Sawfly larvae eating my leaves. Is there a spray I can make
Looking for a homemade spray to get rid of these pesky creatures destroying my bushes
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Well, no... Not sure there is anything home made that will be very effective against them, but you can do hand picking.
It isn't a short term solution, but in the long term what you want is to have your garden ecosystem in balance with lots of predators keeping the guys like this in check. It helps to have bird houses, bird baths, because there are lots of birds for whom these guys would be a tasty snack, including chickadees, robins, mockingbirds, english sparrows. One of the main predators of them is several varieties of tiny, stingless wasps that parasitize them. You can attract these in to your garden, by planting things that have nectar in tiny florets. This includes Queen Anne’s lace, dill, cilantro and fennel. alyssum, yarrow, caraway, lemon balm, parsley, tansy, and others. Applestar, a mod here, always talks about the Garden Patrol, all the good guys in the garden that are on patrol, helping keep everything safe.
In the short-term, if you are willing to buy stuff, Safer's Insecticidal soap is supposed to be effective against them. And since they are leaf eaters, they should be susceptible to Neem oil, which is sprayed on the leaves and then works on whatever ingests it while eating the leaves. The Neem oil is harmful to bees if it gets sprayed on them, so preferably do the spraying after the bees have gone home or early in the AM and try to avoid spraying it on the flowers. These are both organic, pretty harmless remedies.
It isn't a short term solution, but in the long term what you want is to have your garden ecosystem in balance with lots of predators keeping the guys like this in check. It helps to have bird houses, bird baths, because there are lots of birds for whom these guys would be a tasty snack, including chickadees, robins, mockingbirds, english sparrows. One of the main predators of them is several varieties of tiny, stingless wasps that parasitize them. You can attract these in to your garden, by planting things that have nectar in tiny florets. This includes Queen Anne’s lace, dill, cilantro and fennel. alyssum, yarrow, caraway, lemon balm, parsley, tansy, and others. Applestar, a mod here, always talks about the Garden Patrol, all the good guys in the garden that are on patrol, helping keep everything safe.
In the short-term, if you are willing to buy stuff, Safer's Insecticidal soap is supposed to be effective against them. And since they are leaf eaters, they should be susceptible to Neem oil, which is sprayed on the leaves and then works on whatever ingests it while eating the leaves. The Neem oil is harmful to bees if it gets sprayed on them, so preferably do the spraying after the bees have gone home or early in the AM and try to avoid spraying it on the flowers. These are both organic, pretty harmless remedies.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
It's easy to have house sparrows around since they are sort of an invasive pest. Put up a sunflower seed tube feeder with black oil sunflower seeds or just put some sunflower seed on the ground and they will come.
The same black oil sunflower seed will attract chickadees and a number of other birds, including cardinals, nuthatches, titmice.
To attract robins and mockingbirds and many others, have a source of water and some berry producing shrubs. One of the best is serviceberry - over forty species of birds like those berries.
Birds are a charming, beautiful, and very valuable addition to your garden.
The same black oil sunflower seed will attract chickadees and a number of other birds, including cardinals, nuthatches, titmice.
To attract robins and mockingbirds and many others, have a source of water and some berry producing shrubs. One of the best is serviceberry - over forty species of birds like those berries.
Birds are a charming, beautiful, and very valuable addition to your garden.