I am in agreement with comments above... the single most important thing you can do to reduce pests, in my opinion, is provide healthy soil. It is not often mentioned that most plants _do_ have defenses of their own; what we consider to be "flavors" are often chemical defenses against insects. Provided that the plants are healthy enough for those defenses to be effective, they can often fend for themselves. Cucumber beetles, for example, are attracted to compounds given off by plants under stress. This could be caused by disease, inadequate water, or previous attack by other insects - such as squash bugs. Given a high organic matter, pH-balanced soil with good drainage & adequate water, plants are healthier & less attractive to the beetles. While there may still be some present, their population is considerably smaller. The second thing, as mentioned by Lacyvail, is to create (or at least not discourage) a local ecosystem that encourages beneficial insects. It has often been mentioned by those who purchase those insects, that it's hard to keep them around. To do so, you need to provide a food supply for all points in their life cycle. A wide range of flowers, with long or overlapping blooming periods, is helpful. In addition to perennials _near_ your vegetable garden, plant annuals _in_ the garden. And for the larvae - which represent your true resident population - you might need to learn to tolerate enough of an aphid population to sustain them. If you are accustomed to killing off your aphids early, you might be inadvertently destroying the next generation of ladybugs & lacewings as well. For severe infestations, it might be more effective to go after the ants (which usually spread the aphids) rather than the aphids themselves. There may be some truth to companion planting; I rotate all of my vegetables each year, and have noted some good combinations (such as beans & Swiss chard). There are also some plants that don't play well with others, such as okra. If your garden is high-intensive/high-density, then it is more important to know which plants _do not_ grow well together, than it would be with conventional methods. But I think that for the most part, the issue is not which plants grow with which - it is to grow as wide a range of small plantings as possible, as opposed to large blocks. Large blocks of anything (mono cropping) promote the easy spread of insects or disease, and provide a stronger scent trail for flying insects to follow. When I began saving seeds seriously, it forced me to alter the way that I gardened. If I wanted pure seed, I had to provide space & barriers between different varieties. This meant that my beans & tomatoes, for instance, could no longer be grown together in one place, but were spaced out in different "cells" throughout the garden. In any form of experimentation, there are often unexpected results... and in this case, the fringe-benefit was an enormous reduction in insect damage. This is not to say that I have no damage - only that it has been reduced to the point of being (usually) tolerable. One last note... to encourage greater soil fertility, about 10 years ago I began to leave clover alone when weeding. I would still pull it out if it was directly in a row, but in paths & between rows was OK. After years of this, I now get a good stand of clover in the garden. When rabbits get in (as they always do) they prefer the clover in the paths to almost all of the vegetables. I guess that makes it a "trap crop" for rabbits. ;-) Only when I began to grow soybeans did I find something they like even better (and "like" is an understatement).

hi sharon, thats great to hear your organic efforts are going well. organic gardening isnt new at all in fact it really is the old way of gardening before companies started making all those fancy synthetic treatments and fertilisers available. Your leaf eating worms sound like caterpillars, or loopers, and the black bugs eating the new tips are most likely aphids. If there are only a few caterpillars you can just pick them off. aphids can also be knocked off with a jet spray from the hose (just cradle the area in your other hand while you do so the plant doesnt flail about). mzounubi, you may get different pests where you are but I find with citrus its the aphids, scale and the fruit fly that are just attracted to them like a magnet. to control the scale and aphids you can use an organic pest oil which will suffocate them and with my citrus I do sometimes resort to this because they can be such a problem with citrus trees, to protect mine from fruit fly I use calico bags and once the fruit starts forming I bag the clusters of fruit and it has worked 100% for me at keeping the fruit fly out. For 100 fruiting trees though, it could be a lot of work unless youre really dedicated but there are also fruit fly lures and traps available to hang in trees as an alternative. trance

Organic gardening methods and products run the gamut between the absolutely useless to the amazingly effective. No one opinion here, or other places is enough information. Only research will give you sound advice on what works and what is a waste of time and money. Many products proffered on the "organic gardener" are sold to the uninformed as miracle products that do nothing except part you from your money, and some can do more harm than good. Here is a piece that I wrote for my blog on how I determine whether or not to try something. Howling at the moon while wearing a tutu and other miracle cures. Before I go on, know that I am fully in favor of natural ways to control diseases and insects or to keep plants healthy and I always like to find ways to substitute such methods for conventional chemicals. That said it also annoys me to see the amount of snake oil sold to the uninformed. So how do I determine if a new miracle product is worth a try? First through my experience and education I look for a reasonable explanation of why it might work. Second I look for independent scientific studies and if I can find more than one or two I look for a consensus. Third I look to other trusted people who have tried the method or product. And fourth because I am in business I look at cost benefit analysis to other methods. This may not be important to someone else, and indeed in my own yard is not a big factor. Lets take three scenarios and see how this works for me. 1. A few people have told me that applying Wilt Pruf periodically before rain will help control Black Spot on roses. My experience and education tell me that there is a reason why this could work. Black Spot is a water transmitted disease, thus if a waxy coating is on the leaf when the spore hits it the hyphae might not be able to grow through it. I checked for scientific studies and can find none for or against this claim. I talked to some people I trust and found that they do believe it is a benefit. Wilt Pruf is expensive, but for reasons not relevant to this writing it was worth a try. I have tried it and believe it does what I have been told. When I tell others of this claim I tell them that I believe it works but that my experience is not by any means scientific. By the way applying any product not for the use intended is against the law so apply Wilt Pruf to deter wilting, as I did, and if it happens to control Black spot then all is good. 2. I hear that Corn gluten is a good pre-emergence weed killer. My experience and education tell me that there is no good reason this will work, but also I know nothing of the theory so have no solid reason why it will not. I checked for research and can find one study from the University of Iowa that claims it works. (Hmm interesting, what do they grow in Iowa?) The majority of studies give no credence to this research. The consensus is that though it has some limited control on some weeds it is a poor pre-emergence weed killer. I checked with people who have actually tried it and I gathered from what I heard that the only way this product might work is if they left the unopened bag on the ground, no weeds would grow underneath it. Corn gluten is expensive and I like my wallet full more than I dislike weeds. I have no intention of trying this product unless I hear compelling scientific evidence that I am wrong. 3. I read on the Internet that howling at the moon while wearing a tutu will stop Borers infesting my Pumpkins. Through my education and experience I see no reasonable reason why this would work and can think of many reasons why it won't. I checked for scientific studies and surprisingly enough could find none. I asked people I trusted and they are now inquiring about having me committed. I don't think that tutus are very expensive so cost is not a factor. Once again there is no reason to try this method except that it might annoy my neighbor who is a perpetual pain in the but. So in conclusion do your research before spending your hard earned cash on the newest miracle product. I may have posted this already, but a search did not find it so forgive me if you have seen it already.

Hi--I had an infestation of spider mites on my hollyhocks about 3 weeks ago and tried a water-milk-flour spray on them that seems to have worked. I did sort of just guesstimate the proportions of flour/milk/water, but you should be able to find recipes if you want to Google it. I've shaken the leaves over a white paper plate and found very few mites since then. It won't hurt beneficials unless they get stuck in it when you spray. According to the source I found this recipe in, the flour mixture would suffocate/trap the mites and then flake off--ha! I can't get it off the plants. I've sprayed the crap out of them with water several times and we had a huge rainstorm a few days after I applied it. I will think I've gotten it off, but as soon as the leaves dry, there it is again. (All the spraying might also be getting rid of the mites, of course) It collects in the veins of the leaves. The problem might not be so bad with tomatoes since they have smoother leaves than hollyhocks, though. That said, it doesn't seem to be hurting the plants, it just looks kind of yucky up close. It might work better if you could just confine it to the undersides/stem junction of leaves, I got it everywhere. I haven't tried to wash it off with soap, either. I don't know if you'd want to try this on your garden or not, I only had a problem with two big hollyhocks, not a widespread infestation. I just wanted to keep them from spreading to the tomatoes.