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In My Garden Blog

May 11, 2006
Pacific Northwest
By Patt Kasa,
Seattle, WA

Nasturtiums are irresistible to aphids and serve as great trap crops for them.

Dealing With Bugs

In the world of pest control there are many non-spraying ways to keep pests at bay. One I've experimented with is growing trap crops. Trap crops are plants that certain pests really like. When you plant them in the garden, all the pests go to the trap crop (where you can control them more efficiently), while leaving your other plants alone.

Using Trap Crops
There's some controversy surrounding the use of trap crops. Some plants really do attract pesky aphids and beetles, but the question is, do they attract pests away from other plants in your garden, or do they attract pests to your garden from some distant garden? I'd hate to think I was attracting a population of Mexican bean beetles from a neighboring garden with my bed of marigolds.

Nasturtiums as a Trap Crop
Nasturtiums attract aphids by the score. I've always planted them as a sacrificial crop, pinching off and destroying stems as they become infested. If aphids are a problem in your garden, try my nasturtium trap crop method. Or plant a few sunflowers here and there. Unlike the nasturtiums, whose infested leaves should be pinched off, sunflowers can just be left alone to grow. They are so tough that they tolerate the damage and still produce nice seedheads for our local birds to enjoy.

Buckwheat for Deer Control
If you're plagued with deer like I am, consider planting buckwheat as a trap crop for Bambi and friends. A neighbor tells me that deer go straight for the stands of buckwheat in her garden, leaving her perennial flowers alone. It's worth a try.

Buckwheat also has a number of other worthy attributes. It's an excellent summer cover crop, growing dense enough to crowd out weeds, it attracts droves of bees, and it has a shallow root system, making it easy to till into the soil at the end of the season. It does, however, take over a garden if allowed to set seed. The trick to growing buckwheat is to allow it to flower long enough for the bees to collect pollen, and then cut it down before it sets seed. I'll let you know how useful it proves for deer control.

Repelling Rather Than Trapping
On the other side of the coin are plants that repel. Certain pests dislike certain plants, and you can use this to your advantage by strategically planting your garden.

Try some of these combinations as garden companions: Plant chives at the base of roses to repel aphids; garlic at the base of peach trees to repel borers; basil planted among tomatoes to repel tomato hornworms; nasturtiums grown near squash to repel squash bugs; tomatoes planted among asparagus to repel asparagus beetles; and marigolds, mint, thyme, or chamomile to repel cabbage moths.

Radishes make excellent trap crops for cucumber beetles among squash and cucumbers. Radishes also attract flea beetles when planted near cole crops. Garden borders planted with low-growing thyme or lavender can deter slugs. Tansy and pennyroyal repel ants.

I think these plant combinations are worth trying. If nothing else, you'll have a colorful garden with lots of things in bloom throughout the season -- a perfect combination for attracting beneficial insects that feed on the pests.

Hello Patt~

Just finished reading your information on how to keep the bugs at
bay! This was great! First time that I have seen your column and I
really appreciated it. I will save this, and when my raised vegi
garden spot is built, I will also have this info, besides using the
copper strip around the perimeter of the eco timber, to ward off
slugs!!

Since I am an organic gardener who uses no insecticides, I very much
appreciate what I just read! Hope to read more as the summer
progresses!

Thank you sincerely,

Dianne Kippes
dfkippes@wmconnect.com

What a great article on repeling bugs.  Appreciate the information
and will definitely give it a try.

I'm delighted you found some useful information in the column. I,
too, garden organically and am always looking for ways to keep the
destructive pests at bay while encouraging the good guys. I hope
your veggie garden rewards you with bushels and bushels of yummy
treats!

I appreciate the natural bug control article.  I too try very hard
to garden organically.  My husband and I garden in Santa Barbara, CA
- where the winters are too warm to kill off the eggs.  Therefore we
have all kinds of issues to deal with. 
As far as i can gather aphids are attracted to the Sonkas weed and
Nicotiana leaves.  However, I do like the Nastursium idea also. We
also have a 1/4 inch long worm (larvae) that makes lace of my rose
leaves before it turns into a moth.  After it has finished maturing
my roses are turned into skeletons!  However, quite by accident I
found that spraying the nemetodes does help control these horrid
pests among other eating and damaging beetles and worms. 

Does anyone have good ideas for dealing with white fly?  They are
attracted to my pear tree and a few perrenials. 

My only idea is to pinch the affected leaves and discard in an
enclosed plastic bag. 

I've read that adult whiteflies are repelled by silver- or
aluminum-colored mulches so you might try that in your perennial
bed. I'm not sure that it would work for your tree, though. You
might try hanging sticky yellow traps in the branches. I'm sure
you'll catch a variety of interesting insects! 

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