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I’m so happy to have Summer Rayne Oakes of Homestead Brooklyn back on the show for a second time. You might have heard her back in the day in episode 04 of Bloom and Grow Radio, when we talked about Advanced Plant Parenthood and the joy of Plant Swaps. Speaking of Plant Swaps- Summer Rayne is hosting another plant swap in NYC on Sunday July 15^th.

Summer Rayne is a model/activist/entrepreneur who is famous for her Brooklyn apartment in which she has over 670 plants. She has dedicated the last decade of her life to being a champion for sustainable practices in the fashion, beauty and food industries. She is the founder of Homestead Brooklyn, a blog and Youtube channel created to help bring more nature to urban living. Her youtube series, Plant One on Me is one of my personal go to resources for learning more all things house plants.

When I realized I wanted to do an episode on pest control, I knew I needed to ask Summer Rayne to come back on because she has degrees in both environmental science and entomology. Yes… that’s a degree in insects. So how lucky are we that she joined me for an epic conversation on pests, what they are, why we get them and how to control them.

Summer is not only a plant mom, but is well known for her pet chicken, Kippee, who you can hear clucking throughout the episode is you listen closely.

In this episode we learn

• What an insect actually is
• Why bug activity spikes in spring/summer
• General practices for preventing pests in general
• How to properly wash an infected plant
• The skinny on east pest: fungus gnats, scale, mealy bugs, aphids, spider mites, root pests, white fly
• Best practices when treating bug infestations
• How to use beneficial insects to actually cure your pest problem (yes that’s a thing and Summer Rayne makes a great case for it!)
• Lacewings vs lady Bugs
• How do nemotodes work
• Bringing plants indoors
• Can pets transport bugs.

Follow Summer Rayne:

IG @homesteadbrooklyn

Facebook @homesteadbrooklyn

YouTube @summerrayneoakes “Plant One On Me”

Website: www.homesteadbrooklyn.com

Twitter: @sroakes

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