Ways To Use Toilet Paper Tubes For Pest Control You Probably Hadn't Thought Of

Does being able to naturally repel pests from your garden sound appealing to you? Using toilet paper tubes in various ways for pest control is part of a nature-friendly gardening strategy called Integrated Pest Management (IPM), where gardeners employ a range of pest control options to reduce (though not eliminate) reliance on pesticides. Turn this ubiquitous household trash into traps for everything from earwigs and ticks to winged herbivorous insects, or use the tubes as shield-like collars around plants — partially buried into the soil — to deter stem- and root-eating pests like cutworms (probably the most common use for toilet paper rolls in the garden), borers, snails, and even rabbits. They also make a great termite test or a fruit tree-protecting scarer.

The cheapest and easiest way to get your hands on toilet paper tubes for the garden is by saving the ones you use. Remove any remaining toilet paper and bits of adhesive. Depending on the size of your garden and what you're trying to protect or deter, you might need a lot of toilet rolls. Ask around neighbors, family, and friends, or jump online and purchase a bundle for pennies. A Bargain Paradise 90 Pack of Thick Brown Cardboard Tubes costs under $23. However you get your toilet roll tubes, store them in a sealed container on a high shelf to avoid them getting ruined by humidity or nibbled by silverfish, booklice, or rodents before you can even use them. Add a moisture absorber to the container if you're concerned about dampness.

Many gardeners use toilet paper rolls to keep cutworms off of their plants; the method has been propagated in horticultural circles for over a century. These pesky caterpillars — various species in the order Lepidoptera — are the immature offspring of moths, and they damage seedlings by eating through their stems. Lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, beans, tomatoes, and carrots are particularly susceptible to cutworm damage. Cut toilet paper rolls into 2 to 3-inch sections. Thread your seedling through the tube and push the cylinder a few inches into the soil. The collar forms a barrier around the plant, protecting the stem. Toilet rolls won't hold up to the elements for long, but by the time they naturally degrade, your seedlings should be strong enough to withstand cutworms.

A collar is useful for protecting your plants from a number of other ground-dwelling pests, too. Slugs and snails may not be able to find your seedlings if they're nestled within a 2 to 3-inch tall protective cardboard fortress. It works on pill bugs, too. Use one or two full-sized tubes to protect the stems of plants large and small from rabbits and other rodents. Cut them once lengthwise to fit them easily around taller or fatter vegetable stems. A similar idea is to bury your toilet tube sections into the ground and plant your seeds directly into them. The sprouting seedlings will be protected from the get-go. If your seedlings are still getting eaten after placing the collar, a cutworm or other hungry critter may already reside in the soil close to your plant.

Pill bugs occasionally munch on the roots and lower leaves of seedlings. They love dark, damp places, so protect your plants with this proven method to control pillbugs: trap them in a cardboard tube with Shurtape Double-Sided Duct Tape — about $26 a roll — stuck inside. Similarly, trap earwigs by folding paper towels and cramming them into the cylinder. You can also unravel a tube and re-roll it tighter. Secure the roll with twine and place it in your garden. Is your squash patch plagued by vine borers? Wrap a flattened toilet paper tube around the base of the stem, taping it in place tightly to prevent the females from laying their eggs.

Coat a toilet paper tube with double-sided tape and hang it in a spot in your backyard plagued by flying pests to catch them. Or make your own tick tubes by stuffing cotton balls soaked in DURVET 2253432 Permethrin EC 10% Concentrate (about $28 for a 32-ounce bottle) into toilet roll tubes and placing them in safe spots around your yard. Mice take the cotton to their nests, killing the ticks that infest them and reducing the overall tick population. Worried you have a termite problem? Bury toilet paper tubes around your yard. Dig them up again a couple of days later. If termites have congregated inside, attracted to the cellulose in the cardboard, you indeed have a problem. Make pest scarers by covering empty toilet paper rolls with aluminum foil, threading twine through one end, and hanging them in your fruit trees to repel hungry, feathered, and furred invaders.