Hill Gardens of Maine -- Control Insects the Natural Way!

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Question: "Aphids on my azaleas!"
by Fred Davis, MG, Hill Gardens of Maine (To view other articles, click: Archives)

Welcome through Fred's Garden Gate! It's long past time for gardeners all over the world wake up! Questions are pouring into email, and misinformation runs rampant! Consider this horrifying missive—only one of many similar emails—that arrived in my electronic mailbox:

"Subj: Spraying my azaleas. Hi. It has been suggested to me that I spray my azaleas with Isotox because I had aphids last year. I have gotten three different opinions from three different nurseries about when I should spray them. . .they all agreed I should use Isotox. When do you suggest I spray them? I live outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and the azalea is 'Glacier'. . .Kathryn."

Did you catch that? ". . .because I had aphids last year" and ". . .three different nurseries" agreed she should preempt the possibility that her shrub might have a few aphids on it this year, by spraying Isotox. Look at the name: Iso-TOX. The prefix, Iso- indicates "equal to." And, in case you don't recognize the meaning behind "tox" — that's toxic...or "toxin"...skull-and-crossbones poison...potentially life-threatening. Equal in toxicity to what, I wonder?

Being well aware that I'm going to seriously offend large numbers of agricultural/horticultural retailers—possibly wholesalers...maybe even manufacturers—and like as not many in academia—with my response, I fully expect to be labeled by many of them as some sort of a teary-eyed, bleeding-heart, compost-hugging, intractable organic freak. I still want to share it with you.

I am appalled that, in this enlightened age of seemingly apparent concern for "the environment" and our own physical and mental well-being, retailers and "experts" who are supposed to be our guides—our mentors—our counselors, continue to recommend, market and profit from some of the most hazardous chemicals ever compounded for widespread, totally uncontrolled and unsupervised use in the home and garden—where infants, toddlers, adults, seniors and household pets are exposed to them on an intimate—and daily—basis.

Think that's extremist? I suggest you read the cautions, emergency medical instructions and warnings on the labels of such hobby-garden toxic chemicals as Isotox, Orthene, Malathion, Methoxichlor, Dieldrin, Diazinon, Captan and many others readily and openly available in hardwares, farm 'n garden stores, garden centers, "box" stores, nurseries, even salvage-discount marts. A child too young to legally smoke or chew tobacco, drink alcohol, use recreational drugs, vote or defend his or her country can walk into a store and—without restriction or question—purchase a bottle of deadly, highly-concentrated poison for which a licensed pesticide applicator is required by law to wear gloves, respirator and full protective body covering in order to handle, mix and spray! And what makes this scenario even more frightening is that this licensed professional is absolutely forbidden by law from reentering that sprayed area without much of that space-suit-like protective gear. . .for twelve hours—oftentimes more! Some of these common poisonous chemicals forbid reentry for 24-hours. Do those same protective restrictions for the same products apply to homeowners—hobby gardeners? No.

We fret over a bit of lead paint that's buried beneath generations of more safe paint; we agonize about a little second-hand tobacco smoke; we whine and moan about pressure-treated wood; but we stand by quietly while millions of gallons and pounds of some of the most dangerous—potentially deadly—chemicals known to man are sprinkled, sprayed, poured and coated all about our homes, where we work, on and in our food, and where our children play. What is wrong with this picture?!

Are there alternatives to dangerous, highly-toxic pesticides? Of course there are! Mega-marketers and manufacturers of those deadly chemicals listed above—and many more—however, would prefer you buy their highly-profitable and widely-advertised merchandise. They've spent many millions of dollars of profits conditioning the gardening and farming public to the knee-jerk response of heading for one of their bottles, boxes or cans at the first sign of a few insects, tiny weeds, occasional leaf-spots or yellowed foliage. Worse, as in Kathryn's case, recommendations leap backwards to spraying before any sign of insect presence. For aphids? Absurd—and entirely irresponsible!

There really are better ways of dealing with hobby-garden and small farm insects, diseases and weeds. Returning to the aphids mentioned at the beginning of this article, the simplest alternative of all is the knowledge that these tiny insects are very fragile and can be mortally wounded by little more than a stiff spray from a garden hose. True, likely not all will be destroyed by this method but the technique will reduce populations to manageable numbers so that natural predators—present in sufficient numbers in virtually every healthy, pesticide-free natural garden—can feast on and control any survivors.

What do you do when insect populations run completely out of control? Emphasize: completely out of control...beyond what natural predators can handle, or in the absence of natural predators.

Suppose I told you that a product extracted from the flowers of painted daisies would almost immediately terminate virtually every aphid, squash bug, cucumber beetle, mosquito, fly, cabbage worm, looper, earwig and agriculturally-important moth it lands on? It's called Pyrethrin (or sometimes Pyrethrum—the botanical name of the daisy from which it is derived) and just as readily available at nearly all of the retail outlets mentioned earlier.

You won't find warnings to wear respirators and full-body protection (but, as with any foreign substance—natural or artificially produced—it's always wise to wash your hands thoroughly after application, and avoid getting the material into facial openings—the same rules that apply in handling household cleaners, solvents and paints.

There are no twelve-hour reentry restrictions, though wisdom dictates prudence in handling or allowing others to come in contact with sprayed surfaces until they're dry.

And you won't be endangering wildlife, threatening the continued health of your family, neighbors, community or water supply, and there's no indication or evidence that this entirely natural "pesticide" will have any short or long term genetic effect on you.

I certainly don't see anything wrong with that picture!

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