‘I believe in bugs’ – Tom Goulder
Hi all,
It’s me again. The good looking one with the beard. Do you remember Ivor Cutler? The Scottish poet who played a slightly out of tune harmonium and sang weird songs and wrote odd and offbeat poetry. Have a listen to this, ‘I believe in bugs’ and we’ll have a chat afterwards.
Did you like that?
I’m wondering what your feelings are about ‘bugs’ and using insecticides.
There’s a reducing amount of insecticides available to gardeners and allotmenteers these days. And most of what there is, tends to be control rather than elimination. How do you sit with that? Some, I guess, will be pleased and some won’t. Some will say, control is better as it protects the eco-system and helps wildlife. Others will robustly defend the use of chemicals and talk about crops being eaten before they get to the table and a decent insecticide spray is the answer. I guess in some ways, it’s part of the time in which we were brought up.
I knew someone who several times a year, covered his lawn with worm killer. He hadn’t considered that the worms will come back but delighted in seeing dead and desiccated worms all over his lawn and the local birds eating them probably to die themselves from eating poisoned worms. Have you thought about the longer term issues with using pesticides? The food chain. Everything we use in the garden/allotment, will eventually find its way on to our table. There will always be a residue of the chemical we’ve used left on the plant, even contact sprays will leave something behind. Systematic insecticides will leave an even greater chemical residue, as they get inside the plant in order to kill the insect. And the more those crops are sprayed, the greater the concentration of chemicals that’ll get onto our veggies and fruit, and then we eat them! As an aside, have you noticed that many veggy packs in the shops will tell you to wash them before eating? Some are treated with preservatives. Some are irradiated to make a longer shelf life.
Most of you reading this will remember DDT. The miracle product that dispatched just about every insect that got close to it. Later, it was discovered that other invertebrates were eating insects that had been exposed to DDT. These were eaten by bigger animals like birds and mammals, which in turn perished through the concentration of DDT in the food chain. Eventually it was banned, but not until people began to suffer from DDT poisoning.
Modern insecticides will have the capacity to kill beneficial insects as well as those which you might consider a nuisance. Ant powder, for example, will kill beneficial insects including woodlice, which are terrestrial crustaceans, not insects. They are natures hoovers and eat decaying matter. They are harmless and incredibly beneficial. But ant powder can’t tell the difference and will kill woodlice and most insects with an exoskeleton. Earwigs, centipedes and so on. Each of those mentioned will munch away at other insects, decaying matter, fungi and yes, some plant material. They will also eat codling moth, other small pests along with their eggs. BUT, they in turn will be scoffed up by birds and nocturnal mammals and molluscs. It’s all part of the eco-system, where everything relies on everything else to keep an equilibrium. If you have ants in the house or very near to your property, then there’s a justification for using insecticide. I remember someone years ago who had ants in the bathroom. They got behind the bathroom tiles and set up home there. The ants won and the person moved!
Aphids are nearly always a problem in the garden/allotment. Rose buds get covered by them, along with Runner beans etc. but many other insects will feed on these copious delicacies. Lady birds, and their nymphs, and hover flies etc., can eat up-to several hundred aphids every day. Birds like them too, especially during nesting time for feeding their young. And if aphids are becoming a pain, a pair of latex free gloves and gently squash them. They pop like Space Dust (who remembers that?) You can also use spray made of garlic. Recipes on line. That works. I’ve used it on veggies and plants in the garden. It doesn’t kill them en-mass, but it reduces them enough not to be a problem.
So how to control the insect population in a more environmentally sustainable way. Die hards will say to spray with insecticide. I believe that not to be the answer in these more enlightened times. For some insects, sticky pheromone traps will help control things like codling moth, white fly and plum moth. Covering your crops with enviromesh is a great substitute for spraying. It prevents pea moth from laying its eggs on your pea flowers. It’ll stop leek moth from taking a hold of your prize Mussleborough. Fruit trees etc., can be protected from birds who believe they have a prior claim to your soft fruits.
Some of you might be thinking that using plastic netting is also bad for the environment. Used unwisely, I’d agree. Used with care and everything will be hunky dory. It’ll last for years and when you find gardening difficult, it can be passed on to others to use. A decent bit of recycling methinks.
I hope you find this article useful and I’d like to hear your comments Pro and Con.
Thanks for reading
Cheers
Tom
Below is a link to an article from the RHS which you may find helpful.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/prevent