Herbicides and Insecticides: What, When, Why, and the Alternatives

Herbicides and Insecticides: What, When, Why, and the Alternatives

by Carrie Stark

When you spend hours on your hands and knees toiling in the dirt to produce crop, you don’t want the aggravation of watching your plants wilt away or be eaten by other creatures. There are various methods to deal with both problems. The most popular method is to treat soil or plants with herbicides and insecticides. The key to solving any problem is to research possible solutions and to determine the best one.

What are Herbicides and Insecticides?

One common solution is to purchase an herbicides and insecticides from the local grocery store. Herbicides and insecticides are part of a larger group called pesticides. According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture a pesticide is a substance that is used to “prevent, destroy, control, repel or mitigate any insect, rodent, snail, slug, fungus, [and] weed.” Some pesticides are specifically designed to eliminate a certain species.

Herbicide is a pesticide that is designed to target weeds that are growing in your yard or garden.

Insecticides are pesticides that are designed to kill, suppress or stupefy insects. They are meant to prevent the insects from eating or destroying plants.

Why Use Them?

What makes pesticides so appealing? There are many advantages that can be gleaned when a pesticide is used.

Pesticides promote plant growth by killing invasive weeds. Invasive weeds are a threat to plant life. They grow fast, reproduce faster, steal water from other plants which can stunt plant growth. Invasive plants often release neurotoxins that inhibit the growth of other plants. Once the soil is empty they creep into the area formerly occupied by another type of plant. When used right and carefully, pesticides exterminate the weeds before they can starve the plants in your garden.

Pesticides are often long lasting. The chemicals linger in the soil once applied. The stronger the chemical, the longer the chemicals will protect the soil. This can also work against you and prevent crop growth if the wrong pesticide is used.

The Fallout

Clearly there are many advantages to using pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. If you can use a chemical to assure a higher chance of crop and flower success, why should we hesitate? Just as every action has an equal and opposite reaction, chemicals meant to promote healthy plant growth can have negative effects on the ecosystem that they are introduced to.

Using the wrong pesticides can kill crops and weeds. In a perfect world the use of pesticides will destroy all the weeds in your garden. In a perfect world garden plants and flowers will not be affected by the chemical. This is not a perfect world. Pesticides, depending on the strength of the solution, can adversely affect the growth of crops or kill surrounding plants that are not classified as weeds.

Some insecticides have the unfortunate side effect of killing insects that are beneficial to crop growth. An insecticide called neonicotinoid has been in commercial use since 2005. Neonicotinoid has been linked with the destruction and collapse of entire bee colonies. Without bees we will need to rely on alternative means to fertilize plants. These alternative methods are inefficient, expensive, and nearly impossible to complete on a global scale. The result would be less plants to transform the carbon dioxide into oxygen. A dangerous situation to the environment and the people that live there.

Long term exposure to pesticides can be toxic. Birth defects, cancer, nerve damage, reduced IQ, and learning disabilities are some common side effects. These are the worst case scenarios. Washing food before consumption will significantly reduce exposure and health problems caused by pesticides. If you have children you should seek other options. Children are more susceptible to pesticides due to the fact that they are still in development and have a penchant for stuffing anything they can get their hands on in their mouth.

Alternatives Methods

Before you turn to pesticides there are various methods you can use to promote plant growth.

• Remove pests by hand. With small gardens, pulling out the weeds and removing unwanted insects is doable and healthier for the environment. Although it isn’t always practical.

• If snails, slugs, and caterpillars are a problem you can place broken eggshells around plants that are being affected. This will send the snails packing when their soft underbellies are cut by the shells.

• Put a fence around the garden to protect plants from little critters. You can also build a barbwire roof over the garden to ward off birds.

• You can grow certain plants to deter bugs. To conquer your bug problem research any possible bug dislikes. Some insects are sensitive to smells and will not venture into an area with a hinky smelling plant. Colorado potato beetles are driven away by the smell of garlic. Keeping bugs away can be as simple as diversifying your crop and placing strong smelling plants around the crops you want to protect.

While pesticides and herbicides are certainly affective, they should not be your first choice. Once you’ve explored the alternative be sure to determine the best pesticide for your goal and region of use. In the end you need to go forth plant and conquer your enemies. Just make sure you’re not sabotaging yourself in the long run.

Carrie Stark watched her parents and grandparents plant seeds and tends gardens on her father’s farm. Thirty years later she incorporates the knowledge learned and memories obtained planting sweet corn  on the farm.