Homemade All Natural Garden Pest Repellant (Tam's Aphid Be Gone)

So it is Mid Term Election day here in the USA. Perfect day to talk about pest control, I think. I know it's Fall and chilly in most of the Northern hemisphere, but it's not here. I am writing this, sitting outside in 80 degree shade. (Global what??) Anyway. My garden is growing at a Spring like rate since it's so warm. I am on my FOURTH planting of greens. Normally, my Fall-Winter gardens are free of most pests and I worry more about cold than hot. I have a bumper crop of collards, lettuce, bok choy, and cabbage right now... and it's warm. One word. APHIDS. Again. This time without their farmer ants. Aphids are feasting on my cole crops. Not happening. We have the garden factored into our food budget and our holiday menus. We need this garden to eat well through the Winter. This is not a hobby garden...it's about actual nutritional health and survival for us.

Since greens don't require pollinators, I went out and washed the aphids off in soapy water. They came back. I soaped again. There they were again. My inner herbalist/ mad scientist thought long and hard and I came up with what has proven to be the only non-toxic, organic thing I have yet to find that makes them really go away. I remembered my Gram's neighbor spraying her cole garden in garlic and cayenne tea to repel pests, and then the memory of dipping aphid infested leaves in peppermint tea came back to me. Ah- ha!

1 cup of dried mint or lots of mint tea bags
1 head of garlic, peeled and pureed
1/4 cup of hot sauce
3 tablespoons of veg oil
1/2 gallon of water


Heat the water to boil. Add the herb or tea bags, turn the pot off and cover. Let seep for 1/2 an hour. Add the pureed garlic and mix well to combine. Pour through a mesh strainer, then add the  veg oil and hot sauce, and pour into a spray bottle. Shake well before using.


Spray the heck out of your cole crops, being sure to coat the under side of leaves and any tender young bunching leaves in the center of the plant. Remove any living aphids or eggs with your fingernail or a Q-Tip for the bug phobic. Spray daily until all signs of aphids are gone, then spray once a week. If the spray wilts your leaves, wash well with water. They'll pop right back up. 


This will burn the heck out of your eyes and sensitive skin...use caution and keep away from kiddos and pets! The dog won't go near the garden now, which is nice. He's been eating all sorts of sprouts and baby peas. Always wash your hands well after handling aphids or the spray. Aphids do like houseplants, so you can use this inside, too.
I sprinkled dried mint between the plants and planted garlic chives between rows, in hope of stopping future infestations. The aphids... are gone and our food garden is safe for now. 


I am buying ladybugs from a local company this Spring, and I have planted several pererinals that attract butterflies. Adding these benifical aphid eaters to my yard and garden makes me feel better than scraping bugs off and killing them. The ladbugs and butterflies will take care of the aphids and other pests as part of their survival and life cycle.

Ant Cows?

I was watering my beloved sweet corn 2 nights ago and saw them...APHIDS in the corn tassels. I sat in the light of the next morning and realized the ants...were farming the aphids on the corn I am farming. They were bringing aphids up the stalk of corn, not down. I'm in a quandary. Soap them off and possibly loose my pollinated corn, or let them eat the corn anyway and pray they don't spread. Living here, I have the ability to plant a second corn crop this month, so I have decided to coat the stalks of the corn not effected with non toxic Tangle-Foot. It's a sticky beeswax and plant resin compound that the ants will get stuck on as they are carrying the aphid crop up the stalk. They milk them. I swear to you. The aphids produce a 'honeydew substance', that the ants collect daily.

Here, read this from Wikipedia:
 Some species of ants "farm" aphids, protecting them on the plants they eat, eating the honeydew that the aphids release from the terminations of their alimentary canals. This is a "mutualistic relationship".
These "dairying ants" "milk" the aphids by stroking them with their antennae. Therefore, sometimes aphids are called "ant cows".
Some farming ant species gather and store the aphid eggs in their nests over the winter. In the spring, the ants carry the newly-hatched aphids back to the plants. Some species of dairying ants (such as the European yellow meadow ant, (Lasius flavus) manage large "herds" of aphids that feed on roots of plants in the ant colony. Queens that are leaving to start a new colony take an aphid egg to found a new herd of underground aphids in the new colony. These farming ants protect the aphids by fighting off aphid predators.


I love that corn like child, but the mad scientist in me thinks this too cool and I kind of have a weirdly driven need to watch this process in all the wonder it deserves. Ant cows. Wow.