Are There Organic Pesticides?

What to know about organic pesticides.

Yes, organically acceptable pesticides are abundant today. These are organic pesticides that meet the USDA National Standards. These organic pesticides carry the ORMI Listed® seal that shows that they meet the USDA Standards.

If you have considered using these organic pesticides when growing organic natural food, it would be wise to do a little research first. Even though these organic pesticides meet the USDA Standards and have the ORMI Listed® seal it doesn’t mean they can be used without caution. Your just may end up with a problem worse than a few pests.

We have all gone into a store looking for cleaning products for our homes or spraying on our lawns and gardens. When you read most of the labels it looks as though using the products would be safe enough for a child. The advertisements on TV and in magazines will have you convinced that they are safe to use anytime or any place. Then you read the fine print, different story. If you read the fine print on bathroom cleaners it will state that it should be used only in areas that are well ventilated. Now I ask you, how many bathrooms are will ventilated?

The whole process of organic gardening depends on having beneficial insects in the garden to provide protection. If you use organic pesticides that will kill everything good are bad, you have just exposed your garden to more attacks by pests.

A good example of organic pesticides that you should be aware of are as follow:

Copper sulfate – This is a fungicide that is considered to be organic. It has the ORMI Listed® label, but is highly toxic to fish. When it has been used regularly it eliminates earthworms from the soil. Earthworms are needed to provide sustainable natural fertilizer for your plants. So with excessive use you have eliminated one problem but created another.

Pyrethrum – This is a botanical insecticide made from flowers. Yes it kills bad insects, but it also kills good insects. The run off from overuse will kill lake trout and is toxic to birds.

Spinosad – For the southern gardener this appears to be the best thing sense sliced bread, an organic product that controls the dreaded fire ant. It is made from natural occurring bacteria in the soil, which is fermented. Good right, not always, it is toxic to bees and the beneficial wasps if applied improperly.

You can purchase organic pesticides to kill insects and they work very well, but you must be very aware of what is in the organic pesticides and how to properly use these organic pesticides. Again, what have you gained if in the process of eliminating one bad insect you kill all of the beneficial insects that protect you garden?

To help you educate yourself about organic pesticides we have listed a few resources below. These resources will give you more information than is listed on the labels on the products.

The Resource Guide for Organic Insect and Disease Management - http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/resourceguide

Organic Materials Review Institute - http://ormi.org

The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides – http://pesticides.org

The PAN Pesticides Database - http://pesticideinfo.org

The National Pesticide Information Center - http://npic.orst.edu

All of these free resources will provide you with enough information to make you aware of what results, good or bad, you can expect when using organic pesticides.

You can also search here for more information on organic pesticides.