Your beautiful balcony garden is threatened by the many types of pests that can invade it.
The most common ones are fungi, virus, caterpillars, slugs, snails, beetles, moths, and mites.
If you notice any of the following signs, your plants have already been attacked.
- Spots (typically white or yellow) on their leaves
- Curling leaves
- Leaves that are gone, eaten, or chewed
- Dead plants or sprouts
If you’re not a fan of using toxic means to get rid of pest, there are several other effective ways to do it.
Here are five of the best pest control tips ever. And you don’t even need to use poison.
Tip #1: Prevent with Other Plants
It’s better to prevent than to cure. You can prevent pests and even add value to your balcony garden.
Lots of plants and herbs repel pests. You can profit from their abilities by planting or sawing these among your plants.
Here’s a list of plants that will help you keep bugs out of your balcony garden in no particular order:
- Lavender
- Thyme
- Parsley
- Dill
- Garlic
- Basil
- Fennel
- Venus Fly Traps
- Lemongrass
- Mint
- Marigold
- Chrysanthemum
- Allium
- Petunia
Plant those herbs and plants between your other plants, and you’re off to a good start.
As an added advantage, you can use the herbs while cooking and enjoy the pretty flowers of the lavender, chrysanthemums, marigolds, alliums, and petunias.
Tip #2: Your Flying Army
Lots of insects dine on other insects that are harmful for your garden.
You’ve probably heard of ladybugs, also known as ladybirds or lady beetles.
You can buy them, or you can attract them to your balcony garden.
Certain plants will attract ladybugs. Among them are:
- Dill
- Marigold
- Parsley
- Fennel
You’ll also find those plants in the list above that helps repel bugs. It’s a double win if you plant these.
Make sure there’s a source of water, a small pit or a bowl of water, nearby so your ladybugs can drink.
It will take a bit of patience to attract the ladybugs, of course, and if you have a pest problem right now, patience may not be your strong suit. Nor will it be in your plants’ best interest.
In that case, you can buy ladybugs in several places. My preferred place is Amazon because I know I can trust that place if something goes wrong.
For very little money, you can buy a sack of 1,500 live ladybugs. They are delivered with several other items, including a sheet with release tips, which will come handy.
I can’t help wondering, though, how they count them…
Tip #3: Water to Your Rescue
Water can be a weapon. There’s a reason why water cannons are often used to spread demonstrations that are illegal or have gone ugly.
You can use that weapon against pests on your plants. Maybe use something milder than a water cannon. But the principle is the same.
If the plants are sturdy, you can spray them with a garden hose. Point directly at the affected areas of the plants and blast away the bugs.
Make sure, though, that you only do this with sturdy plants. Otherwise, you’ll break their stalks or blow off their leaves.
If your plants are too fragile for this cure, there are milder water tips you can use. Like the next one.
Tip #4: Soap Solution
Soap is poison for bugs. You can use that fact to get rid of bugs while still keeping your balcony garden free of toxins.
Just mix 1 tsp mild liquid soap with 1 liter / 34 ounces of water and add few drops of vegetable oil to make the mixture stick to the plants.
Pour it into a spray bottle and spray your plants.
You can buy plastic spray bottles in plant nurseries or online on places like Amazon.
If you prefer not to use soap, you can use garlic puree instead.
Make a puree of gloves of garlic. For 4 ½ liter / 1 gallon of water you need ½ cup of garlic puree.
Mix the garlic puree with the water and add a little at a time to your pray bottle. You can keep the rest of the solution in the fridge for up to a week. Or you can pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it.
If you keep the solution in your freezer, you just need to take up a sufficient number of ice cubes the evening before you plan to spray your plants. Then let them thaw inside your spray bottle overnight.
Tip #5: Remove and Rescue
Most bugs will hide.
They hide from birds or bigger insects who want to eat them.
They hide from us.
And they hide from the sun to find shade and humidity.
Don’t make it easy for them. Remove their hiding places. And where are those places?
If you leave dead leaves on the ground or let weed grow freely, you’re giving bugs lots of options to enjoy their stay on your ground.
An easy solution is therefore to remove weed as it sprouts and collect the few leaves that will drop at a time.
Make it a daily habit to spend a few minutes doing these tasks, and you’ve made life harder for bugs looking for a nice camp to squad.
Enjoy Your Pest-Free Balcony Garden
If you still find stubborn snails or slugs in it, you can easily remove those by hand.
Otherwise, if you’ve added pest repelling plants to your garden, regularly spray with water solutions, and have a healthy community of ladybugs, your garden will keep itself bug and pest free.
If you have vegetables on your balcony, you can enjoy them much more, knowing that they haven’t been in contact with anything poisonous. You just need to rinse them under running water to get rid of soil.
All your plants, flowers, and herbs will look better and be healthier. You’ll get a balcony garden that will please you and which you can be proud of.