I just moved my herbs from pots to the ground, and my basil and sage is almost all munched up!! Is there a way I can protect them from the bugs w/o using pesticides? What about cayenne pepper? I think I read somewhere that works. I want to ask before I try it though. Thanks!
Hi there. What I have used for years is to put 1 tsp of dishwashing liquid in a gallonof water and mix it well. Put this in a spray bottle and lightly mist your plants. The bugs hate it. I also use this on my vegetable garden.
i did the cayenne pepper thing on my outdoor potted veggies once, and they all tasted like peppers after that. pretty gross peace ya'll
Do you know what's eating your plants? If it's snails, try spreading roughly ground eggshells, if it's animals, dog fur does wonders.
thers some organic sprays that are effective for something small scale like that, probably your best bet. sometimes half a can of beer works, slugs will be attracted to that first, then they'll drown in the beer. theres other methods but for something small scale the organic spray will be the easist and cheapest. or you can make your own with some doc bronners soap, and pepper.
Thanks, yall. I think it's ants. We haven't gotten any slugs/snails here yet. All the animals munch on the wild strawberries I have all along the house. I'll try the dish soap idea. Thanks!!
i know that ground cinnamon will keep ants out of the house, they react to it like cats do to catnip, but they never come back. try pouring some down thier holes, it might make them march out and relocate.
Ooh, thanks. I have a nasty ant problem right now. I have to clean out my cabinets in my kitchen ALL the time because they love my house. Esp. right after it rains real good.
I've had similar problems and I've learned that if I direct seed basil, sage, and dill that I have fewer problems. It's almost like the ants don't pay attention to plants sprouting, but when the soil is desturbed by transplanting, the ants investigate. I like the suggestions for running off pests instead of killing them. I guess it clicks with my organic farming & Buddist feelings. I'm an organic farmer, mostly growing cooking herbs, tomatoes, peppers, and shiitake mushrooms. My experience has shown the first thing is to find out what's eating your stuff, then be careful. For instance, Black Swallowtail caterpillars eat dill, parsley, fennel, and rue. I'll take some loss on the plants to have these flying flowers. There's an old gardner's saying that I like, "May the bugs in your garden eat only the weeds."
another way to get rid of ants is salt, just sprinkle it where they are at or follow their trail, it worked wonders for me............as for herbs, i too am growing them and some of them are getting munched. i do the doc bronners method, leave it on for a day or 2, spray w/ regular water to rinse shampoo, rinse, repeat
