Is there a good homemade veg. garden pesticide?

Question

I have a variety of vegetable and fruits and I don't want to spray a pesticide. I also need help with critters eating my corn.

I would rather not use chemicals.

Answer 1

This site gives pros & cons of organic remedies: http://agriculture.kzntl.gov.za/cedara_reports/1999/plant_diseases_insects/organic_remedies.pdf

Grind up in blender 1-2 cloves of garlic & 1 hot pepper. Strain. Add 1 drop (to 1 tabsp) Vegetable oil, mixed in a gal. of water. Spray in the morning or evening, when it's cooler outside.

Flour targets aphids, spider mites, & caterpillers.
Put ordinary white cooking flour in a shaker & sprinkle on the lettuce & cabbage. Do this in the morning when the dew is on the plants or after they are wet from rain or watering. Crawling loopers (caterpillers) will climb up from where they've been hiding under the leaves & get coated with the flour & suffocate & fall off. Just collect the outside leaves where they've fallen & discard.

Spreading wood ash around & then soaking the area with water can control maggots, cutworms, cucumber beetles, squash bugs & slugs.It dehydrates soft-bodied insects. It's a good akaline fertilizer containing potassium, calcium & phosphorus. Do NOT allow ash to touch the stems of plants.

Scatter oat bran on the soil to kill slugs and snails. Coffee & coffee grounds control slugs & snails, but it makes the soil more acid

A spray can also be made from Seaweed, which will repel both red spider mites and aphids & will nourish your vegetable plants, too.

There's so many common natural things you can use as pesticides. Maybe you can target the pest or problem first & then use just one item or method, (like using Chili (Cayenne) pepper to detour slugs), instead of using an all-purpose solution.
Good luck! I hope the sources will help you get started. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/knowhow/pp/corn/ (For corn problem)

Answer 2

Don't use dish soap.
-Doug

Quoting from Bachman's:

"Misconceptions
There are several misconceptions about soaps and oil. You may hear and read about substituting dish soap (or liquid laundry detergent) for insecticidal soap. Home dish soaps often damage plants when they are substituted for insecticidal soap and they generally are not as effective in killing the insects. The damage may be clear (browning edges or spots on the leaves) or it may also be less evident. Tests done on tomatoes and cucumber show that spraying with the homemade soap solutions reduces and delays the yield of vegetables. Dish soaps commonly found in grocery stores today are no longer soap. They are all detergents. In addition, they all contain a lengthy list of moisturizers, degreasers, fragrances and dyes that can add to the damage of the detergent. In addition, the household products vary greatly in concentration and effective rates of application have not been established. Insecticidal soaps are only slightly more expensive than dish detergents, but they will do their job without plant injury when used as directed. Occasionally, you will run into a recommendation to substitute a fine vegetable oil instead of horticultural oil. The ultra-refined horticultural oils are much, easier to use since they will stay mixed into the water long enough for you to spray. Vegetable oils are also larger particles that are difficult to force through a sprayer. We recommend using the ultra-refined products manufactured for horticultural use."