Collection: Non-Toxic Garden Pest Control

Non-toxic pest control encompasses a variety of methods used for managing pests around your yard and garden, omitting the use of harmful chemical pesticides. Most of it works outdoors: lawn, beds, borders, patio and standing water. This includes ways of managing outdoor pests such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, Japanese beetles and aphids. Indoor pests are a different job — that range is in non-toxic pest control for the home.

Natural ingredients, and what the labels claim

Non-toxic and chemical-free pest control products are formulated using only natural ingredients. They can include essential oils, diatomaceous earth, and soil bacteria: Mosquito Dunks work on BTI, Milky Spore on Bacillus popillae, Arber's concentrates on beneficial bacteria. Natural pest control is crucial for protecting our wildlife and beloved pets. Arber's concentrates are OMRI listed and safe around kids, pets and bees, and Mosquito Dunks are registered by the EPA for use in animal watering troughs and fish habitats.

Choosing natural, non-toxic pest control

When choosing your natural pest control products, it is important to establish which species you wish to reduce and where they tend to linger. It is vital to ensure healthy soil by composting, mulching, and natural fertilization. Wool garden felt does the mulching here: 3mm mats in 3' x 6' and 1' x 10' rolls, laid over rows or raised beds instead of plastic landscape fabric.

Then check coverage, because it decides how many you need. One Mosquito Dunk treats 100 square feet of standing water. Milky Spore covers 2,500 square feet of lawn in the 10 oz box, 10,000 in the 40 oz.

Types of non-toxic pest control

There are numerous organic pest control methods at your disposal to prevent pests settling in your garden. One is to bring in the predators that do it for you. A single brown bat can eat over 600 mosquitoes in one hour, along with moths, flies and gnats. The houses run from Coveside's 30-bat BATchelor Pad in 1" white pine to Gold Crest's pre-assembled five-chamber house in cedar and exterior plywood, which holds up to 600. Coveside also makes an owl house for saw-whets and screech owls.

Traps are an easy and effective non-toxic way to control pests. The Flies Be Gone barrel trap hangs outdoors and is reusable. Diatomaceous earth can be used as a non-harmful barrier around plants to simply repel insects. St. Gabriel's Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth covers 1,800 square feet to the 4 lb bag and is safe to sprinkle around a vegetable patch. The miniscule particles will dehydrate and obliterate fleas, ants, ticks, earwigs, slugs and snails. Spread it, or Milky Spore, with the 32" Lawn & Garden Dispenser Tube.

For a spray, Wondercide's ready-to-use bottle screws onto a garden hose, needs no mixing, covers 5,000 square feet and is safe for bees and butterflies. Arber's four 16 oz concentrates come with a hose-end sprayer, and each insecticide treats 12,000 square feet: grass, trees and shrubs for grubs, cutworms and chinch bugs; vegetable gardens for aphids, mites and thrips; roses and flowering plants; and a fungicide for brown patch, dollar spot, rust and anthracnose.

Chemical-free, season after season

On a lawn the long game is Milky Spore: developed by the USDA, host-specific to Japanese beetles, eaten by grubs feeding on grass roots, killing them within 7 to 21 days and releasing millions more spores as they break down. It is not registered for sale in Washington or Oregon. Using natural pest control deterrents means you can discourage unwanted infestations, while respecting the health of other wildlife.