North America is home to 47 species of bats. Most are insect-eaters, the exception being three species found in Arizona, California, and Texas that feed on nectar and pollen. Texas holds the title of “battiest” state in the union—32 bat species call the Lone Star State home at various times of the year. According to Bat Conservation International, bats make up about one-fifth of the world’s mammal population.

They are nocturnal, hunting in the dim hours between sunset and sunrise. Contrary to popular perception, bats are not blind. They can see, though most bat species use a form of sonar known as echolocation, a sensory system where they literally hear their way through the night sky, crying out through the darkness in high-pitched (ultrasonic) noises and listening for the echoes to return. The sound waves bounce off insects and solid objects and send back a “picture” of sorts that helps the bat navigate in the dark.

As the primary predators of night-flying insects, bats are critical to reducing insect pest populations, including those pesky mosquitoes that take some of the fun out of being outdoors in the summer, and bring us such mosquito-borne diseases as West Nile and Zika virus, among others. Bats on the homestead, and around the world, are part of a healthy ecosystem and integral to the balance of nature. Without them, we would be overrun with insect pests and forced to use more and stronger pesticides that also kill beneficial insects like bees, ladybugs, and dragonflies.

Brown and Red Bats

The most common of native North American species, the big brown bat, is found in every part of the country except for the southern portions of Florida and Texas. Russet to dark brown in color, this bat averages between four and five inches in length with a wingspan of about 13 inches. Their favorite roosts include attics, barns, bell towers, behind window shutters, and man-made bat houses. These efficient feeders prey on a wide variety of nocturnal insects including June bugs, flies, beetles, moths, and mosquitoes.

Little brown bats look a lot like big browns, but smaller, between three and three and a half inches long. Common throughout most of the country, they can be identified on the wing by their swift, erratic flight. They voraciously consume thousands of insects in one outing, eating as many as 1,000 insects in an hour! Mated females form maternity colonies inside abandoned buildings, hollow trees, rock crevices, or similar areas. Males and unmated females roost under shingles, the eaves of buildings, loose tree bark, and rock outcroppings.

Every summer, a small number of little brown bats take up residence in our porch eaves. Over the last few years, we let our property grow up to create a diversity of food, habitat, and cover to attract bats and other wildlife. Our neighbor’s pond helps to lure bats to the homestead by attracting many of the water-breeding insects on their menu. We embrace these insect-eating machines that spend their nightly forays dining on mosquitoes, stink bugs, moths, beetles, and a host of other insect pests. In fall, when the nights start getting colder and insects get hard to find, our furry visitors fly off to their winter hibernation site to wait for spring.

One of North America’s most colorful bats, the eastern red bat, ranges in color from rusty red to yellow-brown. Long, pointed ears and swift flight at low levels mark this bat as it forages for crickets, flies, beetles, and cicadas. They are known for congregating around corn cribs, where, much to the delight of farmers, they feast on grain moths. Red bats are found in wooded areas east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to as far south as central Florida, roosting in trees where they resemble dead leaves or pine cones.

Free-tailed and Long-nosed Bats

The Mexican free-tailed bat is found at lower elevations throughout California, across southern Nevada, and southern Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Oklahoma. Colonies are also found throughout the southeastern U. S. from Mississippi down through Florida and over to South Carolina. Their colonies can number in the millions. Besides caves, free-tailed bats roost in culverts, old buildings, tunnels, and under bridges. With their long, narrow wings, Mexican free-tailed bats are speedsters in the bat world, designed for fast, long-distance flight. They get their name from their tail, which extends freely beyond the membrane connecting their tail to their hind legs.

When hungry free-tails come out at sundown, humans reap the benefit. In central Texas, for example, 100 million free-tailed bats emerge from Bracken Cave every night to cruise over lawns, gardens, farm fields, and orchards, gobbling up insect pests. According to Fran Hutchins, director of the Bracken Cave Preserve, “As the bats munch their way through nearly 300,000 pounds of bugs each and every night during the growing season, they provide a huge service to U.S. agricultural communities.” And that’s not all. Studies revealed that these free-tailed bats were eating 44 different agricultural pests, 20 of which are migratory, meaning that the bats are having an invisible effect, intercepting vast insect migrations from reaching downwind crop areas, places that may never see bats.

Long-nosed bats are a keystone species in the Sonoran Desert ecosystem of the southwestern U.S. The bat’s head shape and long tongue allow it to delve into flower blossoms and extract both pollen and nectar. As they travel from flower to flower, they transfer pollen that becomes attached to their bodies, which causes the plants to produce fruit. Worldwide, over 500 species of plants rely on bats for pollination, many of which we use for food and medicine. In addition, bees, moths, lizards, and many birds depend on plants pollinated by long-nosed bats, either for food or shelter. If they were to disappear, there would be a serious disruption to the region’s ecosystem.

Special Needs

Because bats have highly-specialized habitat requirements, they do not adjust well to environmental changes. Most produce only one offspring per breeding season, and they often live in large colonies that can be wiped out in a single catastrophe, leaving them extremely vulnerable to extinction. With many species suffering population declines due to loss of roosting habitat, loss of wetlands (which serve as insect-breeding grounds), and pesticide poisoning, homesteaders can do their part to encourage bats by making their landscape more bat-friendly.

Welcoming bats to the homestead will pay dividends in terms of organic pest control. These winged wonders play an important role in nature’s systems of checks and balances. In a healthy, diverse ecosystem, for every insect pest we might find, there is a natural predator. One of these is the silent hunter of the night, the underappreciated bat.

How You Can Help Bats on the Homestead

 As more and more land is gobbled up by development every day, bats are losing suitable habitat. People can help provide these useful creatures with places to live and feed by making a few adaptations to their landscape.

• Bats will live in man-made bat houses if they are placed on a south-facing structure away from natural predators. Bat houses and kits can be purchased online, or you can make your own using plans from Bat Conservation International.
• Bats prefer habitat with a mix of open and wooded areas. Plant a variety of perennials, herbs, and night-blooming flowers like moonflower, yucca, datura, evening primrose, cleome, nicotiana, night-blooming jessamine to lure nocturnal insects.
• Bats are drawn to aquatic areas, where insect populations tend to be greater. Adding a pond or wetland to your landscape will help to ensure lucrative foraging for bats. They will also make use of a birdbath.
• Avoid using pesticides that can harm nontarget organisms such as bats and other wildlife. Some pesticides are more “environmentally friendly” than others, and should be considered for sites where bats are known to forage.

Going Bats! The Benefits of Bat Houses on Your Homestead

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Using Chickens for Pest Control

One of the main ways chickens can help is by controlling pests in your garden. Chickens love to eat bugs and other crawly critters, including many that can damage or destroy your plants. If you are having issues with heavy pest infestation, placing chickens around the perimeter of your garden can help lessen the damage that they can do.

Chickens enjoy a variety of garden pests including slugs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, worms, and beetle larvae. They especially enjoy eating the larvae of mosquitoes, which can help to reduce the mosquito population in your area. Chickens will also eat spiders, ants, and other insects that can damage the young, tender vegetables in your garden. If you have a problem with garden pests, chickens can help take care of that.

One way to utilize chickens is to let them have free range of your garden beds in the fall and/or winter. They do an excellent job of finding larvae and eating any bugs that remain in your garden beds.

For help during your planting season, simply create a run around the perimeter of your garden. While this won’t eradicate your bug population, it will lessen the damage to your vegetables.

Chickens and Composting

Chickens are, hands-down, the best composters. They scratch around in the dirt, turning over the soil and mixing in organic matter from their droppings. This helps create a richer compost that can be used in your in-ground garden or raised beds. In addition, chicken manure is an excellent source of nutrients for your plants. When used as fertilizer, it can help increase the yields of many different types of vegetables.

The easiest way to have your chickens work for you is to physically put them in with your compost. Years ago, we started a pile in our yard and added grass clippings, leaves, vegetable scraps, and old, depleted soil. Instead of turning over these materials ourselves, our chickens scratch and dig through the pile, mixing it in and making a rich, dark, compost.

Chicken Waste as Fertilizer

Another way chickens can help your garden is by providing fertilizer for your plants. Chickens produce nitrogen-rich manure that makes excellent plant food. Their droppings will help to fertilize your soil, making it more diverse as well as productive.

One thing to note is that chicken manure is considered a “hot” compost. To put it simply, chicken waste will burn your plants if it goes directly into your garden.  Chicken waste is naturally high in nitrogen. While this is great if you have nitrogen-deficient soil, it may cause young seedlings to wither and die as it “burns” them.

Chicken compost works best if it is aged for, at minimum, four months. Six is optimal. Adding in wood shavings can help with odor while allowing your compost to decompose more quickly. A popular coop maintenance method, known as the “deep litter method,” is an easy way to ensure that your coop is clean, your chickens are healthy, and that you can use your chicken waste safely.

Using Chickens to Weed the Garden

Another way chickens can help control pests is by eating the weeds that grow in your garden. Chickens will eat just about anything, including the leaves and stems of weeds. This can help keep your garden weed-free, making it easier for you to grow the plants you want.

Chickens particularly enjoy nettles, purslane, clover, plantain, and dandelions.

Since they love to eat, well, pretty much anything, they can help to reduce the amount of weeding that you must do. Since they ingest the plant as well as the seeds, they can help cut down on weeds in seasons to come. In addition, as they scratch around in the dirt, they loosen the soil and make it easier for you to pull up any remaining or stubborn plants that you don’t want in your garden

Do keep in mind that giving chickens free range of your beds is something you want to do before planting your garden. Chickens do not discriminate, and any plant is fair game. Letting your chickens roam your garden in either early spring or late fall is the best way to put them to work.

Chickens and Aerating Soil

If you let your chickens free-range, you may have noticed that the soil in and by their run is often light and fluffy. One last way chickens can be helpful in the garden is by aerating your soil. As they scratch around looking for bugs, they loosen up the compacted dirt and allow air and water to penetrate more easily. This helps improve drainage, mixes various layers of soil, and can help prevent root rot. It also makes it easier for you to till your garden in the spring.

Other Ways Chickens Can Help in Your Garden

While not a traditional tool, eggs are a chicken by-product that is handy to use in your garden. If your soil is deficient in calcium, ground eggshells are a simple amendment that is easy and free to use. To prepare, bake eggshells at approximately 250 degrees for sixty minutes. Baking will dry them out and ensure that they will not grow mold. Additionally, it makes crushing them much more manageable. Add to your soil before planting and use as needed throughout the gardening season.

Chickens in the Garden

Chickens are an asset to your homestead and to your garden. Not only do they provide eggs and meat, but they also pull double-duty by being garden helpers. Chickens love to eat bugs, making them natural pest control. They will also help aerate the soil and distribute nutrients as they scratch around looking for food. In addition, their manure is an excellent source of fertilizer, providing essential nutrients that will help your garden grow. So, if you’re looking for a way to boost your garden’s productivity, consider adding some chickens to the mix. You’ll be glad you did!

The post How Raising Chickens Can Help Your Garden appeared first on Homestead.org.

At any rate, with the winds of seasonal change on the horizon, we don’t necessarily have to hang up our hoes and head inside the house until Spring Break.  Even gardeners in some of the more frigid climates around the country can rely on potatoes, chard, lettuce, and a variety of other cold-weather crops to elongate their growing season.  One of the many perks of putting in a fall garden is the lack of biting insects and invasive pests that we are forced to contend with on a daily basis during the plentiful, warm weeks of summer.  This is a welcome change for many of us who have been slathering on the bug sprays every day and going to bed with topical anti-itch cream every night for several long months now.  Depending upon where you reside in the country, the horseflies and mosquitoes may linger a bit longer, but many of the insects that thrive and live to devour our summer crops have finally begun to dwindle.

But then there is the sustenance-sucking aphid.  Aphids are survivors, and if there is food growing, they can survive pretty much anywhere.  Cool, crisp nights and mornings are no test for these little invasive critters.  Gardeners can find them happily continuing to draw the nutrients out of the leaves, stems and sometimes even the roots of their hopeful harvests right on through the fall season and into the cold months.  As all garden-loving folks are well aware, putting in the time and effort to raise fresh fruits and veggies, only to witness them quickly become devoured by nature’s noshing creatures is quite a disappointment.   

Believe it or not, there are 30 or more different species of aphids that exist on our lush green planet and all of them love to eat!  Their bodies are soft and they can range in color from white and black to yellow, green, and even other variations, including pink and brown.  They are typically wingless, although they have the ability to form wings if they have munched your garden to bits and suddenly find themselves running out of nutrients.  Sprouting wings allows them to easily travel to other plants in the vicinity where they can begin the process of laying eggs and building a new colony.  Again, they are survivors.  They want nothing more than to remain well fed and well bred.  They have mastered their survival technique here at our homestead and, most likely, if you are a gardener, you have seen their impact in your neck of the woods at one time or another as well.  Several generations of aphids can work through our gardens each season, so it’s important to keep an eye out for them at the first sign of distress among our plants and fruit trees.

Aphids lay their eggs in the soil around the plants.  This allows them to hatch in substantial numbers and then immediately begin consuming our homegrown delicacies, ultimately turning our aphid aggravations into full-on infestations.  One of the most unfortunate issues surrounding the aphid’s arrival is that, often times, an infestation can be taking place right under our noses long before we ever notice even the first sign of their presence.  Many times, they are utilizing our soil as a nursery and our garden goods as a smorgasbord for weeks before the crops begin to visibly suffer.  The tricky characteristic about aphids is that they do not chew away at the leaves or the stalks of our plants like other insects.  Because they suck their nutrients, we may not notice the indentations on the backs of the leaves unless we are closely inspecting our plants on a daily basis.

I don’t know about all of you, but I certainly don’t have the time necessary to crawl around and turnover each leaf in my garden.  Even if I did have that sort of time on my hands, I can’t fathom that I would choose to do such a thing.   In most cases, folks realize they have an aphid infestation only after their plants are beginning to falter and become visibly weary.  But even then, thankfully, it’s not entirely too late to salvage your garden.

If you notice that any of your plants seem to be suffering, don’t hesitate to snag your magnifying glass or even just your reading glasses and immediately begin your investigation.  The best way to determine whether or not aphids are the culprit is to look closely at the back of the leaves.  Almost always, you can spot the little critters in a group drawing out the nutrients from the leaves, blossoms, or stems of your plant.

Similar to a herd of cattle, the aphids move and work together.  Even if you don’t physically see the aphids crawling around on your beloved blooms and greens, you can still use your super-sleuth skills to identify whether or not they are currently in existence or have been dining on your garden in recent days.  Whether they have taken up residence on your fruit trees or in your vegetable garden, aphids always leave a tacky, telltale substance behind called “honeydew”.  The sticky deposits leftover from the aphid excretion often attract ants, moths, and other insects.  This is particularly disheartening for the gardener, as this gooey, yummy, enticing treat not only introduces the additional insects to the garden but also the potential for invasive disease.  The arrival of new, hungry bugs and potential disease can obviously cause even more harm to your growing goodness, more work for you, and potentially less harvest for your family.

Fortunately, the honeydew stickiness can be felt with your fingertips.  Gently run your fingers across the leaves and over the stems and stalks of your crops.  Often times, you can feel the gooey substance before you can see the actual aphids.

The honeydew droplets not only attract other insects, but can also lead to a fungus known as “sooty mold” which can grow on the leaves of your plants, causing them to curl, turn yellowish in color and become speckled with black spots.

The sooty mold reduces photosynthesis and greatly increases the risk of your plants susceptibility to disease and wilt.  Granted, the aphids don’t always kill your plants but in large numbers, they can do major damage, stunt the growth of your crops, cause fruits to be malformed, and, ultimately, hinder the overall success of your harvest.

The good news is that once you have completed your garden investigation and you finally confirm that the aphid is indeed the culprit, there’s an abundance of natural options out there to help you eliminate the pests quite quickly.

I highly recommend following the step-by-step homemade soap and pepper spray recipe I’ve shared below.  It is a quick, simple and inexpensive treatment option.  In my experience, it successfully eliminates aphids as well as other pests who like to dine on everything from potato and pepper plants to lettuce and chard.

Aphid Spray Recipe

This recipe can be doubled or tripled, if necessary.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. liquid dish soap (I prefer Dawn liquid detergent, but any type will do)
• ½ red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 qt. water

Directions:

1. Combine cayenne pepper, red onion, garlic and water in medium-sized saucepan.
2. Bring to a simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Use a sieve or colander to strain liquid into a bowl.
4. Allow liquid to cool completely.
5. Once liquid is cool, add dish detergent to concoction and stir or shake well to fully combine all of the ingredients.
6. Use a funnel to pour liquid into spray bottle.
7. Spray generously on plants or fruit trees.

Just to be on the safe side, I highly recommend spraying a small amount onto a few of your plants as a trial run before coating your entire garden.  This is just a precaution to be sure your crops take well to the spray.

You must be consistent and patient.  The process can take several days or maybe even weeks of repeated application to completely rid your garden of the aphids.  Although I have not used this recipe as a soil wash, I have read that this particular concoction can be worked into the soil to eliminate eggs as well.  This can be done quite easily.  Simply rough up the dirt around your plants and spray or pour the soapy-pepper liquid onto the dirt.  Refrain from using generous amounts of the concoction on the soil at one time.  Instead, add a little to the soil each day for a couple weeks or until you no longer notice the presence of aphids in your garden.

Additional Aphid Treatment and Prevention Options

• Spray leaves and plants with cold water or a garden hose daily.
• Dust plants lightly with flour to constipate aphids.
• Wipe off plant leaves individually with soapy, wet washcloths.
• Research and introduce natural predators such as ladybugs, beetles, and parasitic wasps.  All of these can be ordered online and shipped in the mail.
• Research companion plants such as garlic or chives.
• Research how to utilize horticultural oil sprays.
• For fruit trees, spray dormant oil to kill overwintering eggs.
• Research flowering groundcovers to attract natural predators.
• Catnip can be planted around the garden as a natural repellant for aphids.

I have found that so much of our gardening experience is based on trial and error.  We are faced with all sorts of challenges throughout the gardening season.  Outside of building our own personal greenhouse or cold frames, there are few things we can control when it comes to the climate and the weather changes in our geographical locations.  However, we can always invest energy and time and education into improving the quality of our soil, identifying new ways to deter wildlife, and naturally ridding our garden space of unwanted pests and disease.  If you are willing to do the research and put in the time necessary to rid your garden of pests, their impact will be minimal and your harvest will be bountiful.

In my opinion, one of the greatest things about homesteading is that we never stop learning.  There is always a challenge on the horizon and a need to further our education on a plethora of topics.  From one year to the next we are driven to find new ways to grow our gardens, preserve our harvests and protect our progress.  I find great pleasure in this lifestyle and wonderful opportunities to grow as a gardener and to live in harmony with nature.  I hope you do, too.

Happy homesteading!

The post Alleviating Aphid Aggravation appeared first on Homestead.org.

In Athens of old, every part of the body was perfumed with a different scent–mint being specifically designated to the arms.  Greeks and Romans crowned themselves with peppermint at their feasts and adorned their tables with its sprays.  Their cooks flavored both their sauces and their wines with its essence according to the scholar Pliny.  It is believed that the Romans were responsible for introducing this herb to Britain.

Mint is mentioned in the Icelandic Pharmacopoeias of the thirteenth century and as early as the fourteenth century, mint was used for whitening the teeth.  This custom prevails even now in that much of our toothpaste is flavored with mint.

Dr. Westmacott, in 1694, wrote this about mints: “…they have a biting, aromatic bitterish vapor with a strong fragrant smell abounding with a pungent volatile salt and a subtle sulphur which destroys acids, and herein doth lodge the causation of such medicinal virtues in this herb…”

Mentioned in the Bible and by Chaucer and Shakespeare, Chaucer refers to ‘a little path of mints full and fenill greene.’ An herbalist of a later period, Gerard says, “The smelle rejoice the the heart of man…the smell of minte does stir up the minde and the taste to a greedy desire of meate.” Parkinson recommends: “Mintes are sometimes used in baths with Balm and other herbs as a help to comfort and strengthen the nerves and sinews.  It is much used either outwardly applies or inwardly drunk to strengthen and comfort weak stomackes.”

Although we have a native mint growing in the wilds of North America, it occurs most often in watery places.  Most varieties of herb we identify as mints were transported early in our history from Europe.  Mints are undemanding; a moist situation is preferable but once gotten started, will succeed in average soils.  It does best in a partially shaded position.

A perennial which spreads by means of its underground, creeping stems, when dug up, every piece of root showing a joint will produce a new plant.  All plants should be cut to the ground occasionally to encourage fresh new leaves and to discourage leggy stems.  Top dressing the bed with rich compost toward the end of summer is quite beneficial.

Mint is susceptible to a disease called rust: a fungus that develops inside the plant and cannot be eradicated without destroying the plant.  To prevent the spread of this fatal disease, immediately dig up any plants that show signs of rust.  Do not replant mint in this same area.

Mints thrive in moist humus soil in shade but also in sun and there are few pests that bother this herb. They are rapid spreaders and will overrun other plants sharing their space. This can be controlled by planting within an open bottom container that is at least twelve to eighteen inches deep. Prepare for winter by cutting back plants to the ground; spread a layer of compost over the bed to feed the emerging plants next spring.

Mints are divided into three groups: peppermint, pennyroyal, and spearmint. There are several varieties of peppermint (Mentha piperita officinalis) which is sometimes known as Brandy mint. Most commonly available species are English Black, a handsome dark plant with stems and leaves tinged purplish-brown that creep along the ground in early spring and later grows up to three or four feet tall with beautiful dark purplish-blue flowers. White, whose stems are green, has leaves that are more coarsely serrated than the Black variety.

Varieties of Mint

Corn Mint or Field Mint (Mentha arvensis) is the variety from which the Japanese distill their oil for commercial purposes. It is red-stemmed with small leaves. The Japanese have long recognized the value of Menthol, the oil derived from Peppermint and over two hundred years ago would carry it about with them in little silver boxes hanging from their girdles.

A milder peppermint is M. Piperita citrata known variously as Bergamot Mint, Orange Mint or Mint Eau-de-Cologne. Most fragrant of the peppermints and somewhat manageable of all the species, this herb has dark green leaves touched with purple along its edges. Its delicious fragrance is retained when dried, making this mint an excellent addition to potpourris.  Peppermint is the most extensively used of all the mints, both medicinally and commercially. It is not used in cooking because of its strong flavor but when taken as a tea it is highly therapeutic for many ailments.

Spearmint (Mentha spicata) was probably established in American gardens by 1739. Also called garden mint of English mint, this species now grows throughout the temperate regions of the world. The Ancients believed that mint would prevent the coagulation of milk and its acid fermentation. There are many other references to spearmint in old writings such as the biblical payment of tithes which established this herb’s high esteem for many centuries.

The spearmint family has many varieties to choose from. When grown in damp soil, the fragrance intensifies. Many a farmhouse grew a clump beneath the outdoor water spigot. The leaves smell of lemon and mint; when fresh, they taste bitter, sharp and camphor-like. Common spearmint makes a dense patch of vigorous upright stems with slightly crinkled leaves. At full maturity it can reach three feet tall; white, clustered flowers extend along a skinny spike in a spear shape, mainly blooming in late summer to autumn.

Mentha s. crispii is more commonly known as Curly Mint. It has rounder, ruffled leaves on smaller-growing plants. This is also a rampant grower that will achieve two feet in height; give it room to spread. Other cultivars of M. spicata are milder and the leaves are sometimes gray-green, sometimes wooly in texture. M. Suaveolens, otherwise known as Pineapple Mint, is often confused with Wooly Apple Mint because of its slightly fruity scent.

M. Rotundiflolia, with its round, apple-scented leaves was once used in the monasteries of Europe for the treatment of epilepsy. Apple Mint grows in both sun or shade, rich or lean soil. The soft gray-green fuzzy leaves and tall growth make it an attractive ground cover. Its blossoms are gray-whitish, shading to pink or pale purple. The variegated apple mint, which is sometimes confusedly called Pineapple Mint, has creamy-white and soft-green leaves with a slightly fruitier scent. Use these leaves fresh as much of the flavor is lost when dried. Golden Apple Mint or Ginger Mint (M. s. gentilis) has gold-flecked leaves with dark red stems and a spicy scent.

Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) is sought after because it is a strong deterrent to mosquitoes and effectively repels fleas. One of its common names was “flea-away.” A creeper, for most of the year it clings to the ground, every small tentacle forming rootlets and creates a dense aromatic mat of glossy leaves. It makes an excellent groundcover but unfortunately is not winter-hardy. In late summer, it sends up spires of flower stalks bearing lavender-colored blooms growing in whorls up each one-foot stem. Known as “blekon” or “glekon” by the Greeks, they used it as a seasoning for meat. There is also an upright variety sometimes sold as “American Pennyroyal”.

Small and plain-looking, you might overlook Pennyroyal unless you happen to step upon it. Then, wow! It really makes its presence known. This is a good mint for hanging baskets also.

The Wild Mint (Menta aquatica) is the commonest of the mints growing into one to two feet wide masses in wet places. Distinguished by its down foliage and whorls of lilac flowers, the scent is strong and unpleasant having an odor of pennyroyal.

Corsican Mint (M. Requienni) is a tiny-leafed mint with a strong menthol aroma. Its lavender flowers are barely visible and its leaves are so tiny you almost need tweezers to pick them. Minute and mossy, it grows only one inch high and does best in shady, well-drained soil that is shielded from drying winds. Not recommended for spots getting full sun, it does best as a ground-cover for plants in containers or pots.

Uses for Mint

As far as the uses of mint, peppermint is most frequently the mint used medicinally. The chief constituent, Menthol, is used in medicine to relieve the pain of rheumatism, neuralgia, throat affections and toothaches. It acts as a local anesthetic, vascular stimulant, and disinfectant. Peppermint is good for inducing perspiration and is also used for palpitations of the heart. Peppermint helps to relieve congestion in any part of the body, whether it is a headache, a cold, or bronchitis. Only the leaves and tops should be infused as a tea as the stems are bitter tasting.

Spearmint is the mint used for making mint sauce or mint jelly (and Mint Juleps.) Add to cooked peas; new baby potatoes are more digestible with chopped mint added. Mint brings out the flavor of tomatoes and whole mint leaves in green salads are delicious. A strong decoction of Spearmint is said to cure chapped hands. And be sure to follow Adela Simmons advice to: “…hang bunches of mint from open doors or archways…mint tied to screen doors send cool odors throughout the house.”

Fresh tips of most mints can be used in salads; harvesting the tips will encourage bushier growth of your plants. Harvesting of the whole plant should begin just as they break into bloom. Cut the stalk just above the ground and hang upside-down to dry where air circulation is good and there is no direct sunlight. To speed up the drying process (which is usually necessary in my area of high humidity,) stip the leaves from the stems and spread on window screens or in shallow cardboard trays. Place out of direct sunlight. When the leaves are crisp, store in airtight containers, preferably glass. If spearmint is being harvested for medicinal purposes, the shoots should be gathered in August to obtain the highest levels of the volatile oil.

Cross-pollination and self-sowing can give mint enthusiasts some unusual specimens that can prove difficult to label. Madalene Hill in Southern Herb Growing says there are some 600 varieties of this large genus of plants.

Growing Tips for Mint

From creeping root-stocks, mints produce erect, square stems that rise to a height of about two feet, bearing very crinkled, green leaves, with finely toothed edges, the ribs very prominent beneath. Mints grow best in a partially shaded position. It has a hardiness to zone 5. The plant is a perennial and spreads by means of its underground, creeping stems. Propagate by lifting the roots in February or March, divide and replant in a shallow trench, covering with two inches of soil. Cutting may be taken anytime in summer. Choose young shoots. Keep moist until rooted. A liberal top-dressing of aged manure will ensure luxuriant growth.  Mint is susceptible to verticillium wilt, mint rust, and mint anthracnose, especially when grown in soggy soil. The diseased plants must be dug up and burned. There are at least twenty-five main species of mint and hundreds of hybrids and variants.

Did You Know?

• In Mexico and the Southwest, spearmint is known as yerba buena.
• Mints symbolize cheerfulness.
• All the mints yield fragrant oils by distillation.
• Mints were cultivated in the Convent gardens of the ninth century.
• Romans crowned themselves with Peppermint at their feasts and adorned their tables with its sprays.
• The oldest existing Peppermint district is in the neighborhood of Mitcham, in Surrey, where its cultivation from a commercial point of view dates from about 1750.
• Peppermint is a sterile hybrid and does not produce seed.
• Dried mint in drawers may repel moths and cockroaches.

Designing an Herb Garden

The post Worth a Mint appeared first on Homestead.org.

Let’s examine the praying mantis’ weapon arsenal from top to bottom to see all the benefits it can provide.

• On its head are two large dome-shaped eyes that almost cover the entire head region. They are supported by the neck which can swivel the head nearly 360◦. This allows the mantis to see prey approaching from the sides, ahead, and behind all at the same time.
• Their unique, short forearms look as if they are in prayer when, in fact, they are in a tucked position to aid in hiding from prey, as well as protecting their main weapons from damage. The undersides of the forearms have a feathery appearance but don’t be fooled, these sections are lined with sharp spikes to allow the mantis to get a fatal grip on its meal. She uses no venom to kill her prey, instead, the mantis grabs her food lightning fast—faster than the human eye can see. Then, turning it headfirst, the meal is devoured with their powerful jaws. This places hard-shelled beetles on the mantis menu where other predatory insects would be outclassed.
• Their long, thin, stick-like body can turn various colors allowing the hunter to blend completely into the background of its surroundings—a great advantage for a surprise attack. This is a deadly situation for bean beetles and butterflies; they get eaten before they can even lay their eggs.
• Where praying mantises don’t have ears as we would recognize them, they do have a sensory organ in their chest to allow them to hear the echolocation of bats. This allows the mantis to hunt at night with a lesser chance of becoming bat food. Many stem-eating bugs, such as caterpillars, beetles, and especially earwigs and slugs, feed at night and hide during the day. Instead of enjoying a late-night snack, they become the mantis’ snack instead.
• Both males and females have wings, female mantis seldom uses hers except to escape danger. Whereas the male mantis depends on his wings to get him from one female to another for mating. This brings us to an interesting part of the praying mantis life cycle. Mating is risky business in the world of the praying mantis, for the female will not hesitate to turn her mate into a meal after completing the copulation, thereby supplying the female with a burst of protein and amino acids to help her eggs have a higher hatching rate. If he lives through the mating, he flies away to find another female.

A point could be made that praying mantises do not know the difference between good bugs and pests. When praying mantises hatch out of their egg case, they are a tiny army of eating machines that are not dependent on flowers and pollen for their food. The hungry tiny mantises are instead ready to devour grubs, aphids, and egg-laying moths to name just a few. Knowing they will enjoy clearing your plants of the insects such as nasty Japanese beetles is a reason to dance. Especially in your rose gardens.

Watch Out for Native Praying Mantis Imposters

The Chinese praying mantis is an invasive species that was introduced to the United States in 1896 as pest control to eliminate the gypsy moth. Sadly—as is usually the case when outside species are brought into an environment—what sounded like a good idea goes very wrong.

The Chinese praying mantis (Tenodera sinensis)is larger and stronger than the U.S. native Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis Carolina). These differences make competing for food very one-sided. The establishment of the Chinese mantis for over 100 years has allowed it to be on the top of the food chain.  Although there is a small population of true Carolina mantis still in the wild, in many places the native mantis no longer exists.

Homesteaders and gardeners alike will want to familiarize themselves with the differences between the Carolina mantis and the Chinese mantis to ensure they’re not introducing a harmful invasive species to their piece of land.

Introducing Praying Mantis on the Homestead

So how do you introduce praying mantis to your gardens? There are many internet gardening, seed, and supply sites that mail order. This makes ordering praying mantis is simple and affordable.

Since the egg cases come ready to hatch, you need to have a plan already in place before they arrive. Having them hatch inside your house or car is not a good experience.

Here are some hints to make your new recruits happy in their new home:

• The temperatures need to be above freezing both the day and night, so, don’t order your egg cases too early. To find out when your last frost dates are in your area, the Farmer’s Almanac, seed catalog, and USDA weather sites are good places to start.
• Be sure the leaves on the plants you want your praying mantises to hunt on and around are open. They need shelter and concealment from their prey, as well as from predators.
• As the baby mantises shed their exoskeleton and grow to adult size, the number of bugs they eat also increases. The mature strength of the jaws allows them to chomp through hard-shelled beetles that some other beneficial bugs are unable to eat. This doesn’t mean you, the gardener, are at any risk; you, of course, don’t look like food to a praying mantis.

As late autumn comes and the last of the leaves fall to the ground, the praying mantis changes focus from eating to mating. After mating, the female will wrap the moist egg sac on a small branch or twig and these egg cases will harden into a durable material that will protect them through the winter.  Although the lives of the adult mantis are now over, their young will be ready to hatch a new generation again in the next year.

This year, don’t let all your hard work be munched away one bite at a time. Introduce these predators into your gardens and know they are busy devouring problem insects such as leaf-, stem-, and bloom-eating insects. Introducing praying mantis on your homestead will save your gardens while actually helping the environment.

The post The Praying Mantis: A Gardener’s Friend appeared first on Homestead.org.

“During late spring and early summer, when nesting birds need to find a constant supply of high-protein food for their offspring, insects make up the great majority of many bird’s diets,” says Craig Tufts, chief naturalist at the National Wildlife Federation. Tufts’ advice to gardeners is to learn which birds live and nest in your area and lure them in with bird-friendly, native landscaping. Talk with your local agricultural extension office to find out which plants will offer insect- and bird-attracting leaves, berries, seeds, pollen, and nectar that will appeal to and sustain birds and their insect-eating offspring. Adding a water source, brush piles, or shrubs for cover and protection from the weather and predators, nest boxes, and a dead tree or two (they provide nesting areas and harbor insects) will make your property irresistible to backyard birds.

Which backyard birds are the best bug-eaters? The truth is, most birds spend the breeding season combing your yard and garden for cabbage worms, cucumber beetles, whiteflies, aphids, earwigs, grubs, and other delectable insects. Out of necessity, they work morning ‘til night to fill the stomachs of their hungry offspring.

Below is a list of common backyard wild birds and some of the insect pests they eat. Depending on where you live, these bird groups can be your best allies in the fight to control garden pests.

Top Ten Wild Birds for Controlling Insects

Chickadees: All three species (Carolina, mountain, and black-capped) help control aphids, whiteflies, caterpillars, leafhoppers, earwigs, moths, and beetles. In the winter, they search tree crevices for insect eggs and hibernating adults, preventing insect blooms come springtime. Chickadees do not migrate, so they eat insects year-round.

Woodpeckers: Plots with lots of trees will find that woodpeckers are frequent visitors, even if they do tend to nest in more heavily wooded areas. With more than twenty species in the U.S. alone, they make short work of moth larvae, beetles, borers, weevils, caterpillars, and millipedes. The characteristic tap-tap sound of the woodpecker that you hear means it’s busy helping keep insect populations down.

Bluebirds: A striking bird with a sweet song, the bluebird is particularly effective at keeping grasshoppers under control. These prolific insect hunters also feed themselves and their offspring crickets, beetles, snails, sowbugs, larvae, and moths.

Nuthatches: Moving up and down the trees headfirst, nuthatches search for insects, insect eggs, and cocoons hidden in tree bark and branches. They also forage for borers, caterpillars, ants, and earwigs. Non-migrating, they provide efficient pest control during the winter months, seeking out and foraging on hibernating insects and their eggs.

Warblers: These small, colorful birds, known for their sweet songs, are extremely active insectivores, searching brushy areas, orchards, chaparral, parklands, and forest edges for caterpillars, larvae, aphids, leafhoppers, whiteflies, and spiders.

Wrens: Wrens have a great appetite for insects, snails, and slugs. Minimizing insecticides and pesticides in the yard will ensure a healthy, abundant food source for wrens. They will also pluck spiders from webs, and glean ants, gnats, and other insects from foliage and tree bark.

Titmice: These omnivores are common backyard visitors that forage the limbs and trunks of trees, sometimes hanging upside down, for aphids, leafhoppers, stink bugs, snails, treehoppers, caterpillars, and beetles.

Swallows: These insect lovers can consume hundreds of flying insects every day, from moths to mosquitoes, as they swarm across fields and meadows, providing exceptional pest control. They also forage on beetles and grasshoppers.

Cardinals: The official state bird of seven eastern states, cardinals live in a variety of habitats where they help farmers and gardeners by eating plant-harming pests including aphids, grasshoppers, slugs, snails, cotton cutworms, and bollworms. They also eat beetles, leafhoppers, cicadas, moths, and stink bugs.

Grosbeaks: Living mostly in wooded areas, grosbeaks forage in shrubs and trees and on the ground for larvae, caterpillars, beetles, ants, sawflies, moths, and grasshoppers.  They also snag food while hovering, and sometimes fly out to grab insects in midair.

Of course, birds can’t completely rid your yard and garden of insects—and you wouldn’t want them to. Some insects are actually beneficial because they prey on other insects that can do damage to your garden. But attracting bug-loving birds will go a long way toward maintaining a healthy balance of “good” and “bad” insects. So the next time you see or hear a bird in your yard, you’ll know that your garden allies are hard at work, keeping your garden and landscaping healthy and productive.

The post Top Ten Wild Birds for Controlling Insects in the Garden appeared first on Homestead.org.

A pest is any destructive organism such as an insect, animal, or fungus that is considered harmful to plants, livestock, and food. Due to their destructiveness, many people would rather get rid of them in the most efficient way. However, some pests are beneficial to our ecosystem. They act as pollinators, food sources for other animals, decomposers, and soil aerators. We therefore chose to find control methods that were less harmful to these insects and animals as well as to our soil and plants.

The most common pests we encountered in our garden were aphids, whiteflies, caterpillars, weevils, borers, rodents such as mice and rats, birds, mites, and fungal pests such as powdery mildew, and rust. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you the methods we’ve been using to identify, control, and prevent pests in our garden.

Inspecting Your Garden

Identifying pests early ensures they’re dealt with promptly. To do this, inspect your garden regularly, checking for chewed leaves, irregular holes in leaves, and damaged fruits. Look under the leaves to see if there are any webs, which are an indication of spider mites. Tunnels on the stems may mean that you have borers.  If the leaves on your plant are turning yellow or wilting, then you likely have sap-sucking pests such as aphids.

Try and see if you can also physically spot some pests. Look out for small insects or larvae on the leaves. Check around the soil to see if there are any slimy trails from snails and in case you see a sticky substance on your leaves then you have sap-sucking pests such as aphids.

Make sure you also observe the behavior of your plants. Very slow or stunted growth could mean that something is attacking your plants. Premature abortion of flowers in most cases is caused by thrips.

Handpicking

So, you’ve inspected your garden and noticed that you do have pests. If the pests are larger and visible, try and see if you can handpick them. Larger pests such as caterpillars and slugs can be picked and relocated elsewhere. Do this very early in the morning when they are less active and remember to use gloves for your safety.

Prune Affected Plants

Remove any affected leaves on your plants. This especially applies to plants affected by aphids, spider mites, thrips, and other widely-spreading pests. Prune the leaves, and collect any fallen fruits or leaves that may act as a hiding place for pests. Clean up well to make the environment less favorable for the pest.

Homemade and Natural Pesticides

After identifying your garden pests, removing the larger and visible ones, and pruning your plant, you can now make a natural pesticide to spray on your plant. Below are some natural pesticide recipes that have been working for us.

Soap Spray

A soap spray is simply made by mixing 2 tablespoons of liquid soap with 1 liter of water. As basic as it may sound, soap destroys the outer coat of pests, thereby dehydrating and killing them. Thoroughly spray the mixture on your plants including the lower parts of the leaves. Rinse off the soap by spraying clean water after about 4 hours to avoid damaging your plant.

Neem Spray

The neem tree is one of those super trees that have multiple functions. In my country, Kenya, the tree grows really fast and thrives even in shallow and stony soil. The tree has great timber, the leaves are used for medicinal functions, and the seeds are used to make both homemade and commercial pesticides.

To make neem oil, we use a mortar and pestle to grind well-cleaned and dried neem seeds into a fine powder (you can also use a grinder). We then add a little water and let it soak for 24 hours. using a piece of cloth, we squeeze out all the liquid, and voila, we end up with organic and homemade neem oil. We store the oil in a container and away from direct sunlight.

To make the spray, mix 2 teaspoons of neem oil (you can also use store-bought) with 1 liter of water. Add 1 teaspoon of liquid soap and shake thoroughly. Spray the mixture on your plant in the early morning. Keep in mind that oil and water separate quickly so ensure you constantly shake the mixture.

Neem oil is one of the best homemade natural pesticides for vegetables. It contains a compound known as azadirachtin. The compound disrupts the life cycle of pests by preventing the larvae from proceeding to the next stage. It also works by repelling insects. When adult pests taste the compound, they also lose their appetite thereby starving themselves.

Garlic Spray

Blend 1 head of garlic with 2 cups of water. Allow the mixture to sit overnight. Sieve the mixture and dilute the liquid using 2 liters of water. Spray on your plants once a week. Garlic’s strong smell masks the natural scent of plants thereby repelling pests such as aphids and caterpillars.

Chili Pepper Spray

Chili pepper spray is one of the most widely used pest control sprays by organic farmers. The capsaicin in chilies irritates chewing pests such as caterpillars thereby repelling them.

Mix 10 chili peppers with a little water, blend, and strain the mixture. Add a teaspoon of liquid water, and spray on your plants ensuring every part of the plant is reached.

Baking Soda Spray

Baking soda is used in the control of fungal diseases such as powdery mildew. To make the mixture, add 1 tablespoon of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, and 1 teaspoon of liquid soap to 1 liter of water. Mix thoroughly and spray on your plant.

These natural sprays work best if repeated after 7-10 days. In case you’re concerned that one of these recipes may harm your plant, try testing it on a smaller area and observe for a couple of days.

Other than pest control methods, we also have preventative measures that decrease the likelihood of pests attacking your garden. Some preventative measures you can take are:

• Maintaining a clean garden: Ensure your garden is free from weeds, fallen and diseased leaves, and infested fruits.
• Practicing crop rotation: Rotating your crops prevents the building up of soil-borne pests.
• Avoid overwatering: Excessive moisture creates an ideal breeding ground. Water your garden until it is moist and not drenched.
• Creating barriers: Sprinkling crushed egg shells on the edge of your garden makes it hard for snails to access your plants. Dry mulch equally gets the same job done.
• Practicing companion planting: Companion planting is growing certain plants together to either repel pests, attract beneficial bugs that feed on pests, or promote plant growth.
• Grow garlic, onions, marigolds, or basil to repel pests. You can plant rosemary, thyme, and sage in your garden to mask the natural scent of your plants which attracts pests.

Conclusion

When we take care of Mother Nature, she takes care of us. She nourishes us with rich and tasty food, pours rain upon us, and gives us fresh and unlimited air to breathe. In return, she asks that we show our appreciation by caring for her and the entire ecological system. She expects us to protect, preserve, and honor the blessings bestowed upon us. Pesticides have been proven to have negative effects on the environment, non-targeted organisms such as bees and birds, and human beings. Rather than fight against nature, we’ve to partner and work alongside her to ensure that I play my part in enriching and preserving her gifts. So that many generations to come may continue to benefit just as I have.

The post Organic Gardening: How to Naturally Control Pests in Your Garden appeared first on Homestead.org.

Bringing in the Good Guys 

The first group of beneficial insects are the pollinators.  Bees, which include over 4,000 species such as honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter, sweat, leafcutter, and mason orchard bees, pollinate one-sixth of the world’s flowering plants (including over 400 agriculture plants).  One-third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, including plants such as alfalfa (a major livestock fodder), soya beans, clover, and coffee (yes, some of us are desperately dependent upon bees).  Poor pollination can lead to problems such as fewer seeds for saving, misshapen and/or stunted fruit, and lower yields.  Yet bee populations are dwindling everywhere as they face problems with varroa mites, loss of wild bee habitat, widespread use of pesticides, colony collapse disorder, and the spread of aggressive African bees.

While not as prolific and efficient in pollinating as bees, butterflies, and moths are still very useful in the garden.  However, like the bees, butterflies are facing pressure from pesticides and habitat-loss.  The annual value of all pollinators (exclusive of managed honeybees) to U.S. agriculture is estimated between $4.1 and $6.7 billion.  Other pollinators include certain types of flies, beetles, ants, and bats.

In order to attract pollinators, consider four things: plant selection, limiting pesticides, providing shelter, and creating habitats for nesting.

First, plan for long, continuous blooms; try to provide food sources for the insects from the first little violets of spring to the late fall burst of goldenrod.  Both bees and butterflies prefer native plants; are attracted to large blocks of one color; like to forage in sunny, open areas; and are drawn to blues, purples, and yellows (with butterflies also liking reds and oranges).  Bees prefer flat or shallow blossoms that allow for easier landing (e.g. zinnias, Queen Anne’s lace, daisies).  Consider herbs such as lavender, basil, borage, thyme, and hyssop; as well as groundcovers like clover and creeping mint.  Bees also frequent fruit trees and nut trees such as apples, cherries, and almonds.  While bees certainly visit vegetable plants, especially zucchinis and pumpkins, you can increase your yields by interspersing flowers and herbs in the garden and letting some of the plants bolt.

It’s a bit harder to select plants for butterflies because you need to research which butterflies are in your area and which plants they prefer for food and which ones they need for hosts.  While many butterflies will feed on the nectar of various plants, most will only lay their eggs on certain “host plants” because those plants are the only food that their larvae will eat.  Most of us are familiar with the monarch and its host plant, milkweed.  Another example is the Tiger swallowtail, which lays her eggs on plants such as apple, cherry, and plum trees and tulip trees.  Some host plants for the American Painted Lady are thistle, garden balsam, and hollyhock.  Butterflies also benefit from additional food sources such as melon rinds and overripe fruit left out for them.  Finally, consider placing a shallow watering area for the insects, perhaps a shallow dish or a flat stone in a bird bath that would be just below the water level (this is known as a puddling tray).

Maintaining healthy numbers of bees and butterflies is just one reason to avoid or reduce the use of pesticides and insecticides in your garden. Many believe that pesticide use is at the root of colony collapse disorder (when there are suddenly very few adults in a bee colony).  If pesticides must be used, try to avoid dusts and try to avoid spraying plants that are in bloom.  Risk can also be lessened by applying pesticides in the late evening, at night, or in the early morning when fewer insects are foraging.  Try to avoid highly toxic pesticides such as Scout and Sevin and select ones of lower toxicity such as Bt and Dipel.

You can also attract bees, butterflies, and moths by providing shelter.  Obviously, beekeepers maintain hives but it is also easy to provide homes for other types of bees, such as the orchard mason bee.  This bee is a native, solitary bee that is non-aggressive yet is an efficient pollinator (it does not, however, produce honey).  It usually lives in hollow stems, holes in trees, or within woodpecker drillings and lays about 5-10 eggs in “tubes”.  A nesting box can be easily built out of untreated lumber with holes of 5/16” diameter that are about 4-8 inches deep.  Similarly, shelter can be provided for pollinators like the paper wasp by placing a birdhouse, without its bottom, in the garden (this might also encourage them to stop building nests in your light fixtures).  Another lovely addition to the garden might be a butterfly house-it looks similar to a birdhouse but has narrow slits that only butterflies or moths can fly into, though some argue that these are more often used by spiders and wasps.

Finally, bees and butterflies need places for nesting and overwintering in order to thrive in your garden.  Suburban living and HOA regulations have destroyed many habitats. In addition to planting host plants and providing bee and butterfly houses, consider leaving some dry reeds, a small brush pile, an old log, or a stump in place for nesting and overwintering.

Defeating the Bad Guys 

Next up are the “guardians” of your garden: these insects eat those nasty pests before the pests eat your veggies!  Like the bees and butterflies, these insects will benefit from having a ready food source, a low level of pesticide use, shelter, and habitat for nesting and overwintering.  It is also helpful to know exactly which plants attract them and which pests they devour.

Ladybugs (aka lady beetles): The ladybug is familiar to all but you may not recognize the larvae, which look like tiny crocodiles and are dark with flecks of red or yellow.  The orange eggs are usually placed near aphid colonies and the larvae can consume several dozen aphids, caterpillars, mites, and mealybugs in one day; some even eat powdery mildew.  Use early blooming flowers to attract ladybugs and allow some aphids to exist so that the larvae will have a food source.

Hoverflies (aka syrphid flies): These flies look like yellow jackets but are harmless; they can be distinguished in that they only have two wings and large compound eyes.  The larvae are small, tapered maggots.  The larvae eat aphids, small caterpillars (including caterpillar worms), thrips, scale, and mites.  The adults forage for nectar (and help pollination) and prefer annuals such as bachelor buttons and sweet alyssum as well as buckwheat and herbs, especially catnip, oregano, and chives.

Braconid wasp: The 2,000 species of this wasp are non-stinging and are about ½ an inch long, with narrow abdomens and long antennae; they are mostly black with some yellow-orange.  The adult lays eggs inside an insect host and the larvae then feed on the prey when they hatch.  The larvae prey upon caterpillars (including caterpillar worms and tomato hornworms), aphids, flies, beetle larvae, and leaf miners.  The adults seek the nectar of cluster flowers such as yarrow, fennel, dill, and carrot.  The species Aphidium colemani is often used to keep pests under control in greenhouses.

Lacewings (aka aphid lions): Lacewings are brown or green, are about one inch long, and have finely veined transparent wings; they are most active in the evening.  They also lay eggs near aphid colonies – each egg is suspended from a “stalk”.  The larvae will eat aphids, cabbage worms, and white flies.  In order to attract more lacewings, remove row covers in the evening when they are more likely to be foraging and spray a solution of one tablespoon of sugar and one cup of water onto aphid colonies.  The species Chrysoperla rufilabris is often available for purchase and release.

Ground beetles: The ground beetles comprise a large group of over 2,500 species that usually have long, dark shiny hard-shells that are black or brown.  They usually live in the soil beneath mulches and plants, near compost piles, or in tunnels.  They are voracious eaters that hunt along the ground for pests such as cabbage worms, Colorado potato beetles, corn earworms, asparagus beetles, cutworms, and slugs. They are very sensitive to pesticides; Bt may be the only pesticide they can tolerate.  The key to keeping ground beetles around is to maintain a habitat with plenty of perennials, mulch, and stones or boards that don’t need to be moved.  Ground beetles are particularly attracted to clover, amaranth, and low-growing herbs like thyme and oregano.  Beetles can be collected from rotting logs and released into the garden—know that they are more active at night.

Praying mantis: The mantis is the only insect fast enough to catch flies and mosquitoes and one of the few insect predators that feed at night.  They will devour aphids, leafhoppers, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and crickets as well. The mantis lays a tan or cream ribbed cocoon that contains about 200 eggs on fences, branches, or crotches of trees or bushes.  Egg cases are most often found while pruning and can be safely moved; the nymphs will survive.  However, the cases should be attached to a branch at least a couple of feet high—if placed on the ground, the nymphs will be eaten by ants.  Also keep in mind that just one application of pesticide can wipe out a garden’s entire population of mantises.  Praying mantis prefer tall grasses, shrubbery, and plants in the rose and raspberry families.

Other Little Helpers

Other creatures that help to reduce pest populations are toads, frogs, snakes, and bats.  Toads and frogs can be attracted to your garden by providing moist, shady places under loose rocks, shrubs, and boards, or even using a “toad home”: a clay pot (it stays cool in the summer) with an entryway cut or chipped from the rim and placed upside down.  Toads and frogs are particularly effective at catching slugs and snails.  Likewise, snakes will reduce a slug or snail problem as well as keeping small mammals out of the garden (of course, they also eat toads and frogs!).  Black snakes and king snakes can even help to reduce copperhead numbers.

Contrary to popular belief, bats don’t often carry rabies (there have been less than 10 cases of human rabies infection from bats in the last 50 years) and they don’t get caught in your hair.  However, bats will eat up to 1,000 insects in an hour (a nursing mom might catch up to 4,500), including cutworms, mosquitoes, June beetles, stink bugs, and leafhoppers.  In tropical climes, they help to pollinate bananas, cashews, figs, and mangoes.  In order to attract bats, consider adding a bat house.  It should receive seven hours of direct sun, should be at least ten feet above the ground, within 1,500 feet of a water source and within 10-30 yards of the tree line.  Put up the home by late winter so the bats can find it by springtime.  Bats will also appreciate night-blooming plants such as moonflower, evening primrose, and nicotiana, as these will attract nocturnal insects.

Initially, playing “zookeeper” in the garden is a significant investment in time and money.  However, once you attract significant numbers of pollinators and guardians to your land, you can reap the benefits of healthier plants and higher yields… and then you’ll just have to contend with the weeds.

The post Beneficial Bugs appeared first on Homestead.org.

Every good homesteader knows that no job is too big when the right tools and a little ingenuity are employed.  Since most of my jobs involve caring for our home and all the living things in and around it, plant and animal (and bird and human) alike, the right tools for me include my big plastic bucket, my gallon jug of vinegar, and my industrial-sized bag of baking soda.  Also in my metaphorical tool-shed include my garden hose, borax, sponges, microfiber cloths, dish soap, a squeegee,  baby oil, rubber gloves, clothespins, scissors, masking tape, a sharpie, and safety pins.  If I could just roll a wheelbarrow around with all these things inside it, I might make it through most of my chores without having to stop and waste time going back to the house or the barn for the correct tool.

Baking soda can be used in several different ways: directly, dissolved in water, or as a paste.  Vinegar, likewise, can be used directly but is more commonly combined with water to dilute the strength of its acidity.

Using Baking Soda & Vinegar Around the House

Most mornings I feel like I wake up in my kitchen.  I’m making coffee and trying to wrap my head around breakfast while measuring a cup of baking soda into a plastic measuring cup that I will wind up returning to the sink several times throughout the course of my day.  Yes, I pour a cup of baking soda before I even pour a cup of coffee.  That is how dependent the success of the day is on that magical powder.  I also make sure my spray bottle filled with half vinegar and half water is full and is placed in the readily available location in front of everything else under my sink.

When the coffee pot finishes percolating, I pour the invigorating liquid into a thermal carafe so that I can run a pot of water spiked with a teaspoon of vinegar through the machine.  I do this because my next task is one of the most important and seldom noticed of my chores: making sweet tea.  While I can’t make public my super-special-secret-southern recipe, I can say that I cannot proceed with the tea-making until the machine is clean and odorless.  Good sweet tea doesn’t smell or taste like coffee… thanks to this little trick.  Vinegar makes the conception of my signature brew more streamlined than boiling water in a saucepan and keeps my kitchen cool and humidity-free in the summertime.

Using Baking Soda & Vinegar Outside

All this stuff I do before I go outside gets done pretty quickly because, as a rule, when consciousness returns to me each new day my first thoughts are usually of my gardens and my backyard flock.  I can’t wait to put those ripped and stained garden gloves back on, grab my spray bottle of vinegar and my hand cultivator and head up the hill to the homegrown vegetables and the chicken coop, all the while trying to guess in my head how many eggs and red, ripe tomatoes await me.  Why do I take a bottle of vinegar to the garden?  It’s my secret weapon against weeds, ants, and slugs.  I hate slugs; they’re slimy.  Vinegar can also be sprayed on spigots, tools, screws, anything that needs a little rust-removal.  It will sanitize outdoor furniture, helps remove mold, removes berry stains from your hands, and can serve as a pre-wash for the veggies you harvest.  You can also spray it on minor cuts and scrapes or insect stings as a soothing disinfectant.  You need a gallon of this miracle liquid in your garden shed, right?  Right!

While you’re outside, spray the vinegar anywhere you don’t want your cat.  The sandbox, the flower bed, the vegetable garden, the picnic table.  Cats hate vinegar almost as much as slugs do, except that it doesn’t kill them the way it will slimy slugs.  Don’t spray it directly on the flowers and veggies of course, but place a couple vinegar-soaked cotton balls near the border; kitties will vanish from the area.  Acid-loving plants like rhododendron, hydrangea, dogwood, heather, azalea, and many berries do benefit from a little vinegar, though.  Mix one cup vinegar with one gallon of water and spray directly onto the soil around the base of these plants.  Dogs aren’t bothered by vinegar as much as cats.  You can rub vinegar on your dog’s ear to soothe itchiness.  I’ve also heard that you can add a touch of it to their drinking water to keep fleas away; just hope those biting fleas don’t find your vinegar-loathing felines.  A fifty-fifty mixture of vinegar and water will also keep flies away from livestock, but you must spray often.

So, once you’ve tended to all the wonderful living things on your farm and you must finally return to the indoor chores, your good friend vinegar will remain close to your heart and within arm’s reach, always ready to be useful.  This is when my other good friend, baking soda, joins the party.

Using Baking Soda & Vinegar in the Kitchen

I feel like I must admit at this point that I’m not the dainty type.  Hence, I do not bother with the dainty box of baking soda that most folks use as a refrigerator ornament.  I buy a thirteen-pound bag from my local farm supply.  I mean business when I break out the baking soda.  From this mammoth bag I fill an old reused olive jar for the teaspoon I need here and there while cooking.  The same is true for vinegar.  I buy gallons at a time.  I should really get a sponsorship of some kind for all the vinegar I purchase.  From one of these gallons I fill an old pickle jar to use in cooking, but I use more apple cider vinegar in my food recipes and standard white vinegar in my cleaning recipes.  (Recipes follow.)

It’s the jobs that I used to think had no solution that have been remedied with baking soda.  Stained, plastic food-storage containers and plastic utensils have been cleaned and deodorized with a baking soda solution of four tablespoons per quart of water.  Stubborn stains can be lifted by adding lemon juice to the solution.  That same solution can revive old sponges and scrub brushes when those tools are left to soak overnight.  It also will work on wooden bowls and utensils just as well.

Greasy pans or cooked-on food will loosen its grip on pots and pans by sprinkling baking soda onto the surfaces and boiling water in them.  It works well with cookie sheets too—just place the sheet with the baking soda/water solution in the oven and heat it up.  When the sheet has cooled again, remove it from the oven and wipe it clean.  Then wipe the inside of the oven with vinegar and see how easily it comes clean.  If you use the baking soda solution to clean cast-iron skillets, be sure to re-season them with cooking oil.

Another obligatory admission: I am obsessed with a clean sink.  I am that person who dries the sink when I’m finished with it.  I fold my fitted sheets, too, but that has nothing to do with baking soda & vinegar; unless you count the ½ cup of baking soda that goes in with the wash, or the cup of vinegar that goes through the empty cycle to clean the machine periodically.

Anyway, back to the stainless steel sink.  Here’s how it works: at the end of the day, which is signaled by the last dirty dish being washed, dried, and put away with care, I bust out the baking soda and apply it directly to my dish sponge to scrub the day away from the sink and countertop.  It makes a little bit of a film.  Then I dunk my sponge in vinegar and admire the sizzle it makes before wiping once again the sink and countertop.  The whole thing then gets wiped again with warm water, the sponge is wrung out, and the dishtowel that was clean just this morning is employed for its grand finale before its trip to the hamper as a sink/counter dryer.  If company is coming the next day or if I’m feeling super-obsessive, sometimes I even dab a little baby oil on a paper towel and buff the clean stainless steel to a high shine.  Then I stand there with my baking soda & vinegar pals and admire the beautiful sink.  Silly?  Yes.  Do I care?  No.  By the way, the baking soda & vinegar combo is good for the drain, too.

If you spend some time getting to know baking soda & vinegar, I know you will learn to love them as much as I do, and they will contribute to your quality of life as much as they have mine.  As promised, here are more handy tips and recipes:

Handy Tips for Using Baking Soda & Vinegar Around the House

Baking soda removes crayon marks from painted walls.  Use a wet sponge and baking soda directly on the stain.

Greasy food stains can be removed from upholstery when the stain is fresh by using equal parts baking soda and salt.  Sprinkle it on, rub it in just a little, let it dry undisturbed, and then vacuum it up.

Make a sachet for storage areas or seldom-used luggage by filling old pantyhose-toes with baking soda, then tie off the foot and cut the desired length if you plan to hang them.

Mix baking soda with regular white glue to use as a permanent filler for nail holes in white walls.

Add half a cup of baking soda to bathwater to soften your skin.  Then use a dab of vinegar on a cotton ball to tone facial skin.

Fiberglass tubs and showers can be cleaned with a paste made from baking soda and dishwashing liquid. Metal fixtures can be descaled with straight vinegar.

Dab vinegar on perspiration stains.

Smoky odors can be removed from clothing by soaking them in a baking soda/water solution before they go into the wash.

Add a teaspoon of baking soda to your shampoo to help it remove buildup from hair products and improve manageability.

Sprinkle baking soda onto your combs and brushes then soak in vinegar to remove buildup and to disinfect.

Wipe fingernails with a cotton ball soaked in vinegar before you polish them; the polish will last longer.  Rubbing your cuticles with baking soda will soften them so they’re easier to remove.

Make an exfoliating body or facial scrub by mixing up baking soda and oatmeal in your blender.

Baking Soda & Vinegar Recipes

Coat-Shine (for animal coats, not your winter coat):

• 1 c. Vinegar
• 1 qt. Water
• Fly-Away (to keep the flies away, not to make you levitate)
• Half Vinegar
• Half Water
• Air Freshener
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 Cup water
• Few drops of essential oil.  (Eucalyptus and Mint is my favorite combo.)

Acid-Loving Plant Spray

• 1 Cup vinegar
• 1 Gallon Water
• Cut Flower Preservation
• 2 Tablespoons vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon sugar
• 1 quart water

Scouring Cleanser

• ¼ cup baking soda
• 1 teaspoon liquid detergent
• Enough vinegar to make a thick, creamy paste

G.P.S.  (General Purpose Spray)

• 1 teaspoon Borax
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon dish soap
• 2 cups hot water
• Wear rubber gloves

Grease-Cutter

• ¼ cup baking soda
• ½ cup vinegar
• 1 cup ammonia
• 1 gallon hot water
• Wear rubber gloves

Wall Cleaner

• 1 cup ammonia
• 1 cup baking soda
• 1 gallon water

Carpet Freshener

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup dry herbs (I like lavender—I grow a lot of it)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground clove
• Vacuum

Play Clay (you know… for fun)

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 ¼ cups cold water
• Food coloring

The post A Country Girl’s Best Friends: Baking Soda & Vinegar appeared first on Homestead.org.

The facts are amazing and should have all of us running out to buy or build hundreds of bat houses.  One little brown myotis, (little brown bat) can catch 1,000 or more mosquito-sized insects in an hour.  A colony of 150 big brown bats can catch enough cucumber beetles each summer to prevent the egg-laying of 33 million rootworms.  Bats catch and eat cucumber and June beetles, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, cutworms, and corn earworm moths.  Many garden and crop pests flee areas where they hear bat echolocation sounds.  According to Bat Conservation International, the 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats that spend summers in Bracken Cave, Texas, eat up to 200 tons of insects in a single night over the surrounding towns and croplands.

If that isn’t enough for the bats to take on, they are also very important pollinators and vital for seed dispersal in the tropics.  There are over 1,000 kinds of bats in all environments except in the most extreme desert and polar regions.

Now, all these facts have your attention, I bet.  Before you leap into bat-house buying or building, wait, there is more to learn and understand before putting up those bat houses.

Most homesteaders work hard to do the “green thing” in their gardens and fields, trying to use natural and organic methods for insect control.  Encouraging bats to spend the spring, summer, and fall around your homestead is an easy and natural approach to insect control.

Now, what is the next step?  You are enthused, correct?  It is probably best not to waste time or money on the small bat houses available at feed or pet stores.  Those might attract a few bachelor bats but not nursery colonies.  The most successful bat houses have roost chambers at least 20 inches tall and at least 14 inches wide.  Taller and wider houses are even better.  Rocket boxes, a newer pole-mounted design with continuous 360-degree chambers should be at least 3 feet tall.  All houses should have three to six-inch landing areas extending below the entrances.  Single-chambered houses should be mounted on wooden or masonry buildings, which will help to buffer temperature changes.  Houses with at least three chambers are more likely to provide appropriate ranges of temperature and better accommodate the larger numbers of bats typical of nursery colonies.

Next is a brief list of what should and should not be used in a bat house and where it should be placed.  Detailed plans for building bat houses and how and where to install them can be found at Bat Conservation International; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Institute and Natural Resources; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and “The Bat House Forum,” which can be found online and is free to join.  This forum has information from people building bat houses and experimenting with different building materials.

When building your bat house, do not use pressure-treated wood, which contains chemicals that may be toxic to bats.  Bat houses need to be painted or stained in the color prescribed for your area.  Do not use oil-based products.  The colder your area is in the spring and summer months, the darker the paint color.  Bats like dry, warm, draft-free houses, so careful calking and painting are important.  Do not use metal mesh on landing and inside surfaces, it will tear at the bats wings and feet.  Use only UV-resistant plastic mesh or put 1/4- to 1/2-inch grooves on the wood surfaces for footholds. Recommended mesh size is 1/8-inch or 1/4-inch mesh.

Where the bat house is located is another critical cause of bats not using a house.  Sun exposure and heat absorption must be carefully considered.  Ventilated houses with tall chambers allow bats to move vertically to find the best daily and seasonal temperatures.  Bats in nursery colonies like a warm house.  Houses should face southeast for the most sunshine and warmth.  Bat houses should be within a quarter of a mile of permanent fresh water.  Bat houses should be placed on poles, metal or wood, at least 20 to 30 feet from the nearest tree branches or utility wires.  Predators can use trees and wires to more easily hunt bats.  The bottom of the bat house should be 12 to 20 feet above the ground.  If a wood pole is used, a predator guard is needed to keep snakes and raccoons from climbing the pole to eat the bats.

If all this bat house information is too daunting for you, there are other things a landowner can do to attract bats to the homestead.  Bats are losing their natural habitats around the world because of increasing land development, agriculture, and deforestation.  In many cases, bats can adapt to changes if their needs for water, insect prey, and roosts are taken care of.  Putting up bat houses is a great roosting alternative but planting and preserving native vegetation that attracts and supports a variety of non-pest insects for bats to feed on; decreasing disturbance and destruction of caves and mines, and protecting abandoned buildings are other ways to help bats.  Leaving snags and tree hollows in forests and woodland to serve as natural homes and supplying open water resources where bats can drink on the wing are all excellent choices for helping bats survive the changes in their habitats.

To better understand bats—their behavior and what they need to survive—it is important to know more about their lives.  Most bats that live in temperate regions, such as the U.S. and Canada, mate in the fall just before hibernation.  Ovulation and fertilization from the fall matings take place in the spring as the females emerge from hibernation (the female stores the sperm in her reproductive tract over the winter).  Pregnant females then move from hibernating sites called hibernacula to warmer roosts—which could be your bat houses!—where they form nursery colonies.  Birth occurs about a month and a half to two months later.  The young grow rapidly, learning to fly within three weeks.  While the pups are being reared, males and non-reproductive females segregate into separate groups called bachelor colonies.  Bats are, for their size, the slowest reproducing mammals on Earth.  On average, mother bats rear one young per year and do not give birth until they are two or more years old.  They are long-lived and some species can live 15 to 20 years.  Bats can weigh as little as two grams or as much as two pounds.  Bats are the only mammals that can fly!  Amazing!

Contrary to popular belief, they do not fly into your hair and they are not blind.  Bats have excellent eyesight but communicate and navigate with high-frequency sounds.  In cold winters, bats are forced to migrate or hibernate.  Most travel less than 300 miles to find a suitable cave or mine, where they remain for six months or more surviving on stored fat reserves.  Bats are loyal to their birthplaces and hibernation sites and pass down information on how to find these sites from generation to generation.

Most eastern bats spend the winter hibernating in caves and move to trees or buildings for the summer.  Some do spend all year in caves and others, like the tree bats, never see a cave.  They roost in trees in the summer and in tree hollows in the winter.  As hollow trees are cut down, the bat boxes are needed for bats to survive.  This is very important from April to August when females are looking for safe and quiet places to raise their pups.  Both mothers and newborns are very sensitive to being disturbed.  One reason to put up bat houses is to balance the loss of habitat that bats of all species are experiencing, but another reminder of the importance of bats from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is that a typical summer colony of 100 bats, feeding 200 days will consume more than 2,200 pounds of insects or approximately 600,000,000 bugs!

Having more places for bats to roost might, in some small way, help stop or slow the spread of White-nose Syndrome which has killed millions of cave-dwelling bats in eastern North America.  It is hard to even imagine that we have lost millions of bats because of a fungus!  It has been found in many bat populations in the US and Canada.  White-nose Syndrome is transmitted from bat to bat by spores of Geomyces destructans, a cold loving fungus.  It is carried between caves by humans—on clothing, footwear, and caving gear.  White-nose Syndrome does not affect people, pets, or livestock, but is lethal to hibernating bats, killing 90% or more.

WNS was first detected in New York State in February 2006 and is spreading south and west.  It is believed by Bat Conservation International and the National Park Service that the fungus was brought over from Europe by people who had not decontaminated their caving gear after using it in European caves where the fungus is known to be found.  This fungus kills because it causes bats to awaken more often during hibernation and to use up the stored fat reserves that are needed to get them through the winter.  Infected bats emerge too soon from hibernation and are seen flying around in midwinter.  These bats freeze or starve to death.

So, how can we help?   The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has the following suggestions:

• Avoid possible spread of WNS by humans, by staying out of caves and mines where bats are known to hibernate.
• Honor cave closures and gated caves.
• Learn why “decontamination” is critical if you do go caving in approved caves.
• Stay out of all hibernacula when bats are hibernating in the winter.  Every time they are disturbed they use up the fat that is needed for energy to survive the winter months.
• Be observant and report unusual bat behavior to your state natural resource agency or your state wildlife agency, such as bats flying during the day in winter or unexplained bat deaths.
• Encourage your state and federal legislators to fund WNS research.

Most importantly, take care of bats!  Minimize disturbance to natural bat habitats around your homestead; reduce outdoor lighting; do little to no tree-clearing; protect streams and wetlands.  Then construct or protect homes for bats on your homestead.

Almost equally as important is to educate yourself about bats by visiting websites and attending educational programs or events.  Educate your friends and families about the benefits of bats and the WNS crisis.

Now, I know this is a great deal of information to take in, but don’t feel overwhelmed and give up; just remember the thousand mosquito-sized insects just one bat can eat in just one hour.  Bat biologist John Whitaker, documented that a single colony of 150 big brown bats, which can live in one bat house, can eliminate 38,000 cucumber beetles, 16,000 June beetles, 19,000 stinkbugs and 50,000 leafhoppers each summer.  This estimate does not consider the many other insects these bats eat.  Whitaker concluded that by eating 38,000 cucumber beetles the bats protected local farmers from approximately 33 million root-worm larvae that the beetles would have produced.

The Bat House Builder’s Handbook lists questions people often ask about putting up bat houses.  Will having bat houses in my yard interfere with attracting birds?  No, they rarely compete for food or space.  Will bat droppings pose a health threat to my family?  No more so than bird or cat droppings would.  What are the odds that a sick bat will endanger my family with rabies?  Like all mammals, bats can contract rabies but less than one-half percent do and the infected bats die quickly and rarely become aggressive.  The odds are remote if you simply do not attempt to handle bats.

I hope all this information will help and motivate you to add bat houses to your homestead.  I also hope the information will inspire you to learn more about the bats in your area and to educate your family and friends on the extreme importance bats have in our lives.  I have placed five bat houses on various prairies and ranches in my area and never miss a chance to talk to people with my opening line, “Do you want to know how amazing bats are?”

Sources:

Bat Conservation International.

Center for Biological Diversity news releases: February and March 2013.

National Park Services, U.S. Department of Interior.

Tuttle, Merlin D.  America’s Neighborhood Bats.  University of Texas Press, Austin:  1988

Tuttle, Merlin D and Mark Kiser and Selena Kiser.  The Bat House Builder’s Handbook.  A publication of Bat Conservation International, 2004

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, publications on bats.

Wilson, Don E with photographs by Merlin D Tuttle.  Bats in Question, The Smithsonian Answer Book.  Smithsonian Institution, Washington and London, 1997

Suggested Resources:

Appalachian Bat Count, Bureau of Wildlife Management, Harrisburg, PA

Indiana State University Center for North American Bat Research and Conservation

Bat Condo Directions, Pennsylvania Game Commission

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