Teaching Children About Natural Insecticides
It is never too late or too early to begin teaching your children about eco-friendly gardening. Teaching them about natural insecticides, their uses and why it is important for our environment at a young age can help foster a connection to the earth and their responsibility towards it.
A great way to begin teaching a child about natural insecticides is to help them pick out companion plants that are known to have natural insecticide qualities. This gives you an opportunity to talk to them about the type of insects that this plant either kills or repels and which parts are used to make an natural insecticide.
Allowing them to help you place the plants around the garden will help them learn the combination basics of companion gardening. This is also a good opportunity to talk to them about the risks that are associated with synthetic insecticides as well as, the effects they have on wildlife, compared to natural insecticides.
Helping them start from seed, plants that have natural insecticide qualities not only allows you to teach them about natural insecticide but can also many other aspects of organic gardening. Many children really enjoy checking on their seeds daily and become very protective of their little gardens. One of the advantages of growing plants that are known to have natural insecticide properties is you will not have to worry in most cases about your child's seedlings being overcome by insects.
Just because something is called a natural insecticide does not mean it is not toxic and it's very important to teach the children about this. Certain natural insecticides such as nicotine can be highly toxic when in concentrated form, and can be harmful to both humans as well as other warm-blooded animals. Explaining to your child, which of these natural insecticides are harmful is just as important as explaining which plants are beneficial.
Allowing a child to help you harvest the flowers and leaves of the plant for use as an natural insecticide is another opportunity to talk about them. It allows you to teach them how to properly harvest from the plant without injuring it. Also, you will have the opportunity to teach them about how much needs to be harvested. Nowadays in which everything is instant, bigger and better, this gives you an opportunity to show your child just how little natural insecticide is needed to be effective.
With the exception of some natural insecticides that are known to be irritants, children can assist in the preparation of sprays and teas for use within the garden. Many children enjoy adding the ingredients to the pan and shaking the bottle. Letting them deliver some of the natural insecticide out in the garden, is something that they also enjoy and helps develop the necessary safety skills that need to be learned, all the while under your watchful eye.
Teaching children about how to properly use natural insecticides in a safe and effective manner benefits not only them but the environment as well. It can be made to be fun and educational of the same time, and the memories that you will be making are absolutely priceless.
