Safe, Natural Insecticides for Strawberries
Growing any food plants at home will likely require a well-designed pest control program. But concerns over the health and environmental effects of eating foods treated with chemical insecticides leads some homeowners to seek natural and safe alternative pest control measures that will protect their harvest while side-stepping the potential risks of using chemical insecticides. Strawberries, for example, are prone to attack from a number of insect pests, and there are several natural and safe control methods you can use to prevent the insect's damaging your strawberry yield. Does this Spark an idea?
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Strawberry Pests
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Generally speaking, insect control programs are effective to the extent that they are targeted at specific species. Therefore, when designing a natural insect control program, it is necessary to first look at the most common insect pests of the strawberry plant. There are three categories of strawberry insect pests that are differentiated by the part of the plant that they damage. Root-feeding pests include the strawberry crown borer, strawberry root weevil and white Grubs; Foliage feeding pests include leafrollers, mites and strawberry rootworm; flower- and fruit-feeding pests include eastern flower thrips, slugs, strawberry clipper, strawberry sap beetle and tarnished plant bug.
Preventative Control Methods
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While not literally insecticides themselves, preventative steps can often be the most effective natural and safe insect control methods. Inquire a local university extension office as to the insect that occur most commonly in your area and look for strawberry cultivars that are naturally resistant to that insect. Limit the use of broad-spectrum insecticides on other plants that are growing near the strawberries; these insecticides can kill off strawberry pests' natural predators that otherwise would keep the pest populations under control. Always carefully monitor your strawberry plants and hand-remove small populations of insects as you observe them -- before they have a chance to establish an infestation on the strawberry plants. Also remove weeds growing around the plants to eliminate potential overwintering sites for insects. All these measures taken together can preclude the need to use any insecticides at all by preventing pest infestations before they occur.
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Natural Insecticides
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Of course, if your plant is already infested, preventative steps will be of little use to you. Natural devices like sticky traps or a cup of beer buried so that it is level with the soil surface can trap or drown pests like slugs and allow you to kill them naturally before they damage your strawberry plants. Commercially sold natural insecticides include neem oil, horticultural oil, insecticidal soap and the like; anyone of these substances approved for use on strawberry pests can offer safe and natural pest control on your strawberry plants.
Other Considerations
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If you must use a synthetic chemical insecticide, using it properly is the key to minimizing risks to people, animals and environment. Always follow the manufacturer's printed application instructions meticulously; to apply the insecticide otherwise is illegal, will not offer effective pest control and will put people and animals at unnecessary risk. So long as the insecticide you purchase is approved for use on strawberry plants and so long as you follow the application instructions exactly, you do not need to be especially concerned about the safety of eating strawberries harvested from the treated plants. But if you do have concerns to that effect, contact a local university extension office with information on the type of insecticide you used as well as how and when you applied it and have them address your concerns.
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