How to Protect Fruit From Pest Naturally

Whether you have fruit trees in your yard, grape vines, or strawberry plants you want to be able to enjoy your ripened fruit when it is finally ready to pick. It never fails; you pick the juiciest strawberry only to find a bite already missing. Those nasty pests ruin the fruit before you pick it. You do not want your family to consume pesticides so how can you protect your fruit from pest without using pesticides. Here are a few simple and inexpensive steps you can take to protect fruit from pest naturally.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vinegar
• Dish soap
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Water
• Spray bottle
• Sticky fly tape
• Short plastic fence sections
• Red disposable plastic cups
• String
• 3M® 77 spray adhesive or
• Vinyl floor adhesive

1. 
   Small sections of plastic fence can deter animals

   Protect plants on the ground by placing a small fence around them to deter rabbits and scavengers. Try to keep your plants as close to your house as possible to discourage deer from eating them.

2. Open a quart-size spray bottle and fill it ¾ full with water. Add 1/8 cup of dish soap to the water, a tsp of garlic powder, tsp of cayenne pepper, and then finish filling the bottle with white vinegar.

3. Spray your growing fruit from 12 to 24 inches away with the vinegar, dish soap, and seasonings solution at least once a week. When you notice the fruit ripening, you may need to spray more often to deter pest.

4. Place Japanese beetle traps approximately every 50 feet in your garden, orchard, or your growing fruit.

5. 
   Hang a bug zapper

   Hang an electric bug zapper near your growing fruit if there is an electrical outlet nearby.

6. Cut a small hole in the bottom center of each red plastic disposable cup. Place a 24-inch piece of string through the hole and tie a knot large enough to prevent the string from pulling out. Apply a sticky adhesive so that it completely covers the cups. Hang the cups from the branches of your fruit trees, on fruit vines, tomato cages, or your pieces of plastic fence. Bugs will stick to the cups. When the adhesive dries, repeat the process.

Tips & Warnings

• Wash fruit under cool water with a little dish soap to clean the skin before eating, especially if it is purchased fruit.

Resources

• Natural products premixed
• 3M Super 77 Spray adhesive