Detailed Explanation of Pollution-Free Prevention and Control Methods for Vegetable Pests and Diseases
In vegetable production, when using pesticides to prevent and control vegetable pests and diseases, one must be cautious; a slight negligence can cause environmental pollution and even endanger the lives of humans, livestock and poultry. The following eight pollution-free pest and disease control methods are introduced for vegetable growers everywhere to choose from when carrying out prevention and control.
I. Control Method Using Plant-Based or Low-Toxicity Agents
1. Treating aphids with peach leaves: use 5 kg of peach leaves, 50 g of quicklime, and 75 kg of water, soak for 24 hours, filter, and spray evenly. This method can not only prevent and control vegetable aphids, but can also treat bedbugs, fleas and other pests in livestock sheds.
2. Treating aphids and leaf roller insects with chili liquid: mash 0.5 kg of chili, add 30 kg of water, soak for 24 hours, filter, and spray evenly.
3. Treating aphids and red spiders with wild artemisia liquid: add 0.5 kg of wild artemisia to 10 kg of water, soak for 10 minutes, filter, and spray evenly.
4. Treating aphids and red spiders with laundry detergent: spray with a 1% neutral laundry detergent solution.
5. Treating cabbage aphids and yellow fleas with tobacco powder: grind tobacco into fine powder, add a small amount of lime powder, and broadcast it.
6. Treating aphids with fresh cow urine: use 30 kg of fresh cow urine per mu, add 30 kg of water, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., spray the urine evenly on the undersides of the plant leaves; after 24 hours, the aphid-killing effect reaches more than 90%.
II. Protection and Utilization of Natural Enemies for Control
Spiders, ladybugs, mantises, dragonflies, cabbage caterpillars, ground beetles, frogs, bats, swallows, geckos and parasitic wasps are all "natural enemies" of many pests and should be protected and utilized.
III. Plant Intercropping Repellent Method
The secretions of some plants have a repellent effect on certain pests or pathogens. This can be achieved through mixed planting or intercropping to prevent and control pests and diseases at the edges. For example, intercropping cruciferous vegetables such as Chinese cabbage with lettuce or mint can repel cabbage caterpillars; intercropping garlic with rapeseed can repel cabbage aphids; intercropping garlic with cotton can repel cotton aphids; intercropping tomatoes with cabbage can repel cabbage pests; intercropping onions with peas can prevent pea black spot disease; intercropping chives with Chinese cabbage can prevent Chinese cabbage soft rot.
IV. Repelling and Killing Method
Some pests are phototactic, while some pests are chemotactic and like sugar, vinegar, wine and weeds and fallen leaves; the habits of pests can be used for trapping and killing. For example, installing black light lamps, high-pressure mercury lamps and vibration-frequency insect-killing lamps over fish ponds can turn large numbers of pests into fish feed; using piles of weeds to trap and kill crickets; using sugar, vinegar and wine to trap and kill cutworms; planting several castor plants in a peanut field can cause scarab beetles to be poisoned and die after eating castor stems and leaves.