National Wildlife Federation/ San Diego County

Pest Management Recipes

Ant Bait, Dealing with Deer, Rabbits, Etc., Mildew Spray

Mix 1/3 cup granulated sugar with ONE teaspoon (no more!) boric acid powder (available at drug stores). Add 2 cups water. Mix very well. Keep this bait refrigerated. Pour the bait over a small piece of sponge which you have put in either a small glass jar (like a votive candle holder) or a small margarine container with a lid in which you have punched holes. Place outside where you see the ants. It takes about a week to get a high percentage of kill on the ants. Clean and refill jars twice weekly in hot weather, changing the sponge as necessary. The only mistake you can make with this system is not having the sponge inserted correctly into the jar. It needs to be full of bait and stick up slightly above the level of the bait in the jar. This forms a "bridge" that the ants can walk on to get above the bait and really load up with it to take it home to kill everyone!
My dogs ignore this bait but boric acid is toxic to cats, so if you have cats you need to use the margarine tub with a lid on it to keep the cats out of the bait.

Deer: Liquid Fence (available at Hydroscape) OR
Mix 3 eggs in a gallon of warm water and spray on the plants. OR hang bars of fels naptha or lifebuoy soap about every 10 feet around the property line.

Rabbits: Liquid Fence (available at Hydroscape) OR
Soak beef liver in hot hot water for a couple of hours. Discard liver. Spray diluted liver water around the garden. Redo after rain.

Slugs: Sluggo. OR spray with full strength vinegar or ammonia. Place a juicy cantaloupe or grapefruit rind in the garden overnight. In the morning when it is full of slugs, bag and toss it.

Snails: Decollate snails. Reduce overwatering. Copper strips. Wood ashes or crushed egg shells sprinkled around plants.

Roach Bait:
4 Tablespoons boric acid, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon cocoa OR
1 Tablespoon boric acid powder, ½ cup sugar
mix and place in jar lids behind range, refigerator, under sink, where pets can't find them.
Also sprinkle boraxo soap in the bottom of trash barrels

Mice:
2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon powder sugar, 1 tablespoon plaster of paris
mix and set out in jar lids where pets cannot reach it.

Giant whitefly goes away when you make a solution of worm casting tea and spray your plant. Also put worm castings into the soil when planting susceptible plants.

Spider mites are attracted to plants fed with salt fertilizers. Spray with cold coffee to get rid of existing infestations. Keep plants dust free.

Mealybugs: most fun way to kill them is with rubbing alcohol on a Qtip. Dab it on and watch them lose their fuzz.

Aphids: spray with a blast of water, release ladybugs, spray with black tea or coffee. Garlic tea works (3 T. chopped garlic in a blender, sieve and add to 1 gallon water).
Aphids appear on your roses in the spring at the same time that hummingbirds need increased protein in their diets to feed their young!

Miscellaneous creepy crawlies you are SURE are really bad (earwigs on your roses, pillbugs on your parsley, etc.): Diatomaceous Earth (insecticidal grade, NOT swimming pool grade) can be sprinkled around. Sprinkle on ant trails too.

Gophers: only sure cure is a trap but in the city you can discourage them with things stuffed into their tunnels: human hair, dog feces, cat feces, stinky perfume on rag, get creative!

Spiders and wasps: are actually beneficial to your garden. Don't kill them.

Caterpillars and worms eating your plants can be controlled with Bt (Bacillus thurengiensis) sprays available at nurseries, but remember: If there were no caterpillars there would be no butterflies!

SPRAY FOR POWDERY MILDEW, RUST, BLACKSPOT:
First remove the most badly affected leaves. Mix 1 Tablespoon baking soda in 1 gallon of water. Spray all surfaces of leaf. Repeat in 3 days if you still have a problem.


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Weed Killer and Weed Indicators of Soil Condition

WEED INDICATORS OF SOIL CONDITIONS from ORGANIC GARDENING J/A 94

Indicators of wet and poorly drained soil:
Dock, horsetail, foxtail, goldenrod, poison hemlock , sedge, Joe Pye weed, rushes, oxeye daisy, willow. Aerate, drain properly.
Indicators of acid soil:
Dandelions, sorrel, common mullein, stinging nettle, wild mustard, wild pansy. Add compost to buffer.
Indicator of soil depleted in Calcium:
Dandelions therefore leave grass clippings on lawn, use compost, mow taller.
Alkaline soil is indicated by:
Field peppergrass, salad burnet, scarlet pimpernel, campion, stinkweed, nodding thistle. Fix by amending with natural gypsum, sulphur, or compost.
Low fertility in the soil is indicated by:
Daisy, wild carrot, mugwort, common mullein, wild parsnip, wild radish, biennial wormwood. Add organic matter and compost.
High fertility in soil brings:
Chickweed, henbit, pigweed, knapweed, red clover, lamb's quarter, purslane, wild mustards.
Compacted crusty soil brings:
Chicory, bindweed, quackgrass, wild mustard. Aerate, amend with compost and organic materials.


WEED KILLER SPRAY:
white vinegar used full strength in full sun will kill most weeds, especially younger ones. This will even kill bermudagrass in sidewalk cracks if you repeat it several times.

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Plants to Attract Beneficial Insects to Your Garden

(Remember: Use NO pesticides or you will kill the beneficials!)

Baby blue eyes, bishop's weed,
coriander (cilantro),
corn cockle, cosmos, sweet alyssum, tidytips, native buckwheats (eriogonum), fennel, coreopsis, crown pink (lychnis), feverfew, tansy, yarrow, ceanothus, coyote brush, toyon, California fuchsia, myoporum groundcover, coffeeberry, sunflower, catmint, bachelor buttons, chamomile, black eyed susan, dill, cosmos, oleander, basket of gold, ajuga, aster alpinus, English lavender, allium tanguticum, lobelia, astrantia, four wing saltbush, veronica spicata, sedums, linaria, sea lavender

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