10 Kid-Safe Ways to Remove Garden Pests

There are so many great things when it comes to gardening with kids. You can teach them science lessons and also many life lessons. But while gardening with the kids you want to take measures to also make sure they are safe. And removing pests from the garden can lead to some less than safe options to protect your garden from pests.

With that in mind, here are ten safe options to remove garden pests from your home garden.

1. Sprinkle sawdust, ashes, or wood chips around your garden to deter certain pests. Slugs will not cross this barrier so to keep them out of your garden, lay this stuff along the edges and you’ll avoid those pests without having to mess with any materials which will be unsafe for your children to touch.
2. Spray grasshoppers with molasses. The sweetness attracts them, but it blocks their nasal passages and causes them to suffocate. You can easily eradicate an entire crop of grasshoppers by just spraying the grasshoppers with molasses whenever you see them.
3. Garlic is not just for vampires. Planting garlic in your garden or just spraying it with garlic will deter many unwanted insects. Plant the garlic sporadically amongst your garden to keep those pests at bay.
4. Know the helpful bugs from the destructive bugs. Keeping bugs like praying mantis, ladybugs, beetles, and spiders in your yard will be a huge help. They will eat all of those pests which do damage to your crops.
5. Having bats in the yard is not such a bad thing. Have your kids help you create bat houses to attract bats because they’ll come out at night and gobble up all of those nasty bugs you don’t want around.
6. Keep ducks and chickens in your yard. They will eat these destructive insects. Your kids will love having these new pets as well. They can’t just be on a diet of insects, though, so be prepared to feed them seed as well. Keep them protected in a coop at night so other animals that prey on them don’t get them while you sleep.
7. For larger pests, use chili powder around your garden. Capsaicin is the active ingredient in chili powder which will deter things like raccoons, skunks, and opossums. It won’t affect birds or other wanted critters in your yard, just mammals. You can even use chili powder in your bird seed to keep other animals from eating the seed.
8. Fans, radios, and balloons will deter wildlife. The movement and noise from these things will frighten this unwanted wildlife from your garden.
9. Plant native to the area plants. This will deter pests in your yard.
10. Organic gardening. By following organic gardening techniques such as building a healthy soil, using companion planting, spraying herbal pest sprays, and crop rotation, you can help keep those unwanted critters at bay.

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When gardening with your kids there’s nothing more important than making sure they are safe out there. So avoiding toxic chemicals and using these more natural methods for pest control is the way to go.