Neem: An Alternative to Chemical Pest Control!

I was reading Kerry's blog on Pilau Maile and the discussions about it, which brought up alternatives to weed control, which then brought up my growing interest in Neem. Although Neem is not a weed-killer, Neem is a great, natural way to get rid of pests (like that stinging nettle caterpillar maybe!), and it has a lot of other promising qualities to it. I learned a little about Neem in my Sustainable Agriculture class last year, but I'd like to know more as I plan to grow some to process for pest control on my own farm someday. So the question is:

What is Neem and why is it a good pest control product?

WHAT IS NEEM???
Neem is actually a tree that belongs to the mahogany family. It is native to India and Burma and grows in tropical to semi-tropical areas (hence the great excitement about growing it in Hawaii!). As you can see from the picture above, it is a tall tree with widespread branches and it is evergreen, which makes it a great tree to plant for year-long shade from the Hawaiian sun. Neem trees also produce white flowers that smell great. These flowers, in time, produce fruits that look kind of like olives.
To read a bunch of facts about Neem, click on this exciting link to Neem.

Check it out...Neem has SO many uses that I think it's even better than Noni:

• Neem can be used as a medicine to help with digestive disorders, diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer, and a lot more! And all of the parts of the tree are used in making medicines (seeds, leaves, flowers and bark) To see all the amazing medicinal purposes of Neem, go to Healthy Neem. It's freakin' amazing how many health problems Neem can aide. And here's some ways to use Neem right out of your yard to cure your own ailments: Home Uses
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• People from India use the Neem twigs to brush their teeth, and there are even Neem toothpastes on the market, so Neem is a cavity control product!!
  
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• Need to moisturize or scrub down? Neem oil is used in soaps, shampoo, balms and creams!

• People in India eat the tender shoots as vegetables, but apparently it's quite bitter. Kinda like Noni's awful taste I'm guessing. Why is it that things that are so good for you taste so bad???


• There is evidence that it can get rid of human pests too, such as head lice and scabies! So drink up your natural Neem insecticide, head-scratching children! Or maybe just put it on your head.

Okay, I have to stop listing things because there's too much to list...just go to the sites and sit in awe while reading of this amazing tree!

But most importantly and most economically useful is...
NEEM AS A PEST CONTROL PRODUCT
Now this is the coolest thing of all. Neem extracts can influence nearly 400 species of insects and it can kill insects that have become resistant to chemical pest products. Most Neem products are "broad spectrum," so they work on lots of insects, including mosquitoes! Neem is so natural that you can feed it to your cows (and it's medicinal for them too!), or even better yet, put the leaves in a watering trough so mosquitoes can't breed there! And for those of you who hate violence, Neem doesn't necessarily kill the bug in it's tracks...it incapacitates it in several ways. It deters insects, keeps it from eating and laying eggs, inhibits growth, disrupts mating, and causes chemo-sterilization! Yay Neem!!!

In my Sustainable Agriculture Class, I learned that you can easily make your own pesticide product from it by crushing the leaves and soaking them in a big garbage can of water for a while. I also found out that the Neem kernel can be crushed and can be added to the livestock grain to keep the pests out! The one discouraging thing about Neem is that it has to be applied regularly, and only repels mosquitoes in water for about 1-2 weeks unless more extract is added. But hey, better to do it regularly than to destroy the environment in one dose of chemical pesticides!

So I encourage everyone to look at the Neem Foundation website, because it has so much amazing information about this awesome tree! Now that I know more about it, I will be on a hunt to find my own Neem tree to plant!

Save the environment from pollution...plant a Neem Tree!!!