How To Get Rid Of Locusts In The Garden Organically

How to Get Rid of Locusts in the Garden Organically. Locusts are grasshoppers with short antennae. For this reason, they are also sometimes called short horned grasshoppers. For the most part, locusts live solitary lives; however, when locusts are overcrowded in the larva, or nymph, stage of development, the result is groups of adult locust that swarm. Swarming locusts can wipe out an entire crop in a few days. Locusts are very difficult to get rid of.

Step 1

Bring in predators. The most effective way to control locusts organically is to keep chicken or ducks in your yard and garden. Chicken and ducks both eat locust. If you do not want to keep chicken or ducks, try encouraging birds, such as magpies, to take up residence in your yard.

Step 2

Burn green branches to make smoke if you are trying to drive a swarm of locust off your crops. Although this doesn't always work, some farmers have had success smoking the locust out.

Step 3

Handpick the locust off of your plants if you are dealing with just a few and not an entire swarm. Pick them off the plants and squish them, or drop them into a jar filled with water and a few drops of dish soap. If you don't want to do it yourself, hire a neighborhood kid and pay him five or ten cents for each locust he gets into the jar.

Step 4

Plant calendula or horehound as a barrier around the plants that the locust are eating. Both of these act as a natural repellent for locust.

Step 5

Spray the plants that you are trying to keep the locust off with garlic oil. Garlic oil has been found to be an effective means of repelling locust organically. Neem oil can also be sprayed on the plants to disrupt the growth of the locust. Both of these have to be re-applied periodically.