Introduction
Organic pesticides are those made from naturally occurring organic chemicals.
Organic pesticides can allow farmers to control pest and diseases in plants without resorting to conventional pesticides. This does not necessarily mean that they are safer to use. Organic presticides can be as damaging to the environment as conventional ones. (For further discussion see http://www.bna.com/webwatch/organicpesticide.htm)
This page focuses on providing recipes to help make organic pesticides from locally available materials. This can be of great benefit to farmers in the developing world, where it is often probitively expensive to buy commercial pesticides
Know your problem!
The key to organic pest control using pesticides is to know exactly what the problem in that is causing problems. If pests or fungii can be indentified this can help choose the best pesticide to use.
Organic Pesticide List
Note: Where a plant is named as an potential pesticide, this plant can often be intercropped to have the same pesticidal effect
| Organic Pesticide | Pests & Diseases to use against | Notes | Recipe links | Academic articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | Mealy bugs | [1] | - | |
| Animal Urine | Aphids, cattepillars | Has dual use as it acts both a fertiliser and a pesticide | recipes | |
| Ash | Common insects | recipes | ||
| Baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate | fungus', powdery mildew, rose black spot, anthracnose, downy mildew, brown patch | [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] | [7] | |
| Black Jack seeds | Aphids, cattepillars | recipes | ||
| Cornmeal, Cornmeal solutions | yellow leaves on photinia, brown patch, algae in seedlings, leaf spots on roses | [8] | ||
| Dead bug spray | Any insects | [9] | - | |
| Detergent, detergent solutions | Aphids | [10] | ||
| Garlic, garlic solutions | Aphids, mosquitoes, onion flies, rabbits (on potatoes), other chewing and sucking insects | Garlic can also be intercropped to repel similar insects | [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] | - |
| Melia Leaves | Aphids, cattepillars | recipes | ||
| Milk, milk solutions | Mildew, blight | [16] recipes | [17] (abstract) [18] - Crop Science (Vol. 18, 1999, pp. 489-92) | |
| Neem Leaves | Aphids, Bull worm, cattepillars | recipes | ||
| Pepper, Hot pepper, Chillis | cats, dogs, insects, bugs, snails and snails (on leaves) | often used in combination with spearmint to improve effectiveness | [19] [20] | - |
| Soap, soapsuds, soap solutions | Slugs, aphids | Solutions can be sprayed on any plant leaves or used near affected plants | [22] [23] | - |
| Spearmint | insects, bugs, chewing insects | often used in combination with hot pepper to improve effectiveness | [24] [25] | - |
| Tobacco, Nicotine, Nicotine Solutions | Caterpillars, aphids, many types of worms, fungus gnats, symphylids, centipedes, root lice, other underground pests | Solutions can be sprayed on any plant leaves or used near affected plants | [26] [27] | - |
| Tomato leaves | Insect repellent, blight | [28] recipes | ||
| 'Traditional' appropriate pesticides | Common insects | These include battery acid, cigarette butts in water, soapy water |