Gardening can be a rewarding experience, but it also comes with its share of challenges, particularly from pests. These unwanted visitors can wreak havoc on your carefully tended plants, leading to frustration and disappointment. Understanding the variety of common pests and knowing how to manage them effectively can make a significant difference in the health and productivity of your garden.
Before we get started, I have an exciting sidenote!
When pests bite plants, they release hormones like jasmonic acid to initiate defense mechanisms and begin the healing process. This hormonal response triggers the production of secondary metabolites and defensive proteins, which help the plant resist further damage and infection. Over time, this response can enhance the plant's resilience, making it more robust.Â
When humans consume these plants, the beneficial compounds produced by the plant's defense mechanisms can be transferred, contributing to improved health and immune function. This natural process illustrates the intricate relationship between plants and their consumers, highlighting how the stress and recovery in plants can lead to enhanced nutritional benefits for humans. How cool is that?! Are pests that awful? :)
Let’s dive in and let me help you!
Common Garden Pests
Japanese Beetles
Identification: Japanese beetles are about 1/2 inch long with metallic green bodies and copper-brown wing covers. Â
Damage: These beetles feed on various plants, skeletonizing leaves and damaging flowers. Â
Management: Handpick beetles in the early morning when they are less active, squish them, or toss them in a bucket of soapy water. You can use pheromone traps, which can also attract more beetles to your garden. If you have a large space, this might be an option. You can also apply neem oil or insecticidal soap, which is harmful to bees and other pollinators, so use it only on leaves. If I wear gloves, I squish them or crush with a rock.
Aphids
Identification: Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects that can be green, yellow, brown, red, or black. Â
Damage: They suck sap from plants, causing leaves to curl and stunt growth. They also excrete a sticky substance called honeydew that attracts ants and promotes mold growth. Â
Management: Encourage beneficial insects like ladybugs by spraying them with a strong stream of water to dislodge them. Over time, they learn this isn’t fun, and they move on or spray leaves with soapy water.
Slugs and Snails
Identification: Slugs and snails are soft-bodied, legless creatures with a slimy trail. Â
Damage: They chew irregular holes in leaves, stems, and flowers and can cause significant damage to young plants. Â
Management: Use beer traps, sprinkle diatomaceous earth around plants, and handpick them at night. I also love sheep fleece pellets from the Kestrel Ridge Pellet Company. Snails and slugs do not like to crawl over the barbed fleece, so they'll avoid your plants, and as the fleece pellets break down, they add nutrients to your soil and help hold water in it.
Cabbage Worms Â
Identification: These are the larvae of small white butterflies, often seen fluttering around cabbage and related plants. Â
Damage: Cabbage worms chew large holes in leaves and can severely damage cabbage, broccoli, and other cruciferous vegetables. Â
Management: Inspect plants regularly, remove worms by hand, use row covers to prevent butterflies from laying eggs, and apply Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) as a natural pesticide.
Spider Mites
Identification: Spider mites are tiny, often red or yellow, and create fine webbing on the undersides of leaves. Â
Damage: They suck sap from leaves, causing yellow stippling and eventual leaf drop. Â
Management: Increase humidity around plants, spray with water to dislodge mites, and use miticides or spray leaves with soapy water.
Squash Bug
Identification: Squash bugs are shield-shaped and brownish-black, about 5/8 inch long. Â
Damage: They suck sap from squash plants, causing wilting and browning of leaves. Â
Management: Remove eggs from leaves, put them in a plastic bag, tie them tight, and throw them away. If infestations are severe, handpick bugs, use floating row covers, and spray leaves with soap and water. You can also put a small board of wood on the ground, and in the morning, you’ll find them hiding, and then you can smash them.
Cucumber Beetle
Identification: Cucumber beetles are small; yellow beetles have black stripes or spots.
Damage: They chew on leaves, flowers, and fruits of cucumbers, squash, melons, and other cucurbits. They also spread bacterial wilt disease.
Management: Use yellow-sticky traps, white/kaolin clay to deter beetles, and row covers to protect young plants. Beneficial nematodes can also help control larvae in the soil. I also squish them with my fingers.
Earwigs
Identification: Earwigs are dark brown insects with elongated bodies and pincers on their rear.
Damage: They can chew holes in leaves, flowers, and fruit, particularly in damp and dark areas of the garden.
Management: Reduce moisture by improving garden drainage, using rolled-up newspaper or cardboard as traps, and applying diatomaceous earth around plants. I’ve experimented with short containers of vegetable oil and soy sauce, which draws them in and drowns them.Â
Roly Polys (Pill Bugs)
Identification: Roly polys, or pill bugs, are small, grayish-brown, segmented crustaceans that roll into a ball when disturbed.
Damage: While primarily decomposers, they can occasionally feed on tender plant shoots, roots, and fruits.
Management: Reduce garden debris and mulch where they hide, use diatomaceous earth around susceptible plants, and handpick them if necessary. I’ve tried orange halves in the garden, pulp side down; this attracts the roly polys. In the morning, you pick up the orange halves and dispose of them.
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Sidenote: I keep a few smaller flat rocks near all of my garden beds for bug squishing. Squishing with a large piece of mulch works well in a pinch, too. I don’t enjoy squishing with my fingers, but I’d rather have my veggies with limited pests.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Strategies
Effective pest control requires an integrated approach combining multiple methods to control pest populations while minimizing harm to beneficial insects and the environment.
Cultural Practices:Â Rotate crops to prevent pests from establishing, use pest-resistant plant varieties, prune your plants, have healthy spacing, and maintain healthy soil to promote strong plant growth. Companion planting helps, as does having a "trap" crop like nasturtiums, where the pests are attracted to this specific plant that you don't care as much about and sacrifice it.
Physical Controls: Growing in raised beds helps reduce pests and makes it easier to manage, use barriers like row covers and netting, handpick pests, and employ traps, like small containers of beer for slugs and snails.
Biological Controls:Â Introduce or encourage natural predators such as ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. Planting a variety of flowers can attract these beneficial insects to your garden.
Chemical Controls:Â Use organic pesticides like neem oil carefully, insecticidal soap/soapy water, and Bt as a last resort. Always follow label instructions and apply treatments when beneficial insects are less active. Avoid spraying the flowers with neem oil, as this harms the pollinators.
Regular Monitoring: Inspect your garden regularly for signs of pests and take action early to prevent infestations from becoming severe. If a plant is severely infested, a good option is to pull it out and start a new crop from a different plant family in its place.
By understanding common garden pests and employing various management strategies, you can protect your garden and enjoy an abundant harvest.
Happy gardening!
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