photo credit: stevendepolo
A couple of years ago, just as I was weeding the garden, I noticed the leaves of the green bean plants had small holes in them. Figuring it was some sort of bug, and hoping they would just go away, I left them be.
Then I started to harvest my beans, and they had holes in them too. And one happened to have a little green worm sticking right out of the center of one of my beans! I didn’t know exactly what they are (still don’t), but I do know I want them off my plants.
I also want to keep chemicals out of my garden so I can keep our produce as healthy as possible.
After some searching, I found a recipe online (pre-Pinterest days) and thought I’d give it a try.
Ingredients
one head of garlic, chopped up (big pieces are fine)
one onion, chopped (again they don’t have to be small pieces)
one tablespoon cayenne pepper
three quarts water
Method of Preparation
1. Put all ingredients into a pot on the stove and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until you have just a quart of liquid left.
2. Strain into a jar or other storage device using cheesecloth or other thin material.
3. To use, take about 1 Tbsp mixture and pour into a spray bottle with about 2 cups of water and a couple drops of a natural liquid soap (helps it stick).
4. Spray the plants including the underside of the leaves. Reapply after a hard rain.
Now, I don’t worry to much about measuring exactly, and I just do a quick spray all over (I’m sure I miss parts of the plant) but this has really helped keep the nasty little worms away from my beans and other plants. I’ve used it every year with great results.
Do you have any tricks to keeping your plants bug free?
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I have heard of ohter natural repellents but not one like this. Thanks for sharing. I will have to remember it.
I have used a similar recipe as well. Words amazingly well! One year I added a raw egg after cooking. That helped deter rabbits as well, but it was challenging to make it a good consistency to work in the spray bottle. Now, we have a fence for our rabbit friends to just look at our garden through.
I never knew about the raw egg and rabbits! Good to know as we have a family of rabbits around! Thanks.
This is great. I always love to learn a new natural tip. Thanks!
I wonder if this would work for Broccoli… I had to pick a bunch of little green worms off of them but I also don’t like to spray chemicals.
Thanks for sharing.
Abbi,
I’ve been using this on my tomatoes too since I saw the most gigantic tomato worm! Seems to be helping so far, I haven’t seen another one.
I wouldn’t want to eat your plants either if I where a bug. Thanks for sharing