How do I get rid of bugs?

[marissa]

I have something eating my spinach, lettuce, green beans, and now habanero peppers. I am trying to avoid pesticides if at all possible.

[dirtyred]

It could be caterpillars, slugs, or bugs.

Check the underside of leaves for bugs. If you find them, you can spray them off with water.

There are tiny green caterpillars that always consume a bunch of my vegetable before I can find them and pick them off. They're maybe an inch long and the exact color of the plant foliage, so they're tough to find. They will often hide out on stems.

If you have slugs, you can sprinkle diatomaceous earth around your plants, or you can set a pie plate level in the ground and fill with beer. The slugs will crawl in and drown.

[marissa]

Thanks. I'll have to check; I've just seen the holes in the leaves and swore a bit. Almost all my spinach is dead now. I only put it in 2 weeks ago. My peas were partially eaten. The only thing that is going well would be my herbs. I have so many that I'm trying to give them away. Yet again, they are in pots on my deck rather than down on the ground.