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What soap is safe to use on organic food crops for insect control?

4 October 2016

The Organic Materials Review Institute, OMRI, provides an independent review of products intended for use in certified organic production. After review, if substances are determined safe for organic use they are OMRI-listed.

Safer Soap is OMRI listed and can be found at most farm supply stores. It can be mixed into solution with chili peppers and sprayed on plants to safely control insects on food crops.

ATTRA's Biorationals: Ecological Pest Management Database lists different materials by brand name, distributor, and whether it is OMRI Listed. It can be searched by pest type, pest name, active ingredient/beneficial organism, or pesticide trade name.

In addition, the organisation has produced an online learning tutorial titled Ecological Pest Management. The tutorial focuses on giving you tools to implement ecologically-based pest management strategies. The five lessons in this tutorial provide information on what ecological pest management is, how to get started, how to implement preventive strategies, biological controls, and how to use NCAT and ATTRA resources. There are also resources to help growers develop their own ecological pest management strategy for their farm.

There are several additional publications that should be of interest to organic growers, including Tipsheet: Organic Pest Management and Biointensive Integrated Pest Management.