How the Pros Manage Pests

In this week's video we're getting into a general approach professional growers takes to combat and prevent pests.

This video covers: how to deal with garden pests, how to manage squash bugs, vine borers, aphids, bean beetles, thrips, cabbage moths, cabbage worms, hornworms, cucumber beetles, and basically any other common garden pest!

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[notillgrowers]

Apologies for the occasionally wonky sound and blurry clips in this one, y'all! Guess. that's what I get for trying to do videos peak farming season 😂. Hope you enjoy, though!

[chrismain]

I'm looking forward to that 8-hour video on soil ecology. I know I'm not alone in this.

[one_field]

Another tip for integrated pest management: grow luffa, especially wherever ants are farming aphids. Luffa has extra-floral nectaries (EFNs) that feed a different type of ants, ones which are aggressive against the farming ants as well as many moths and beetles. Once they're started, they will protect other plants within about a dozen foot radius of the luffa trellis. Essentially, luffa hires body guards and the body guards decide to patrol the neighborhood.

The luffa is a great young veg that can be used like zucchini, and it's super prolific. Squash bugs aren't interested in it. The flowers make bees and humming birds very happy and you can use the trellis to create shade areas (like for parking your harvest cooler while out in the field, or coiling the hose out of the sun).

We had huge populations of aphid farming ants before growing luffa. The ants that luffa attracted and fed ended up killing the aphids and farmers, and they haven't returned to that section of the garden. It's really cool to watch.

[paulmcwhorter]

We have a rabbit house with 170 rabbits, and the cages are designed where all the urine from the rabbits is automatically collected in a holding tank connected to our irrigation system. When we irrigate, a fertigator mixes the urine with the irrigation water and the dilute urine is sprayed on the crops. It is a gentle, balanced foliar fertilizer, and seems to discourage all manner of pests. When we turn the sprinklers on, you can sometimes see a cloud of bugs escaping the raised beds. We use the urine primarily as a fertilizer, but it seems to handle most pests. If that is not enough, tobacco grows on our compound almost like weeds, and mixing smashed tobacco leaves and some smashed hot peppers with the urine seems to take care of any pests not taken care of by the dilute urine alone. The cages also automatically collect the rabbit poop which is an excellent manure, and can be applied directly to raised beds without composting. We dedicate some fraction of our raised beds to growing timothy hay and alfalfa to feed the rabbits, so we have virtually no input costs in keeping the rabbits, and they provide most of our nutrient and pest controls needs for the compound. This alone justifies the keeping of the rabbit project. Now, this size of rabbit colony produces a great abundance of meat, and the meat is just a free benefit of the nutrient/pest control program. We are now investigating to expand the nutrient program by adding several tilapia tanks. Rather than recirculate and filter the fish water, we will simply use the fish water as a nutrient spray for the farm. Sort of like an open loop aquaponic system. Anyway, I am learning a whole lot from your channel, and we are finally achieving some really amazing results on this farm.

[tomandtinadixon]

One trick we discovered by accident is that planting beans beside your potatoes keeps the Colorado Potato Beetle away. We had initially thought it was the variety of potato in that row, but I was later reading more info on companion planting and West Coast Seeds I believe was the one that had this point listed. I have since planted beans with my potatoes every year and not had a single beetle!

[eleanoraddy]

I'm starting to see insects I've never seen before and so many different wasps it's crazy. Then the different birds turned up! Not just pigeons and seagulls anymore 😂

[natefox]

Your overhead shots of your beds is absolutely stunning. Thank you for inspiration

[alextodd]

I'd love to see a video on how you deal with wild life - deer, squirrels, groundhogs, chipmunks, mice/rats, etc.

[escapetheratrace]

"My enemy is a soft edible plastic called American cheese" that made me laugh way harder than it should of

[deanlain]

Please do the 8hr soil health video. I will watch it twice.

[midwestribeye]

Thank you for showing pictures of different 'good' and 'bad' bugs. I see bugs all the time when i check my plants and I'm usually too afraid to kill them because I don't know what they are.

[jimhuddleston]

We were very successful market gardeners in the Fairbanks, Alaska area; primarily growing many varieties of peppers. Since moving to south-central Missouri a few years ago, we have had a terrible time grappling with all the pests, both insect and fungal, and have yet to produce a serious pepper crop. This season we have begun the shift to no-till. The reasoning being that we really needed to let our new environment help us create the proper balance for our propogated plants to thrive…feed the soil-feed the plants-feed the soil. We know this is a multi-year process to develop our garden, but we are already seeing results. Your channel’s content has been crucial to getting no-till off and running right out of the gate. Thank you so, so much for sharing your experience.

[jvin]

A big strip of buckwheat and tillage radishes (daikon) really brought in the beneficial insects last year so I planted them in a ring around the fields this year. Spiders as big as my thumb, ladybugs galore, praying mantis, and insect eating birds. The insects were super noisy at night! ... A secondary or perhaps primary consideration is Lofthouse's Landrace Gardening: higher brix plants from good genetics for your own microclimate can more easily ward off pests and diseases.

[bruceallen]

Really surprised there was no mention of nematodes! I purchased some at my local Agway and use them to kill the army worms/cutworms and Japanese beetle grubs and it worked extremely well! It did take about two weeks and I will definitely be doing it next spring before planting! Thanks for your channel!

[marvideo]

I would suggest to get a good book about bugs in the garden, to be able properly identify the insects.
I highly recommend the Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw and David Shetlar.
Arbico Organics has a great selection of organic pesticides with adequate documentation.
Do your research first !
Great video ! Thanks for sharing !

[anaconaway]

I found out this year what a hover fly larvae looks like and all my garden groups were convinced they were cut worms until I found a picture while looking for something else. So important to know what all they life stages look like.

[rosehavenfarm]

The shot of the ladybug chowing down on the aphid was fascinating. Thanks for showing that.

[KrazyKajun]

What is your recommendation on a safe way against ants (all types)?

[ljgerken]

Great information! I am using Dr. Bronner's Peppermint castille soap in water, sometimes garlic or alcohol or vinegar in water as a pest spray. I do use neem for leaf miners.

[ruthannecoro]

Love all things nerdy and geeky 😊 I get so much from your videos’s! Thank you for sharing your wisdom, knowledge and experience with us all! I was mostly a perennial flower Gardner. Over the past 4 years, I’ve added about 400sq of raised beds.. a few green stalks and many fabric containers.. I have an abundance bugs and birds. A couple years ago I grew corn, the tassels got absolutely and disgustingly covered in aphids. I left it to them.. as the crop was a fail anyways.. come early fall, I went to collect them for fall decoration and they were filled with ladybugs.. the next spring, I discovered a whole new “wormlike” critter everywhere.. a wee bit of searching and discovered they were ladybug larvae.. I still find dozens of them! They are currently working loving my lettuce filled greenstalk!