What’s Your Go-To Organic Pest Control Method? 🐛✨

[flowerbug]

the solitary type of ground bees the most aggressive are the males and they will attack you repeatedly even if their stings are not as bad as many of the other bees, they make up for that in how persistent they are. once you are scent marked they do keep repeatedly attacking that location. i have had my purple crocs nailed many times by some other bees that were nesting in the shed before i got the walls enclosed. i left (and it was the left one ) it out there until they finally decided it was dead and stopped stinging it.

 

[SPedigrees]

I am terrified of wasps and hornets, and I have a wonderful service that uses cedar and other oils to kill nests and protect against rebuilding, since these pests dislike the smell and feel of these oils. They come once a month in summer and fall months, and this has been wonderfully effective. I can sit out on my front porch without being under attack.

On the other hand, I try to coexist with bees unless they attempt to make my home theirs, but fortunately this only happened once long ago when bumblebees set up housekeeping under my porch.

Also I've luckily never had an underground nest that I know of. Yellowjacket wasps are famous for building subterranean dwellings, and these nasty critters have no sense of humor.

As far as protecting gardens from critter damage, deer netting has helped. Insect pests I just live with, having tried all sorts of remedies that never proved successful.

 

[digitS']

This year we have something chewing on plants, mostly in the bed on the east side of the house and in a short part of the narrow bed in the greenhouse.

Honestly, I think it is 3 things, earwigs, slugs and cabbage caterpillars. The damaged bok choy and mustard greens only matter a little but I would like to see the Tiara cabbage come back from harvesting the head with their little shoots, that are like Brussel sprouts. I have hit them twice this season with Spinosad.

Today, for the first time in 2025, I discovered 2 sparrows in the greenhouse. Hot, sunny weather –– the door is open all day. After their Spring nesting, the sparrows had mostly disappeared until lately. I have noticed this in the past and think that they move about 2 miles downhill from here to be close to the river. Also, there are sparrows in the soopermarket parking lots in good numbers all year. Anyway, in little flocks, they have been back and taking advantage of our little fountain for water.

Sparrows can be a real problem when there are an abundance of them and they decide to eat the lettuce. This year, there hasn't been such large populations as in some years and the lettuce has mostly been left alone. But, those 2 in the greenhouse ... some mustard plants in there have been absolutely shredded. When I was spraying, I noticed a cabbage worm –– the only place where I saw one while spraying. Lots of cabbage butterflies this year, I think that the sparrows have been carrying most of the babies off. I can terrify sparrows when they come into the greenhouse and I do not want them in there in the Spring with tiny plants. I just go in and close the door. The vent has a screen so they cannot escape. I can just walk around and they are in a panic! After a few moments, I open the door & they skedaddle. I didn't do it this time. If they are licking aphids off the peppers, that's good news also. I absolutely know that they do this outdoors. I can't really think how tolerating the sparrows right now would be a mistake.