June 20, 2024

How to Get Rid of Earwigs in Your Garden without Harmful Chemicals

June 20, 2024/ Kelly Pemberton

Earwigs, scientifically known as order Dermaptera, are a group of small insects with notable pincers on their abdomen. Males have curved pincers while female earwigs have straight pincers. They are characterized by elongated, flat bodies that vary from 5 to 25 millimeters in length. The most common earwig species is reddish-brown with a pair of conspicuous pinchers, or forceps, at the end of its body. These forceps are used for defense and courtship displays.

May 10, 2023

Environmentally Friendly Ways to Manage Infestations of These 5 Pests in The Home

May 10, 2023/ Kelly Pemberton

Knowing how best to deal with pest infestations without the use of harsh chemicals can be challenging. Pesticides, poisons, and other commercial pest control products can damage the environment and harm wildlife. If you’re dealing with an infestation or hope to prevent one from happening in the first place, there are better ways to handle it than with harsh chemicals.

January 19, 2022

Are GMOs Bad for the Environment?

January 19, 2022/ Kelly Pemberton

While we see a lot of fiery debates about the impacts of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on our health, discussions of the environmental impacts of GMOs are much less common.

May 30, 2021

How to make organic pest control sprays for your garden

May 30, 2021/ Kelly Pemberton

One of the more frustrating aspects of food gardening is having to share your crops with herbivore insects. When insects become a problem in the garden, most growers reach for insecticide-pesticides. Insecticide-pesticides are either synthetic, using human-made substances derived from chemical compounds, or organic, using human-made substances derived from plants with little or no chemical altering involved.

May 28, 2020

Using integrated pest management in your home garden: why it’s more important than ever

May 28, 2020/ Kelly Pemberton

If you’ve ever had a garden, you’ve dealt with pests. That’s an inevitable part of gardening; some seasons you may find that your garden is relatively pest-free, while other seasons herbivore pests will ravage your plants. Most gardeners resign themselves to having to share at least some of their crops with pests, and some even plant things that are specifically meant to attract herbivores so that they’ll spare other parts of the garden Whether it’s insect pest or the animal variety, there are a number of steps you can take to minimize damage to your plants without harming the environment and without resorting to the use of pesticides or other poisons.

April 20, 2020

Stay Healthy at Home with Natural Pesticide Solutions

April 20, 2020/ Kelly Pemberton

Guest post by Jaclyn Crawford

Pesticides are some of the most toxic chemicals to be found around the home — and unfortunately, they are found around the home all too often. Consider the risks. According to the National Cancer Institute, childhood cancer has increased nearly 30 percent since pesticides became commonly used household products. In addition to the cancer link, chemicals found in pesticides have been associated with allergies, birth defects, and even psychological disorders.

March 21, 2019

How to Use Baking Soda as Organic Fungicide for Your Garden

March 21, 2019/ Kelly Pemberton

Guest post by Owais Shah

Updated 09/28/2022

The use of baking soda as a fungicide is not new and has long been utilized by gardeners to protect their plants. Scientifically known as Sodium Bicarbonate, it has been an effective and safe fungicide for the treatment of various fungal diseases such as powdery mildew. It is also effective at eliminating the effects of fungal diseases on common vegetable plants.

September 18, 2018

Effective pest control without the harmful chemicals

September 18, 2018/ Kelly Pemberton

If you have grown plants for food or aesthetics, you have probably experienced the frustration of losing some of your crops to insects and other pests. That is just a part of gardening, although if you grow crops year-round, you’ve probably realized that the upside of winter gardening is that you don’t have to spend much time fighting herbivores, since the cold weather kills them or drives them into a dormant stage. Animals are a different story, however, and you may find that hungry squirrels, deer, raccoons, or other critters are helping themselves to your plants even through the cold season.

To get rid of insect herbivores, many gardeners resort to using insecticide-pesticides. (Pesticides consist of a number of substances, including weed killers like RoundUp, insect-killing chemicals, and molluscucides, or “snail bait.”) In fact, most commercial (and many non-commercial) plants are grown with the aid of pesticides. While this may seem like a solution to the problem of insect herbivores ruining all your hard work, it has many downsides that have implications for your plants’ health, the health of the environment, and your own as well.