Photo courtesy of BugMan50 at Flickr.com.

If you’re fighting a rearguard action against aggressive insects in your garden, don’t despair and reach for those nasty pesticides. There are effective tactics that can target and kill specific insect species.

Here are three examples. First: if bark beetles are bugging your trees, dose them with a spray of white vinegar. It not only attracts them, it quickly kills them. The geranium species Geranium maculatum will do the same with Japanese beetles, so it’s a good idea to plant it as a companion species for your other flowers and veggies.

Finally, dusting your plants with dry wheat bran or corn meal can control Colorado potato beetles. The bugs will ingest it along with the leaves. When they drink, the moisture will cause the bran or corn meal to expand, killing the beetles.

For more advice and guidance on controlling your garden insects, check out this book.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 5:05 am and is filed under Gardening Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.