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Many gardeners and even commercial crop growers are very satisfied with themselves if they take a step back from using chemical insecticides and revert to using natural, old-fashioned pesticides. And it is true, they have, but did you know that there is yet another step back too? A step backward in time that does not involve spraying of any kind at all.

So, here are a couple of techniques to try before using natural pesticide.

If you are having trouble with slugs, half bury a few jam jars in your flower beds and pour some beer into them, about two or three inches deep. Slugs do not mind about the quality of the beer. It can be cider, lager or beer; it can be left-overs or flat. Slugs are acutely addicted to beer and they will drink themselves into a stupor, fall into the beer and drown.

Even if there are a dozen dead slugs in the beer, other slugs will still come and drink from there. Empty the jars every day or they start to smell and refill with beer for that night's party. You can rapidly reduce your garden's slug numbers in this manner.

If you are having problems with ants of any species, you could buy a container of nematodes. These are tiny insects that live in the ground and feed on any insects in the soil that they come across.

Ants and termites are a natural source of food. Nematodes can wipe out a colony in a week or two. Buy them from a farming or garden centre, mix them with rain water and tip the water over trouble areas.

Natural predators are a very useful way of controlling pest insects. Harmless lizards and snakes are excellent for this job. However, cats will kill these animals. My neighbour's two cats have cleared the surrounding gardens of lizards in the last six months alone.

Whereas I used to see lizards hunting every day, I have not seen any for weeks. This will affect our plants adversely, so from now on those cats are not welcome in my garden.

Cats will also discourage birds from coming into a garden and birds eat thousands or insects a week each. I still have a many of birds in the garden, but they only hunt in the rose bushes now where the cats fear to go.

You can try growing the plants that you would use as natural insecticides in among the plants that you would spray them on. For instance, greenfly do not like garlic and some gardeners spray their rose bushes with crushed garlic and water, but you can obtain the same result from growing garlic under your roses. One garlic is not enough, you will have to have half a dozen or more per bush, but what is wrong with that? You can eat or sell the garlic.

Wireworms can be lured into tin cans and disposed of. Take a large can, put in a layer of vegetable peelings and punch holes in the sides of it with a screw driver. Empty it every couple of days.

There are many more ways of destroying or repelling pests in the garden without using any kind of pesticide at all, but you will have to look for those yourself.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently involved with Terro Ant Bait. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our web site at Killing Carpenter Ants.