When faced with pests eating vegetables many people instinctively reach for a powerful poison, but this should be a last resort only. A better way is to have a staged response depending on the severity of the pest problem. The THREE D’s pest control program is a gradual three stage approach to protecting vegetables.
When faced with damage to your plants by pests the first thing to do is try and DETER the pests eating them. This involves making it difficult for pests to eat your vegetable without actually killing those pests.
This is when you actively kill pests attacking your plants, but only with environmentally friendly methods and only after DETER methods have failed.
Finally, if the DEFEND and DETER remedies still do not do the job then you can always resort to DYNAMITE. That being the use of more powerful insecticides. However, if you are using the Deter and Defend principles effectively you will rarely need to apply Dynamite remedies, especially as you get more experienced as a gardener.
The Three D’s categories program is not meant as a strict set of rules but rather flexible guidelines that can be adapted to the gardener’s needs and specific style of gardening. People reading this will have different ideas as to what activities and poisons should be listed under each category and should adapt this program according to their own views.
However, before applying the Three Ds program, you should consider THE PERCENTAGE FACTOR first.
