Pesticide Prevention
Almost everyone wants a lush, green lawn or a pest-free garden. In order to achieve this goal common practice encourages chemical fertilizers and pesticides. While these products are effective in accomplishing their purposes short-term, their long-term impact is much less desirable.
Why Avoid Pesticides?
Chemical pesticide use and exposure have been shown to have negative health effects on humans, especially children.
Recent studies show that most homes in the United States are contaminated with pesticides. Some health effects of chemical pesticide exposure include birth defects, childhood cancer, acute poisoning, brain tumors, and asthma.
How to Avoid Pesticides?
10 Tips for Pesticide Free Gardening and Yard Maintenance
- Improve soil health to facilitate healthy lawns and reduce weed growth.
- Fertilize naturally by leaving grass clippings on lawn and mulching with leaves
- Aerate your lawn to avoid compaction.
- Mow lawn to about 3-4 inches high.
- Don’t overwater your lawn and avoid watering during the heat of the day.
- Incorporate native plants into your landscape.
- Use natural pesticides.
- Incorporate Integrated Pest Management practices.
- Declutter yard and home to discourage pests.
- Remove standing water & open food sources.
Avoiding Pesticide Residue on Produce
Studies show that pesticide residue on produce is a common route of exposure to harmful chemicals. Fruits and vegetables that are grown conventionally have often been exposed to many pesticides before they are shipped to our local grocery stores.
To avoid or at least limit exposure to pesticides through fruits and vegetables, you can opt to purchase organic produce. Or you can seek out sustainably farmed produce at a local farmers market.
If it is not feasible for you to purchase organic or local fruits produce, you can still reduce the pesticide residue you ingest by thoroughly washing your fruits and vegetables.
Prioritize buying organic for the following produce which tests have shown to have the highest pesticide residue:
- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Peaches
- Pears
- Cherries
- Grapes
- Celery
- Tomatoes
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Potatoes
Alternative Pesticides
Need to take more drastic pest management measures? Do so naturally without turning to harsh chemicals.
Try these alternatives to pesticides that are effective in deterring pests without negatively affecting our health or the ecosystem’s health:
- Diatomaceous earth
- Affects crawling insects, such as snails and slugs
- Neem oil
- Disrupts the life cycle of insects in any stage (egg, larvae, or adult)
- Won’t harm bees, butterflies, and lady bugs
- Peppermint, thyme, and rosemary oil repellent
- Repels (doesn’t kill) flies, fleas, mosquitoes, cabbage looper caterpillars, aphids, squash bugs, white flies, ants, beetles, spiders, chiggers, ticks, and roaches.
- Homemade Insecticidal soaps
- Affects many common garden pests
- Peppermint or Tea Tree Oil Castile Soap Spray
- Affects wasps and hornets nests
Alternative herbicides
Vinegar and hot water are effective at killing most weeds, but care must be taken because they could also kill surrounding plants you want to keep. These treatments are best used for treating weeds in sidewalk cracks, patios, or other hard surfaces.
- Vinegar
- Add a couple of drops of liquid soap to white vinegar to help it adhere to the plant
- Spray on a dry, sunny day
- Optional: add salt to prevent weeds from coming back. Salt will also inhibit other plants from growing, so only add salt where you know you never want anything to grow (ex: walkway, crack in sidewalk, etc.).
- Boiling water
- Pour boiling water on weeds you wish to eliminate
- Eat Them
- Learn more about the nutrition of common yard plants such as dandelions and purslane and cook with them.