Protecting plants naturally in hot climates - what actually works?

Hi everyone!

I'm a university student in the UAE studying Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.

l've been learning about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and created this infographic about protecting plants while reducing unnecessary pesticide use.

Since gardening in the UAE can be challenging because of the heat, I'd love to learn from people with real gardening experience.

I have three questions:

1. What natural pest control methods have worked best in your garden?
2. How do you know when insects are actually causing enough damage to take action?
3. Is there anything you'd improve or add to my infographic?

I'd really appreciate any practical advice, especially from gardeners in hot climates.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

My experience with pests is limited to earwigs and gophers in my constant failure garden. My temperatures are lower than UAE, averaging 38 C in summer, reaching 44 C on hottest days. Nights are always cool, below 22 C. Very low humidity for 6 months. 400 mm average precipitation. Continentalized Mediterranean climate.

Hot places need water preservation, but it works as double edged sword.

Mulching with chips/dust attracts earwigs that destroy leaves of "protected" plants beyond self repair threshold. Now I start mulching only if temperatures reach 35 C and it's already past the earwig hatching period.

Deep irrigation attracts gophers that follow the row and destroy every single plant in the row. Planting tomatoes, peppers in wire cages (1 cm opening) protects them sufficiently. Even putting a bottomless wire cylinder around the stalk did help as gophers seemed to be attracted to the bottom part of the stalk only.
Cucurbits were also severed just above the ground. Next year I'm going to plant them over stainless (so it will last many seasons) wire mesh (40x40 cm pieces). Cages would be less practical, because all stalks lay on the ground and wider area has to be protected. Thicker stalks will probably merge with the wire.
Gopher destruction was less problematic in hand watered garden.

One year I got aphids on zucchini so I washed them off with water spray.

In early spring I notice large grasshoppers that destroy cucurbits. I try to catch them and feed to chicken.

I don't encounter anything else, probably because nothing seems to want to grow here so pests are not attracted but maybe because I'm visited by around 20 species of native small birds.

I plant flowers that pests don't like, such as rosemary, marigolds, and sweet alyssum.

I use soil health to protect plants.

Also their are plants that are resistant to pest and disease.

Water is your friend.  

Can you share what you have learned about ways to make a desert sustainable.

This past summer here in central France was extremely hot and dry, and "nothing moved" - the plants didn't grow.
The prediction for next year is repetition of the hot and dry summer, and I'm planning to pack my plants close to each other, playing with different heights and structures of plants, in order to create lots of foliage, to shade and create humidity and hold moisture in the ground.
I hope I'll get it all working.
I think air humidity might be more of a key factor than anything else.
Watching this conversation like a hawk, eager to learn