Kaolin Clay Pest Control

We have grasshoppers!  And I mean by the hundreds, if not thousands, in the garden area alone.  When you walk through the garden areas they part like the Red Sea for Moses.  It’s crazy!  We struggled with them last year and fought to find a natural remedy to help protect our strawberry plants and roses.  At the time, Neem oil was the consensus according to Google (and Google knows everything, am I right?).  So I purchased Neem oil and a spray bottle.  I followed the directions and sprayed the plants.  All was well and the grasshoppers left everything alone.  For a few days.  And then the leaves started slowly being eaten away.  We nearly lost our two very large, very beautiful strawberry plants and the roses were struggling to produce anything.  We got no strawberries despite the fact that the plants were well established and over a foot in diameter.  I had to spray many times and it would only protect the plants for a few days before they were being eaten alive again.  After several hard freezes this winter it was my hope that the grasshoppers would not be as thick this year.  Boy was I wrong.  So I began the search anew.  And I found something interesting from The Dirt Doctor.  It’s a kaolin clay slurry that is sprayed on the plants.  Kaolin clay is a naturally occurring substance that is safe to spray on edible plants up to the day before harvest.  But there are some weaknesses in just using the kaolin clay alone so the Dirt Doctor has a great recipe that includes several other natural pest control remedies and according to his site, he is having great success in using this mix to control all types of pests.  So I plan to track down the ingredients and give it a shot.  I like the idea that it doesn’t harm the plant whereas Neem oil can (and has in our case) kill off a plant or the blooms.  Check out The Dirt Doctor‘s total grasshopper control program.  If you try it, give me a shout.  I’d love to hear about it.  Have a great day and God bless!