural way to repel destructive pests. Planting plants that are pest repellents or companion planting can do this. Companion planting is one of the oldest methods used to deter pests in a garden. Companion plants should be placed close together side by side to creating a high density and interlarded with other plants. This creates
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Worm Bin: Instructions How to Set Up New Worm Bin The DIY compost worm bin is a powerful addition to any flower or vegetable garden. To be able to grow healthy plants you need healthy soil one way to do this is to set up a new worm bin so that the worms can breakdown and recycle your food scraps, plant material and organic matter for the earthworms to consume and excrete worm castings back into the soil for food for other micro-organisms and plants to feed on, this is called vermicastings. These worm castings are a very rich natural fertiliser that can be added to your garden at regular intervals. Compost worms for example red wigglers can be also sold as fishing bate. With a little bit of work and a bit more know how you’ll soon be producing your own organic fertiliser to rival that of what comes out of the fields at Australian Vermiculture. Just about anything can be used as a container for vermicomposting to provide your worms with a comfortable home. Try to keep it as natural
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