Herbs and Bugs - Help!!!!

[wtexasfam]

We pot planted some herbs about 7-10 days ago. Everything seems to be growing but now we have small bugs (no see'ms, gnats, not really sure what there are called). Does anybody know of a good natural way to get rid of them? Don't really want to use a pesticide since we plan to use the herbs in our cooking. Also, any idea where they came from? Used an organic potting soil to plant them.
Thanks!!

[bugstabber]

You might want to find out for sure what they are first, they might be beneficial. Are they eating the plant? There's a really tiny bug called orius, or minute pirate bug which is a good guy even though they bite us! http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/NE/mi...irate_bug.html

[culpeper]

If the bugs are eating your plants, garlic spray is the go.

GARLIC SPRAY:
Soak 1/2 cup crushed garlic cloves in 1/2 cup vegetable oil for one week. Add a little liquid soap and dilute the mixture - 1 part mixture to 10 parts water. Garlic spay will kill and repel aphids, woolly aphids, bean fly, stink bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, red spider mite, sawfly larvae, scale, snails, slugs, thrips and caterpillars, mosquitoes and ticks, the adult moths of leaf-miners and mealy bugs. It is an effective fungicide when used 3-4 times a week against potato blight and damping off.
OR
Crush 100g garlic, 2 chillies and 2 onions and cover with water for 24 hours. Strain and add enough water to make up 2 litres.

No - your plants won't taste of garlic (unless they're garlic chives of course). You will, of course, rinse your herbs before using them. You never know who poo-ed on them, do you?

[pinemead]

Fungus gnats?

[turtlehead]

Flea beetles?

[Tricky Grama]

Could be from keeping the plants too wet? Spread a little cornmeal-won't hurt.

Patty

[M.Plessner]

Originally Posted by culpeper

If the bugs are eating your plants, garlic spray is the go.

GARLIC SPRAY:
Soak 1/2 cup crushed garlic cloves in 1/2 cup vegetable oil for one week. Add a little liquid soap and dilute the mixture - 1 part mixture to 10 parts water. Garlic spay will kill and repel aphids, woolly aphids, bean fly, stink bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, red spider mite, sawfly larvae, scale, snails, slugs, thrips and caterpillars, mosquitoes and ticks, the adult moths of leaf-miners and mealy bugs. It is an effective fungicide when used 3-4 times a week against potato blight and damping off.
OR
Crush 100g garlic, 2 chillies and 2 onions and cover with water for 24 hours. Strain and add enough water to make up 2 litres.

I've used this method and it works quite well. I've also heard of making a spray from hot peppers but I haven't tried it.

[turtlehead]

I mix a couple of cloves of garlic and a real hot pepper in some water in the blender. Blend until the pieces disappear. Then strain into a jar and let it mellow a couple of days.

Spray on your plants and be sure to stand up wind when you do.
It'll make you cry and gag if it blows into your face.

[meanwhile]

Tricky Grandma gave me the cornmeal trick idea a while back, we did it and we put a fan on ours and bugs are gone! I also did toss out a whole tray we had planted with yard dirt rather than sterile soil. I think our ghats were from the yard dirt. We put the cornmeal on soil of others, used the fan and we also reduced the water. Good luck -