Growing Your Own Insecticide

Want a simple solution for growing your own insecticide, in the event that one day you might not be able to get it?

Many fruit and nut trees can become infested with insects; severely threatening your ability to produce food.  In this video I share a technique that my local permaculture designer taught me, for growing your own type of ‘insecticide’.

And the good news is, that it can be done completely off the grid, and gives your fruit or nut trees a nutritional boost that insecticides don’t offer.


The netting that you see me use in this video can be found here: http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=401

I highly recommend that you add additional supports to your purchase, especially if you are on uneven ground like I am.

Tip: You want to range your chickens on the ground infested with insect larvae during the time they are hatching.  For the tree slugs that I mentioned in this video (which are actually Sawfly larvae) I called my local Extensions office and asked them when tree slugs are born.  They told me that in my area (the Pacific/Maritime Northwest) that tree slugs are actually born two times a year… the first being in late spring.

What that means is that I should put this net around my Cherry Trees mid-April to make sure my chickens gobble them all up.

How Many Chickens Do You Need?

I asked this question from one of my designers and they said 6 chickens should be plenty to eradicate the tree slug population under my two Cherry Trees in this 1,700 square foot set up.

I plan on sharing whether or not that is true in the future by updating this article.

Hopefully you liked this little tip!

I sure thought it was cool when I discovered it.  What a perfect thing to take what is a destructive pest, and turn it into live chicken feed.  The yield of fruit or nuts from our trees improves, the health of the tree improves, and the chickens benefit from eating the high protein slugs.

It’s a Win-Win all the way around.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: theprepperproject


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