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Bugs eating your broccoli?
Caterpillars devouring your cabbages?
It's frustrating to see your lovely garden under attack by
pests. We can help you with pest and
disease control products and advice.
Did you know that many conventional pesticides are systemic,
which means to be effective and long lasting they are absorbed
into the tissue of the plant, so that when the insect chews on
it, the pest eats the poison and dies. Hmmn. So
what happens when YOU pick and eat your vegetables?
At The Green Life Soil Co we only stock pest control
products that are either Certified Organic or allowable for use
under Organic standards. Why use harmful chemicals when
often there are simple alternatives?
We believe that most pest and disease problems in gardens
stem from other factors, like seasonal conditions, humidity,
etc. By improving or changing conditions within your
garden, often pest numbers will reduce to tolerable levels, or
the pests may even disappear completely if the conditions under
which they flourish are modified.
Remember that pesticides are mostly non-specific; and that
beneficial insects can also be harmed by broad spectrum
applications.
Assuming pests numbers are problematic, some treatments can
be easily and cheaply made at home (see our pest
& disease recipe fact sheet for more
information).
Correct ID of the pest or disease is important too.
(See the link to the Ag Dept of WA on our 'Links &
Resources' page.) We can help you with ready made
treatments for:-
- Snails & Slugs
- Aphids
- Thrips and Whitefly
- Fruit Fly
- Caterpillars
- Scale and Mealy Bug
- Black Spot, Mildew (and other fungal problems)
- Other insect pests
Multiguard Slug & Snail
Pellets
These are iron based, and are the safest option for
pets, children and wildlife. Slugs and snails eat the
pellets because they like the taste, but rather than die on the
spot, they lose their appetite and head for their hiding places
where they die quickly. Multiguard contains no dangerous
poisons. As the Multiguard pellets break down, they are
taken up by plants as a beneficial source of iron.
Yellow Sticky Traps
Great for greenhouses, where whitefly or thrip are causing
problems. These are a physical trap; attracting the
insects to the yellow card, coated with a strong
adhesive. The insects cannot free themselves, and
die.
Eco-oil
A registered organic miticide/insecticide spray made
from Australian-grown canola oil, enhanced with a blend of tea
tree and eucalyptus oils. Eco-oil controls a broad range of
insects, including scale, mites, aphids, whitefly and
leafminer. There is less risk of burning foliage with eco-oil
than with white oil and other mineral oil sprays, and there is
no withholding period for edible crops. Eco-oil is an excellent
wetter/sticker for all foliar garden sprays when used at half
the dose rate.
Available in a 500ml
concentrate pack.
Eco-neem
A naturally-derived
botanical insecticide that contains a highly stable and
effective extract from the neem tree. Eco-neem controls
caterpillars, lace bugs, aphids, whiteflies, beetles,
mealybugs, scale, mites, fungus gnats, grasshoppers, leafminers
and thrips.
Available in a 100mL concentrate pack.
Eco-naturalure Fruit Fly Bait Concentrate
A registered organic fruit
fly control bait spray for both male and female flies. It
combines specific food-based attractants, which target only
fruit flies, and a bacteria-derived insecticide called
spinosad. Application is easy – it’s a spot spray, not
whole-tree application. No withholding period. Controls both
Queensland and Mediterranean fruit flies.
Available in a 150ml concentrate pack.
Cera Trap
Fruit Fly Trapping System
The bait included in the trap is a
protein based liquid attractive to both male and female fruit
flies. Pesticide free, the flies drown in the liquid as
they are unable to find an exit. The manufacturers
recommend one trap per tree, which should last for 3 - 4
months.
600mL pack.
Dipel
Dipel is a Yates product which
contains Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring
bacteria. It controls many leaf-eating caterpillars of moths
and butterflies, but does not harm other insects, birds, fish
or warm blooded animals. Dipel does not kill caterpillars
immediately. Once a caterpillar eats treated foliage, it stops
eating, but may take up to 3-4 days to die and drop from the
leaf.
Available in a 50gm pack.
Diatomaceous Earth
(DE)
Note: The Australian Government Australian
Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority have advised that
DE is not registered under the Agricultural and Veterinary
Chemicals Code Act 1994 ('Agvet Code') and it is an offence to
represent it as a product which: "is represented
as a means of destroying, stupefying, repelling, inhibiting the
feeding of, or preventing infestation by or attacks of, any
pest in relation to a plant, a place or thing and/or modifying
the physiology of a plant or pest so as to alter its natural
development, productivity, quality or reproductive
capacity."
If you are looking at information about how people around
the world have used DE, please Google it or consult organic
gardening books, websites or forums.
We ARE allowed to tell you insects don't seem to like DE
much.
Information about DE is now located on our Minerals and
Fertilisers page.
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