Green Gardening : How to eliminate bugs and pests without using poison

OEC
Town of Orangetown
Environmental Committee

SPRING 2011
ENVIRONMENTAL
WORKSHOP SERIES
at the Pearl River Library
80 Franklin Avenue
Pearl River, NY 10965

All workshops are FREE.

Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners
Tuesday, May 10th, 7:00 p.m
with Charles and Pam Paolino of Hook Mountain Growers, a micro-farm in Upper Nyack

The Health Threats of Toxic Pesticide Use on Lawns
Wednesday, May 18th, 7:00 p.m.
with community organizer and educator Rose Marie Raccioppi

Smart, Green Landscaping with Native Plants
Tuesday, May 24th, 7:00 p.m.
with landscape designer, Rebecca Gmucs
Pearl River Library is located at 80 Franklin Ave, Pearl River, NY 10965

All workshops are FREE!

For more information about the Spring Environmental Workshop Series or about the Orangetown Environmental Committee, check the town website at www.orangetown.com or contact Larry Soehnel Sr. at (845) 365-2173 or lsoehnel@gmail.com.

Green gardening secrets:
How to eliminate bugs and pests
without using poison

Wednesday, May 04, 2011 by: Neev M. Arnell

(NaturalNews) As people are turning away from chemical ingredients in everything from cleaning products to beauty products, they are also turning to chemical-free foods by growing food in their own backyards.

In order to keep your homegrown produce as free from harmful chemicals as possible while keeping crop-destroying pests to a minimum use natural pest control methods. If prevention doesn't get the job done, try some home remedies first. As a last resort, you can turn to organic pesticide--just make sure all the ingredients are listed and they are all things you are not afraid to put on your food.

Prevention

Preventing pest problems before they start is the best way get ahead of the problem (http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_...). You can do this by following some commonsense guidelines, such as pulling out any weak or already infected plants, building healthy soil to nurture strong plant growth, disinfecting tools after working on infected plants and minimizing breeding grounds for pests by getting rid of non-essential areas of the garden that might serve as a habitat. It is also useful to interplant and rotate crops because it will stop spreading or reinfestation of the many pests that are specific to one type of plant.

Fight nature with nature

Naturally attracting beneficial insects to your garden is one way to fight pests. These insects will prey on plant-damaging pests or their larvae and promote a healthier environment for your crops. Different predator species have different prey, so the type of predator insect you want to promote in your garden will depend on the type of pest problem you are dealing with.

Two commonly used predator insects include ladybugs and lacewings. (http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_...). Ladybugs eat whiteflies scale, mites and aphids and are attracted to tansy, members of the daisy family and yarrow (http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_...). Lacewings are also attracted yarrow as well as goldenrod, asters and black-eyed susan. They eat aphids and their larvae eat aphids as well as other varieties of insects.

University of Rhode Island Horticulture Program recommends dedicating five to ten percent of your garden space to growing flowers for beneficial insects like lady bugs and lacewings (http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sh...).

URI suggestion for annual flowers to encourage beneficial insects:

Spring: alyssum and buckwheat
Early summer: coriander, dill, yarrow and buckwheat
Mid-summer: coriander, fennel, dill, caraway, black-eyed susan, yarrow and dwarf sunflowers
Late summer: coriander, dill, black-eyed susan and dwarf sunflowers
Fall: alyssum, buckwheat and dwarf sunflowers

Homemade pest deterrents

If pests are still problematic homemade pesticides may provide the solution (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Orga...). Ants, for example, are deterred by vinegar and coffee grounds, aphids by garlic and cayenne pepper, and slugs by eggshells.

There are as many different home pest concoctions as there are pests. Using garlic and onions, according to Mother Earth News, is just one way to kill aphids and apple borers, for instance. All you have to do is grind up raw onions or garlic into a puree, soak it warm water overnight and strain. The liquid can then be sprayed on roses, fruit trees, and flowers (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Orga...).

Commercial pesticides

Organic pesticides will often use ingredients similar to those in the homemade kind and have the added benefit of convenience. But consumers beware, just because a pesticide is labeled organic or natural does not mean that it is harmless to the environment.

A 2010 study from the University of Guelph revealed that some organic pesticides can have a higher environmental impact than conventional pesticides because the organic product may require larger doses.

"We found the mineral oil organic pesticide had the most impact on the environment because it works by smothering the aphids and therefore requires large amounts to be applied to the plants," said Rebecca Hallett, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Guelph in Canada (http://bit.ly/d5S6fx).

Organic pesticides on the market often also only list active ingredients. But the active ingredients only comprise 1-2 percent of the solution, leaving 98-99 percent unknown. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients--including several hundred that are considered hazardous under other federal rules--are used in agricultural and residential pesticides, according to Environmental Health News (http://www.environmentalhealthnews....).

"In terms of making pest management decisions and trying to do what is best for the environment, it's important to look at every compound and make a selection based on the environmental impact quotient rather than if it's simply natural or synthetic," said Hallett.

For those who do want to use organic pesticides, one that is effective against a number of pesticide-resistant insects and does not harm beneficial insects is neem oil. Also, being that it is biodegradable, it does not leave a residue on the final produce. Nature Neem offers a 100 percent cold pressed neem oil http://www.natureneem.com/index_fic...), so there are no other ingredients. Because it is oil it requires an emulsifier in order to mix with water, but it is possible to use household hand washing or dishwashing soaps.

Pharm Solutions Inc. is a company that also sidesteps the unknown ingredients pitfall by listing all ingredients on the label. Its Veggie Pharm insecticide and fungicide (http://pharmsolutionsinc.com/veggie...) is made with the pure oils of cottonseed, garlic, peppermint and rosemary. The inactive ingredients include non-GMO canola oil, food grade oleic acid, and USP grade glycerin and carbonic acid monopotassium salt and carrot juice, and the remaining 83.3 percent is water. It has the added benefit that an emulsifier is already added, so it is ready to use.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organi...
http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_...
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Orga...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sh...
http://www.environmentalhealthnews....

Article source:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032276_gardening_natural_pesticides.html#ixzz1LOEeYIgm

Natural Pest Control - Eartheasy.com Solutions for Sustainable Living
http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_cntrl.htm

Tanner's Kids

a true story

by Kristen Hayes-Yearick
December 2, 2009

On July 29, 2005 our lives were irreversibly changed by our Amish neighbor’s use of an Organo Phosphate Pesticide, Dimethoate 4EC. We chose to build our home in a new development in Central Pennsylvania. We were to be the first house in a development of twelve, two acre lots. What a gift to be living in such a beautiful place. What a gift to have a yard for our children and dogs to grow, live, love, laugh and play in. We were aware of farming practices and the use of pesticides but we weren’t living on land connected by farmed fields, or so we thought.

Prior to 2005, I didn’t understand the amount of chemicals in our everyday lives. I didn’t keep harsh chemicals in our home, because of my children. I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing for my children, our health, our animals and our environment. I trusted that our Government Regulatory Agencies and Congress had our health and safety as their primary concern. I read labels and followed directions. I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing, or so I thought.

On July 29, 2005 we were outside with our three children then ages 9, 6, 2 and our beloved Golden Retriever, Tanner. Our Amish neighbor was spraying the lots adjoined to ours with what we assumed to be an Organic Fertilizer. We were told by the land developers they were just mowing the lots to use as bedding for their cows. We didn’t ask questions. We trusted that was the truth. We didn’t have a clear understanding of Amish farming practices but based on our limited knowledge, it never entered our minds that they were spraying a toxic chemical. As we played we exchanged smiles and waved at our neighbor. As he was spraying he was within 5 feet of our swing set, 20ft of our well. We felt the mist.

On August 7, 2005 our dog Tanner collapsed in our front yard. We took Tanner to the Vet. The Vet admitted Tanner and after 2 days his condition worsened. On August 9, 2005 the Vet performed exploratory surgery to find massive internal bleeding. His spleen had ruptured. We had to put Tanner to sleep. The Vet informed us Tanner had been poisoned. How? I remembered the day, the mist. I remembered Tanner rolling in the grass, eating the grass, drinking our well water and laying in the sun. I thought of my children outside playing with him.

My husband went to our neighbor’s farm to ask what he had been spraying that day. We were told Dimethoate 4EC. My husband asked if he used that near his home. He responded, “No, that is not to be used near homes!” He told my husband he was leasing the land from the developers to plant, spray and harvest Alfalfa. Alfalfa to be used as feed for his dairy cows.

Shortly after the spraying my son stopped talking. The light went out in our sweet boys eyes. He began repetitive behaviors such as running back and forth in the house and head rocking and banging. The once very social little boy withdrew from those he didn’t know well. He wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone outside of our family.

All three of my children have moderate to severe allergies. Two of my children developed Asthma. One of my children has evidence of Endocrine Disruption. She has a cluster of crystal filled cysts around her Thyroid. She has Raynaud's Disease and Vitamin D deficiency. One of our children stopped talking shortly after the exposure. My husband has severe respiratory issues, Asthma, Allergies and an enlarged right side of his heart. We were told the enlargement was due to Oxygen deprivation issues. My husband’s lung function has been so poor he couldn’t have lung function tests at various times because his lungs were too weak. He has been in and out of the Emergency room for Respiratory problems. November 2009, I had to call 911 because he couldn’t breathe, he was unresponsive. None of which was present before, spring of 2005. I have Essential Tremors, muscle degeneration, gait disturbances, allergies, severe Vitamin D deficiency, adrenal insufficiency and a cyst in my Pituitary gland.

In April of 2006 we notice our neighbor preparing the lots once again. We are in disbelief! He can’t actually be planning on planting, spraying and harvesting again, can he? We have documented all of this on film.

On June 10, 2006 after returning home from my Grandmother’s funeral the local Ag distributor comes to our door. He is informing us that our neighbor has hired them to spray a Pyrethroid Pesticide, Mustang Max(FMC Corp.). He said they would be spraying on Monday and to keep our children and dogs in the house at least until Wednesday if not longer. He informed us that you have to be licensed to spray Mustang Max and that is why he would be spraying it. After he left we decided to call them and advise this wouldn’t be in their best interest. After everything that has happened, how could he do this again? Is Alfalfa worth causing illness and an animal’s death? The Ag distributor decided not to spray for our neighbor but did deliver the Mustang Max. We were told they didn’t know what our neighbor’s intentions were at this time.

Several days later our 1 year old Golden Retriever, Claddagh was lethargic with vomiting and diarrhea. I had flu like symptoms. We had kept the children inside, but Claddagh and I had to go outside to walk her. Apparently our neighbor chose to spray in the middle of the night. He was avoiding confrontation and documentation of his administration of the Pyrethroid. The Pyrethroid he wasn’t licensed to spray. That morning we went outside and found manure from his horses on our property. He not only was spraying again but crossed our property line.

On July 14, 2006 our neighbor harvested, very late at night. My husband confronted him asking, ‘is the hay that important to risk my family’s health and safety?’ He didn’t respond. We didn’t understand how this can happen.

The planting, spraying and harvest continued through 2007. He told members of a local environmental group that he was going to continue to farm the land as long as he had the land developer’s permission. He told them he was completely aware of what happened to us but he would not stop.

As we know genetics loads the gun and our environment pulls the trigger. Pesticides leach into ground water, they are stored in fat and muscle, are excreted into breast milk. My son absorbed the pesticides through his skin, inhaled them into his lungs, drank our well water and I was breastfeeding him at the time. He was also eating non organic table foods. I was so careful, or so I thought. I limited what my children ate in what I thought was the only junk food. I breastfed for a year exclusively with each of them and continued until close to their third birthdays. I was aware, or so I thought. I didn’t use harsh chemicals, immunized on schedule, actively did things to protect our environment. I was a textbook Mother, or so I thought.

It is 2009 and very little has changed in our lives. I have continued to research, make contacts and raise awareness. Our health issues occupy much of our lives. Even more so the frustration as we realized that Big Ag and Big Chemical industries are woven tightly into every aspect of our Government and legislation. I didn’t understand when this first happened how or why I wasn’t being heard. I questioned my own sanity. I was constantly second guessing myself. Is this in my head? No. Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? No. Why don’t our elected officials care? Why aren’t our medical professionals educated in the dangers and reality of pesticide exposures? Why are millions of Americans suffering because of the use and misuse of pesticides and chemicals? Why isn’t the general public aware that this is going on? How are parents supposed to protect their children if they don’t know?

I’ll tell you how, “Knowledge is power!” Our story is your story. What happened to us is not unique except that through Tanners death we were made aware of what is going on. We were made aware that Pesticides and toxic chemicals are in everything we do. We eat them, drink them, breathe them, they are everywhere in our daily lives. The problem isn’t in what we knowingly expose ourselves to. There is a difference between making poor choices in our lives that only we can be held accountable for and those choices being made for us. The problem lies within what we don’t know we are being exposed to. It is time for us to come together and demand that our health, our safety, our environment comes first. It is time for us to demand that People and Planet come before Profit and Politics.

I have applied for the necessary permits to have a peaceful demonstration in July 2010 in Washington DC. My now 7 year old son said to me, “Mom, why don’t you start a protest!” In my beautiful boys eyes things are so simple, so pure and so profound. Would you join me in organizing S.T.O.P, Stand Together Opposing Pesticides, Preservatives, Plastics, Pollution and Patented Seeds?

"You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” --George Bernard Shaw

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."---Margaret Mead

And YES, This Is My Story
Grandmother Finds New Lease on Life
The Beebe News, September 25, 2003, Page 11

Chemical toxins caused serious health issues, now she is young at heart once more. An active mother, grandmother and award-winning and honored educator, Rose Marie Raccioppi knew she had to find a solution to her health problems. Like millions of women in America she had cleaned her home and worked in her garden, using toxic cleaners and sprays. "Little did I know what ills the future would bring,” says Rose Marie.

A growing number of communities, physicians and medical researchers are concerned that the liberal use of insecticides, herbicides and other chemicals on home lawns and gardens may be hazardous to human health. U.S. lawns and gardens use 70 million to 75 million pounds of pest-killing ingredients annually. These substances, some of which include potential carcinogens and hormone disrupters, may present hazards to people who apply them and may leach into groundwater, says an article published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

”Innocently I placed weed killer on the flower and shrub beds and paid little attention to the light headed feeling and annoying rash. I thought it would pass,” said Rose Marie.“Spraying, cleaning, polishing, all seemingly noble deeds of a dutiful housewife resulted in headaches, skin rashes and a sinus infection that led to the use of antibiotics,” she says. “I had an allergic reaction to the medication, which resulted in the prescription of additional medication that brought about a pancreatic reaction and required hospitalization,” she explained. Rose Marie developed food allergies and became hypersensitive to the smell of perfumes, tobacco, cosmetics, hair preparations, fabric finishes, carpets and household cleaning products. She was getting headaches, nausea and fatigue. Then the final phase of her illness began, her symptoms became unbearable: utter fatigue, weakness, leg and knee swellings, headaches and body sores. She also got Lichen Planus, a disease that affects the skin, the mouth, or both with painful lesions. Rose Marie got it on her tongue and upper lip.

Rose Marie was at the end of her tether. "I could not live such a compromised existence, I had a successful private practice serving children and families with special education needs.“I was the recipient of honors and awards, I had three devoted sons and two beautiful grandchildren, all reasons to celebrate this gift of life; not to be a victim of what ever was oppressing my health.”She began to search for a solution to her health problems. At a meeting with a like-minded group of advocates for learning disabled children, Rose Marie heard about the New York Times best-selling book Clear Body Clear Mind by L. Ron Hubbard. The book covers Mr. Hubbard's breakthrough research about how toxic residues get trapped in the fatty tissue of the body and affect our health, both physical and mental.

Each chapter brought me closer and closer to the conviction that this was what I needed to consider,” she says. Rose Marie investigated the places that delivered the detoxification program outlined in the book, which is a carefully monitored program of nutrition, vitamins, exercise and sauna to release and sweat out the toxins trapped in the fatty tissue of the body. Rose Marie was referred to a clinic in Sacramento that delivers this program. Although the program was vigorous and very demanding, as the program progressed, symptoms elevated and then subsided. The body seemed to re-experience the memory of each toxic experience. When she was complete on the program Rose Marie felt as though a heavy fog had been lifted from her. “ I am free of the devastating state I once lived. I can now enjoy the love and company of my family in good health,” she says. And she felt so strongly about it that she needed to express her experience in another medium. Rose Marie took up painting and began to create vibrant watercolors. She is now a successful artist with her own website http://www.apogeeart.com“ Each painting is a metaphor expressing the delight in life now lived,” says Rose Marie. “ I am now an exhibiting artist, published poet and vigorous enough to maintain a private practice serving the needs of learners across the age span.”

A Post Script - Over A Decade Later

Yes, and I reach out, write, post, teach, research, learn, paint, create, in good health, with a missionary zeal, sparked by a vision of understanding need, of responding to that inner voice of BEING, of living change and holding to gratitude.

Ever with faith,
Rose Marie Raccioppi