Organic Solutions-Recipes
Ingredients: Insecticidal soap is sodium or potassium salts combined with fatty acids.
Application: Insecticidal soap must come in direct contact with the insect. It is no longer effective once it has dried.
How It Works: The fatty acids in the soap penetrate the insect’s outer covering and cause the cells to collapse.
PROS:
 One of the safest pesticides.
 Non-toxic to animals.
 No residue.
 You can use on vegetables up to harvest.
Cons: Can burn or stress plants. Don’t use in full sun or high temperatures .
Precautions: Check label for specific plants that may be sensitive to insecticidal soap.
Ingredients: bacteria. There are more than 80 types of Bt used as pesticides. Application: Generally available in powdered form that is sprinkled or dusted on a plant. It must be eaten by the targeted insect. How It Works: Bt is a stomach poison. It releases toxins in the stomachs of susceptible insects which cause them to stop eating and starve.
Pros: Bt strains are very host specific and will not harm people, pets, birds or bees
Cons: Slow acting. It may take days for the insect to completely stop eating and die. Breaks down quickly. Can kill
‘good insects’ like butterfly larva Breaks down rapidly in sunlight.
Precautions: Can be a skin irritant.
Ingredients: Contains 2 ingredients, azadirachtin (AZA0 and liminoids, both frm the seed kernels of the neem tree fruit. Application: Sprayed onto plant leaves. How It Works: Upsets the insects hormonal system and prevents it from developing to its mature stage. Most effective on immature insects and species that undergo complete metamorphosis.
Pros: Non-toxic to humans
Cons: Washes away in rain. Slow acting. Breaks down in sunlight Indiscriminate pesticide
Precautions: Keep pets from treated leaves until they dry.
Ingredients: Highly refined petroleum oil. Application: Mixed with water and sprayed onto foliage. How It Works: Coats and suffocates insects or disrupts their feeding.
Pros: Low toxicity to humans, pets or birds . No toxic residue.
Cons: Most effective against soft bodied insects. Can cause bluish evergreens to temporarily lose their blue tint. Can burn leaves
Precautions: There are several grades. Be sure to use the one that is right for the season in which you are spraying.

Organic Solutions-Recipes
Ingredients: Derived from Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium Application: Generally found in powder form and dusted on leaves. How It Works: Poisons the insect, causing a quick death
Pros: Quick acting. Low toxicity to animals. Degrades within a day.
Cons: Broad spectrum insecticide. Kills any insect. Very toxic to honeybees
Precautions: Use cautiously, only when you have a major problem with hard-to-kill insects.
Ingredients: Ground seeds of the sabadilla lily. Application: Comes as a fine powder and used as a spray. How It Works: Acts as a stomach poison
Pros: Very effective against the true bugs (members of the Hemiptera order)
Cons: Highly toxic to bees. Very irritating to the mucus membranes of mammals
Precautions: Use as a last resort
Ingredients: Derived from the roots of tropical legumes. Application: Dust onto plant. How It
Works: Inhibits a cellular process, depriving insects of oxygen in their tissue cells.
Pros: Low residual effect. Breaks down quickly in sunlight.
Cons: Broad spectrum pesticide
Precautions: Apply in the evening, when bees are less active.
Ingredients: Potassium bicarbonate usually combined with horticultural oil and / or a substance to improve spreading and coverage of the leaves. There are commercially available products such as GreenCure® and Kaligreen, or you can prepare your own Note: Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is often recommend for similar fungus problems, however research has shown potassium bicarbonate works better and is safer on plants. Application: Spray at the first sign of disease or use as a preventative before infection.
How It Works: It’s still unclear, but it appears that bicarbonates can damage the cell wall and possible create a pH that is not conducive to further fungal growth. The effect is immediate. Pros:
 Lasts 2 - 3 weeks as a preventative.
 You can use on vegetables up to harvest.
Cons: Can burn plants, especially if used in full sun.
Precautions: Check label and test on a small area before spraying entire plant.

Organic Solutions-Recipes
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Start by making a 1% boric acid (available at any drugstore) and 20% sugar solution by thoroughly dissolving 1 teaspoon of boric acid and 6 tablespoons of sugar in 2 cups of water. Do this in clear jar so you can see when all the boric acid crystals are dissolved Then soak some cotton balls in this bait solution.
2. Make bait dispensers out of some old plastic margarine tubs with lids. Punch holes in them so the ants can get inside, then put the soaked cotton balls into the containers, and cover them with the lids so the bait won't dry out.
3. Place the bait containers wherever you see ants.
4. Clean the containers and freshen up the bait solution at least once a week.
5. Be patient! Let those worker ants continually carry boric acid back to feed the ants in their nest.
6. After a few weeks, reduce the boric acid even further--to 1\2%--and use that for long, long term control. Using a very low dose makes it more likely that surviving ants will continue eating the bait and taking back to the nest to feed other ants and the queen, which is how you can destroy an entire colony.
This research was conducted by entomologists John Koltz,Ph.D. and Les Greenburg, Ph.D., of the University of California at riverside.
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For a quick, effective, environmentally safe way to keep your cabbages pest free,
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look on your kitchen spice rack. Hot red pepper, specifically the McCormick brand, protect cabbages as well or better than the standard chemical insecticide in studies conducted by entomologist Geoff Zehnder and his colleagues at Auburn
University in Alabama. Weekly spraying with the pepper solution should also protect all brassica crops--cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and collards from these common cabbage pests.
Mix 2 tablespoons of hot red pepper and 6 drops of dish washing soap into a gallon of water, letting it sit overnight, then stirring it thoroughly to dissolve as much of the pepper as possible. Spray weekly.
Garlic appears to be a fungicide as well as an insecticide. Soak 1/2 cup minced garlic in 1 pint of water for several hours or overnight. Then strain the liquid through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Left in, particles in the spray could clog your sprayer. OR Mix 5 to 10 cloves with 1 pint of water in a blender, strain, and spray on plants.
Baking soda. Japanese researchers found that baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) controls powdery mildew
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and other mildews when sprayed on plants at weekly intervals at a concentration of 1 level teaspoonful per 2 quarts water.
Not only did the soda prevent fugal spores from germinating and stop development of the disease, but it even appeared to help the plants repair fungus damaged tissue.
Recent research suggests that compost tea, long used as a fertilizer, can also help plants fight off fungal diseases such as powdery mildew and tomato late blight. Microorganisms in the compost apparently either grow more successfully than or actively attack the disease causing fungus. Make the tea by steeping a burlap or cheesecloth bag containing 1 gallon of well -aged, manure- based compost in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Stir it well and leave it in a warm place for 3 days. Then remove the bag and put the liquid in a sprayer or a watering can. Remove all leaves damaged by disease, then spray or sprinkle the tea over the whole plant. Repeat every 3 to 4 days if the plants still shows symptoms.
This spray is most effective when applied in the evening so plant leaves will remain moist for a few hours.
Collect 1/2 cup of a specific pest and mash well. Mix with 2 cups of water, and strain Mix 1/4 cup of this bug juice and a few drops of soap with 2 cups of water and spray. Don't make yourself sick, too! Use nonfood utensils and wear rubber gloves.

Organic Solutions-Recipes
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To make oxalic acid spray, you'll need lots of rhubarb leaves. Cut 1 pound of the leaves and boil them in 1 quart of water for 1 minute. Strain the mixture through a sieve and bottle the resulting clear liquid. Before spraying, add a little non-detergent soap to help the mixture stick to plant foliage.
This mixture is great for combating many different types of bugs, but especially caterpillars, aphids, and many types of those nasty worms. You need: 1 cup of tobacco & 1 gallon of water. Put the tobacco into the container of water. Allow the mixture to set for approximately 24 hours. After it has stood for a day, check the color. It should be the shade of weak tea. If it is too dark, just dilute it with water until it looks right. *Warning: Don't use this solution on peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, or any other member of the solanaceous family. Tobacco chemicals can kill these types of plants!
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This spray really is great for houseplants. This especially works on meal bugs. You need: 1/2 cup of alcohol; 2-3 tablespoons of dry laundry soap & 1 quart of warm water. Mix all ingredients and spray immediately. You don't have to let this set, but you can't store it either. This solution must be made fresh for each use.
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This solution is used for cabbageworms and spider mites.
2 tablespoons of salt & 1 gallon of water. Just mix and spray!