Garden pests; can't live with them and very hard to get rid of them

Garden pests - they will always be plaguing the gardener. Whether in the middle of summer or indoors in the dead of winter, there is always some little critter ready to munch on, live on, live in or suck dry your plants.

So how do we deal with them?

Unfortunately the most effective solutions tend to be the most toxic to humans as well as for the environment...except for the fifth method outlined below which clearly shows some promise.

We can counterattack in 5 different ways outlined below starting with the most toxic and most effective to the least toxic and least effective:

1. Harsh chemicals are the most effective but do we really want this toxic residue in our nutrient water getting into our plants? Not really...

2. Insecticidal soaps are the next best method for eradicating garden pests and supposedly leave no toxic residue once dry. It kills insects on contact so if you miss some bugs in the initial spraying they will just multiply and reinfest the plant.

3. Dunk and Dip means turning a plant upside down if possible and dunking the entire plant in warm soapy water for a second or two. This may work in some instances but seems to be more of a method to slow the down the infestation process.

4. Manually removing bugs from the plant will only work if they are large like caterpillars but is effective to some degree although very labor intensive.

5. Introducing other bugs to hatch and eat the bad bugs you can actually order the larvae of bugs that dine on aphids or spider mites. This is a great method except that by the time you order the larvae, receive it in the mail, apply it and let them hatch... it may be too late.

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