Pesticide and Parenting

This is my organic pesticide: I pay my boys a penny for each rose sawfly larva they remove from our roses. They understand that this is necessary. The younger one loves to make rose petal tea (“even though it’s pink”), so they know we can’t spray these roses with anything. But if the worms are given free range, we won’t have any tea anyway. They wouldn’t mind if the rhubarb and garlic under the roses were rendered inedible, though. They also don’t mind making a few pennies, and they love playing with slimy garden creatures. Yes, they are also on slug patrol. So I manage to have my organic garden roses and teach my boys about the environment, gardening, herb tea, money, and doing their part in the family chores, all while having them barefoot in the great outdoors exploring the urban backyard ecosystem. So much to lose when you choose chemical pesticides.

2 thoughts on “Pesticide and Parenting

  1. what a novel idea, they make money, the bugs are removed, they get exercised, you save on pesticides and dont have to hurt polliinators and everyone is happy. actually that garlic is a good source of natural pesticide, I use milk and garlic ground up and strained to spray on my plants to keep down mildew and I am guessing it makes the leaves taste bad too.for the bugs, you can just wash it off, before using. my husband found that tabocco ground up and sprayed on the plants works too, but of course you have to avoid the flowrs os thebees don’t get hurt. forget exactly how to prepare it believed you soak it for a while in some water and then strain out the solids or something then spray, I have few bug problems with my roses, except the japenese beatles eating my flowers, stupid little creeps stealing my flowers.lol

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