Everything I grow is 200% organic - nothing but air, light, water, and soil. I don't want my food or medicine to have anything in it except that which Nature intended.
But bugs happen. Flies, gnats, thrips, aphids, larva, mites, and all manner of crawling or flying 6 legged critters. In a lot of cases, we don't want them on our plants or in our soil. Here's a cost-effective and safe way to bug-proof your indoor garden without any pesticides, chemicals, sprays, or products of any kind!
Diatomaceous earth, as the name suggests, is earth (dirt) made out of diatoms, which are fossilized microorganisms like tiny corals that lived millions of years ago. Massive deposits of it are found in various places. Once collected, it is pulverized to dust. It's a whitish colour because the diatom fossils are made of Silicon Dioxide - the same compound that makes sand, and glass.
How it works
The tiny glass particles get between the moving parts of insects (and mites) and cut them up. This makes it an effective natural pesticide when added to dirt, without affecting nutrients or anything else about it!
Just incorporate about 1-5% diatomaceous earth to your soil mix, depending on your needs, and/or sprinkle some directly on your soil surface (and anywhere insects may live or travel).
It's harmless to plants, and to mammals (except as an eye and lung irritant). It can't cut your skin, and it feels just like any other dry powder. It's inert - it doesn't break down, react with chemicals, or add/remove nutrition from the soil. It works wet or dry, and never gets used up.
I just got a HUGE bag!
I just got back from my garden supplier with a lifetime supply of diatomaceous earth! Check out this bag:
Here's a closeup of the product info:
Here's what it looked like once I opened the bag:
I used a funnel and chopstick to get the powder into my empty dispenser bottle from a previous purchase:
Now I'm ready for action once again:
That little bottle originally cost me ten bucks. I've got about 100 more bottle refills here!
I bagged and taped it up so it remains in good condition and available for years to come:
The bag was about $30. They aren't available in this form everywhere, but it's worth checking around and locating a bag!
Why consider diatomaceous earth?
Even "organic" products like Azadirachtin ("Neem") can be dangerous when used incorrectly, such as on cannabis plants. Neem toxicity causes repetitive vomiting, also known as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. We should also remember that it was a supposedly safe product, Myclobutanil, that caused the "vape crisis" in 2019.
Go 200% organic - no products! Just upgrade your soil! Diatomaceous earth will deal with almost any crawling bugs, and many flies that land on the soil surface to drink or deposit eggs. And use a little prophylactically, to keep pristine gardens pristine.
Grow in peace.
DRutter
I love the tradition of making a Hive (and previously, Steem) logo out of diatomaceous earth, each time there's a new post about soil : D
And it's good to have a proper full post about diatomaceous earth.
Upvoted and reblogged <3
Oh can you use #naturalmedicine tag on this?? I'd love community to know more about it. It's great stuff.. I use it on my veggies in earwig season..
Good suggestion, yes, I'll add that tag now.
And thanks for your comment :)
I wonder if it can be used as a spray? Also I worry if you put in your soil will it also kill the microbes? I have a silica powder that is derived from DE. Is this the same stuff?
Good question (if it can be used as a spray). The particles are quite small (basically dust) so I think it's potentially possible.
Luckily the microbes are too small to be harmed by the shards of (essentially) glass. Although if DE could kill bacteria, that would be really good in another way, because then we could use it as a natural antibiotic that never causes antibiotic-resistant superbugs! But as far as I know, DE isn't tiny enough to kill single-celled organisms. It seems to be too small to hurt mammals, too big to hurt microbes, but just right for mites and bugs.
If you have a powder made of silica, and it was derived from DE, then it sounds good! Some DE products are "baited" though, which means they are mixed with an attractant. Basically it's like bug killer, they come eat it and die. The stuff I get isn't baited. I don't want to attract bugs, just get rid of any that happen to come around! :)
This stuff is great, Works at help keep ants out of a house and grow tent. I sprinkle small amounts around the edges of my basement.
Awesome work on sharing this
The logo is hard to make I know lol
Sounds a bit nasty for the bugs though😱.
Yeah I know! Sliced up to smithereens. :(
I try and do as little harm to other living things as possible (something some people call "veganism"), but I admit that I do kill insects (and simpler organisms) from time to time. For example, bedbugs must be eliminated - they aren't compatible with healthy human life. Mosquitoes get whacked around here because they can carry disease to humans. I'm also not very fond of most rodents, especially rats. I remove caterpillars and other chomping insects from my food and medicine plants. I would defend my garden against deers... why not against bugs? That's how I think about it. Self defense. It's okay for me to survive. When it comes down to competition between me and another living thing, as long as I don't do any harm to it that could be avoided, I don't feel like I've done wrong. Of course, morality is subjective, and there's no definite right anwer to this stuff, and it's an ongoing debate. 12 years ago I was paying others to torture rape and kill sentient mammals for my pleasure. Now I'm not sure if I should be more careful about the bugs in my garden. Who knows where I'll be in 10 years? Maybe throwing a spear at a wild animal, hahah. Just trying to find my way through this life, while doing as little harm to others as I can. Not everyday is perfect, I readily admit that.
One happy thought: keeping bug populations down (like with DE) will result in LESS bug deaths in the long run. If they're allowed to get our of control, then a larger number would have to be dealt with. This way, a few get initially wiped out to keep my medicine patch healthy, and then numbers are kept very low.