Why Pesticides Don’t Work — and Real Solutions
I always tell people... it’s far more enjoyable to work with life than it is with death.
—Gabe Brown, North Dakota farmer and author of From Dirt to Soil.
The Answers to the Pesticide Problem
I made a case for creating an ecological balance of predator and prey insects to control unwanted guests in the garden. Simply put, if you don’t want bugs eating or spoiling your fruits and vegetables, you need to invite in the good bugs that eat the bad bugs. You can do this by providing food and shelter for beneficial insects with densely planted "thickets" of flowers and herbs, mulch, leaf litter, border plants, and stones.
I firmly believe in this ecologically-minded method of pest control. I’ve seen it work on all scales, from tiny urban gardens to the large-scale regenerative farming I do now.
However, this wide range of experience has shown me there is a fly in the ointment: creating an ecological balance of predator and prey takes time. If you have just planted your first garden, you have likely focused primarily on annual vegetables, a favorite food of many insects. You see the error and want to adjust by planting more predator-attracting flowers and herbs, but in the meantime your tender new veggies are an aphid-chewed, wormy mess. Now is that precarious time when the urge to spray pesticides might just become too strong to resist…
Stop Right There.
Well, wait at least, just for a moment. Because I’m going to tell you exactly why once you climb on the pesticide roller coaster, there is no getting off. Really, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about petrochemical-based pesticides or natural sprays, my aim is to discourage you from using either. First, I’ll explain why and secondly, I’ll offer some solutions.
OK, so maybe you’re thinking, what’s wrong with using a natural spray, especially a home-made one?
Well, there’s nothing wrong about it on moral grounds. I simply don’t find them very effective. I’ve tried them all: chili pepper, garlic, neem oil, baking soda, diluted soap, etc. I’m not saying they don’t work at all, they just don’t work very well in relation to the amount of time and effort you have to put into acquiring, making, and applying them. Natural pest repellents need to be applied almost constantly to have any noticeable effect. They wash off — all it takes is a few hours following a summer thunderstorm for pests to make a meal from your recently-sprayed garden. Furthermore, unlike ground beetles and ladybugs that eat bugs that hide in the soil, natural sprays do nothing to deter insects that eat or infest plant roots.
Another problem with natural sprays is the "slippery slope" effect. Once the gardener believes something in a trigger bottle is the answer, it’s that much easier to "bring out the big guns" when the natural formulas cease being effective. Also, another factor to consider is that going out to the garden with sprays to kill or repel insects is a chore; it is not enjoyable.
The bottom line is: there is simply no substitute for an ecologically harmonized garden growing in healthy fertile soil. Why spend time, energy, and money "fighting" a losing battle when you can expend those precious resources building resilience in your garden?
Pesticides, natural or chemical, are not effective — especially in the long term — and have disastrous side effects. Here’s why:
Think about the last time you watched a nature documentary showing lions or cheetahs stalking their prey on the African Savannah. It’s always a few big cats and a whole herd of wildebeest or gazelles, right? Well, the insect world is exactly the same. Not only do the pesky bugs that eat your veggies vastly outnumber the carnivorous predator types, they also have much shorter and more prolific breeding cycles. In a diverse ecologically balanced garden, that’s OK. One ladybug larva, for example, can consume up to 500 aphids per day. But in a vulnerable garden with a spray-dependent gardener, it’s a recipe for disaster.
So what does that mean for you and your "pesticide" spray? First of all, there is no such thing as a “pesticide.” There are insecticides: sprays that kill ALL insects — predator, pollinator and prey, beneficial and harmful alike — let’s be clear about that. And the natural formulas that repel unwanted pests are equally repellent to their natural predators.
Let’s say you spray your garden and eliminate most of the insects. Your cultivars get a respite for a few weeks and start looking pretty good. You’re happy with your spray bottle and write a five-star product review. Then the hungry invaders come back, more numerous and ravenous than before. You spray more vehemently. The cycle repeats itself, each time the pests return with more reinforcements. Now you find yourself spraying more regularly just to squeeze out a harvest in between invasions. You make a spraying schedule on your calendar. The instructions on the bottle caution you to wear gloves and not to inhale the contents. You have to keep your children and pets away from the garden. What you imagined as a backyard Eden has become a hazard zone. Finally, you return from a short summer vacation to find that the nibbling, munching, chomping horde has returned, stronger than ever.
How is this effective? Or enjoyable?
What happened? It’s actually easy to understand if you remember the lion/wildebeest analogy, the ratio of predator to prey. While the insecticide kills most of the bugs, a few escape annihilation. Of the survivors, the prey insects — the pests — breed and multiply rapidly. The predator insects are outpaced. With each successive spraying, the imbalance becomes more pronounced, until eventually the struggling predator populations collapse completely and their prey is left to multiply at will.
The data bear out the hypothesis. Over the past fifty years in the U.S., crop loss to insects has increased from 7 to 14 percent, even though insecticide use has increased two-fold as well.
Think about that.
Double the amount of insecticide, double the amount of crop loss to insects. Heavy insecticide use, combined with soils depleted by monoculture farming and clear-cutting of forests has brought us to this dismal place. Your garden isn’t very different from a farm, only smaller. You have an opportunity here to show how diversity and balance — nature’s tools — are the most effective.
OK, ok. You’ve convinced me. But I just planted my first garden and I didn’t know about attracting good bugs. What can I do NOW?
Don’t worry. Here are some accessible ways you can jump-start your ecological garden, along with a few short-term pest solutions that work.
Use nursery plants — especially perennials — as "anchor plants" and fast growing annuals to fill in the gaps. Get your mini "thicket" of predator/pollinator attracting herbs and flowers started with a few selections from a nursery or home improvement center. I’m all for starting plants from seed, but herbs like lavender and thyme grow slowly. Make a modest investment in some perennial "anchors" and plant them two to three to cluster. Echinacea, yarrow, coreopsis, daisies (anything in the Rudbeckia genus) and all perennial herbs are a good start. In between the clusters sow seed for fast-growing annuals like borage, nasturtium, calendula, speedwell, dill, fennel, and alyssum. Many of these annuals seed in the fall and will return in the spring. Their colorful blossoms, nectar, and foliage will attract a good number of beneficial insects within six weeks!
Use stones, bricks, or pavers, at the border and to make walkways that will also shelter beneficial insects. The materials you use don’t have to be new or in perfect condition. Broken corners and cracks provide shelter for a bevy of good bugs. This is also an excellent opportunity to recycle old or broken materials--many construction sites are only too happy to give them away.
Generously sprinkle rings of ashes, pointy gravel, and charred wood chips around tender new vegetables. In my post on how to build healthy soil, I recommended adding charcoal or charred wood from the grill or fire pit to help retain soil nutrients. You can also use the remains of a fire to repel slithering pests like hornworms and slugs. These soft-bodied bugs do not like the feeling of abrasive materials and will shy away from plants ensconced in a protective circle.
Get them drunk. As a last resort, I have deployed beer traps in new gardens when there was an imbalance of predator and prey. Many insects that eat vegetables also LOVE beer. It doesn’t matter what kind. Save your precious IPAs for yourself and give the bugs Coors or Budweiser. Simply bury small (4-6oz) containers in the soil to the level of the opening at the top and fill three-quarters full with cheap beer. Bugs will stop off for a drink on their way to the veggie buffet, get drunk, fall in and die. It’s a little gruesome, but it works
. . .
However, perhaps the site of those insect corpses will convince you like no words can that it is indeed far more enjoyable to work with life than with death. Piecemeal solutions, whether they be insecticides or beer traps, rob the garden of life and the gardener of the sheer pleasure of being in the garden. Remember, the real goal is to create an ecosystem that yields resilience, abundance, and joy.
At Sueño de Vida we work in a meaningful way to heal land ravaged by deforestation. How meaningful? According to a recent UN Foresight Brief on climate change,
--It is of the utmost importance to stop deforestation and to increase reforestation efforts around the world. Agricultural practices should focus on soil building, year-round soil cover with plants and the use of agroforestry methods.
That is exactly what we do here at SdV. You can help by helping us do what we do every day: plant forests that nurture soil, people, and community.
Click HERE to donate directly to our reforestation fund OR make a monthly pledge on our Patreon.
Thank you.
Kristen Krash is the director and co-founder of Sueño de Vida, a regenerative agroforestry farm, education center, nature reserve in Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Cloudforest. Prior to moving, Kristen was known for her guerrilla gardens — productive green spaces she created in any available space. Now an urban transplant in the South American rain forest, she has adapted her urban gardening and sustainability skills to large-scale reforestation of degraded land. She takes a practical and accessible approach to helping others achieve more balance and self-sufficiency in their lives.
Kristen’s articles and interviews have been featured on popular sustainability platforms like Abundant Edge and The Mud Home, and in the Rainforest Regeneration Curriculum at the Ecological Restoration Camps.