Homesteader Depot

Tag: garden pests

  • Black Fly Control

    Black Fly Control

    If you have been growing fava beans then it’s likely that you have run into black flies.  Black flies love to damage fava bean plants and ruin your production.  But there are a few simple ways to fight back if you notice an infection and even measures you can take to prevent your plants from ever getting infected while increasing the food you get out of your plants.  Here’s how.

     

    • Check your plants regularly. Black flies will only ever affect the tops of the plants, so keep a close eye on the tops especially.
    • If you see black flies on the plants spray them with soapy water.
    • If the infestation is serious, cut the tops after spraying them with soapy water. Put them in a plastic bag, tie the top to seal it and throw it away. Do not compost any plant material that is infected with anything as it could spread to other plants near your pile, and in the case of some diseases, even survive in the compost pile and infect the plants that the compost is later applied to.
    • To help prevent black flies from becoming a problem keep your plants from getting too high. Since the flies only like the tops of the plants, cut off the tender tops about 3 to 4 inches below the tip.  When they regrow, cut them again.
    • If you beat the black flies to the tips of your plants there is no reason to throw them out, or even compost them. The tops can be steamed or lightly boiled and eaten.  With a little butter and salt they can taste pretty good.

    Pest control doesn’t have to mean harsh chemicals, it doesn’t have to mean hard work, it doesn’t even have to mean that you lose out on production.  In this case you can actually eat more from your plants by preventing black flies.

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  • How to Keep Rabbits Away from the Garden

    How to Keep Rabbits Away from the Garden

    Sure, they might look cute, but wild rabbits can be a lot more trouble than they’re worth when it comes to the safety of your garden. If you and your family depend on the garden for your food, you can have rabbits coming in and devouring everything in sight. If you are proactive when you first see a rabbit in the garden, it could save your crops. Fortunately, there are some simple things you can do to keep the rabbits away from your veggies.

    While some rabbits are overly picky, there are certain types of vegetables that they tend to avoid. By planting some vegetables that they don’t like, you have a lower risk of rabbit problems. Some of the plants that they don’t tend to eat much of include cucumbers, corn, squash, tomatoes, and peppers.

    Of course, you should be able to plant the crops that you want. Therefore, you will want to look at some of the other options for keeping the rabbits out of the garden. One of the best, which will work for rabbits as well as some other creatures, is to build a fence. Having a wire fence – chicken wire work well – around the garden can help to keep the rabbits out. However, you want to make sure that you bury the bottom of the fence down about six inches into the dirt. This will discourage the rabbits from trying to dig their way under.

    Another good trick is to spray urine or blood from coyotes or foxes around the area. You can find it online and in many hunting and outdoor stores. You can also collect it yourself if you trap or hunt coyotes or foxes.

    You can also put some cages around the plants help keep them safe. Additionally, you could put some cage traps around the garden to capture the rabbits and then relocate them. Of course, you can always put out other types of traps rabbits and then utilize their meat and fur.

    With these simple tips, you should be able to keep the rabbits out of garden.

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  • How to Make a Fly Trap

    How to Make a Fly Trap

    Not only are flies annoying, but they are disgusting too.  They can spread diseases just by landing on your food, without your even noticing.  They can ruin the time you spend outside trying to relax, and they can sneak inside every time you open the door.  And while raising animals and having a compost pile may increase their numbers, even if you have no animals and a near sterile yard, they can fly on over from your neighbor’s.  What can you do about it?  Trap them with a few things you probably already have laying around the house, and here’s how.

    How to make a fly trap:

    1. First gather up some materials, a symmetrical smooth plastic bottle (it can’t be a milk bottle or any type of bottle with a handle or ridges), some string or wire, some sugar, and some yeast or bread crumbs.
    2. Next, cut the bottle in two about 1/3 of the way down.  Remove the lid.
    3. Turn the upper portion of the bottle upside down and slide it into the lower portion until the two cut ends meet.
    4. This should leave the bottle top a few inches from the bottle of the bottle.
    5. Now, make a couple of holes through both pieces on opposite sides of the bottle just below the cut line that is now the top.  Thread the string or wire through the holes in whatever manner you like so as to allow you to use the string to hang the bottle by later.
    6. Finally, put a few spoons full of sugar and yeast or bread crumbs into the bottle, then carefully add water so that it comes about ½ inches or so from touching the upside down bottle top.  The trap will not work if the water line is too far below, or if it touches the bottle top.

    The trap functions by attracting the flies in, they have to land on the narrow opening and crawl in, but they will tend want to fly away instead of crawl around searching for an exit.  This will have them either up in the corners where they can’t get out, or drowning in the yeasty water that attracted them.

    Once your bottle trap is ready, hang it up in a tree or on a fence near your place.  Since it’s pretty easy and inexpensive to make, you might want to put one at each corner of your yard and one near your garbage can.  If you don’t see flies in your trap, adjust the water line or change your bait.  When the trap is full of dead flies you can wash it out if you like, but since it’s made out of trash anyway you can just throw it away and save yourself from a nasty task. Happy fly hunting!

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