PV

I sprayed with an insecticide called arañol, and although it seemed to kill spider mites, the effect on the plants were awful. At the end I had to do a heavy prune inthe affected ones...

The thing is that I didn´t sprayed with this the tomatoes, I used regular dishwashing soap with water on them, and...know what? They are doing just fine, still with some spider mites, but with good health and bearing tomatoes like crazy...I think I can maintain a balance with some bugs on my plants, but not enough to kill them!!

Now I spray all the plants once a week with dishwashing soap, lets see!!

Ines

What's the ratio of soap to water you use when you spray?

I recently purchased some slug/snail pellets but other than that, I've tried to stay away from chemicals.

I have in the past tried chemical pesticide. It didn't work as well, a few days later the aphids were back in force. Actually all it did was smell bad. The garlic mixture on the other hand seems to work very well. (and the garlic smells much nicer)

I recently discovered a horrible spider mite infestation on my brug. That will teach me not to inspect my plants regularly. I sprayed them, pruned back the really damaged and infested parts, and have been spraying regularly. I'm getting some new growth and it looks like the mites are under control. We'll see.

I have to say that in my short 2 years or so of gardening I have found that so far more natural ways of controlling insects seem to be working, and smelling, better than chemicals. Besides, I don't want to kill Spotty (my pet spider that has made his home in my plants)

As for squirrels... there is a squirrel that lives in the tree next to our building. My husband occasionally leaves bread on the table outside, by accident of course after feeding the ducks. (that reminds me, I need to get some feed, the bread really isn't good for them) Anyway, I discovered that the little guy manages to get onto the balcony for a little treat. I actually like the little guy, we even named him. I watched from the living room as he managed to open the bag and get the bread. It was really cool. He comes around whenever there is food. So far he has left my plants alone. He'll crawl around in them and snoop, but never bothers them, except for one time. I had a planter with pitcher plant seeds I was trying to start but they never germinated, and he dug that up. I did catch him peeing one time... ingrate!!

I didn't know that aphids could travel on wind, I guess I never thought about it, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to add a few garlic plants if they help even a little.

My property use to be very heavily infested with snails. Huge snails. They took a toll on some of the plants.

Two years ago here in San Diego, we had fairly frequent and spaced out light showers. I live on a cul-de-sac and own the two empty lots next door. I also live on a hillside. Consequently, I have a lot of succulent groundcover. Everytime it sprinkled, the snails would come out, so I'd just go out and pick 'em and smash them in the middle of the street. I did this for about three months--everytime it rained or sprinkled. The street looked pretty yucky.

Well, that was two years ago and now I ALMOST NEVER see a snail. Once in a blue moon I'll see a small one and I'll pick it, but that's about it.

-Ron-

Soap is a chemical. Then again, plants, food, air and water are all chemicals too.

I do applaud your attempt to use less synthetic chemicals, especially because some pesticides are pretty toxic at really high concentrations.

However, just because it's not synthetic doesn't neccesarily make it "safe". For example, the way that they used to make soap - with lye - involves using harsher chemicals than your average high school student would use in a chemistry class.

Also - soap works really well to disrupt the membranes of cells. In fact, you can use Murphy Oil soap to extract DNA from an onion: http://biotech.biology.arizona.edu/labs/Murphy_onion.html

So don't overspray...