Gardening can be great fun and good exercise. You can also reduce your grocery bill as a result of gardening, but if you don't address a few issues you may find that you are feeding the pests rather than your family.
One of the most important issues when gardening is pest control, no matter if your garden is floral or vegetable. Pests can take over your garden and instead of working on something that you want to be pleasing to the eye or palate you will have an eyesore.
Luckily there are many products available on the market to help you keep the pests at bay. If you are not going to control the pests why waste the time and effort that you will put into your garden.
There is no way that your garden will stand out from the crowd if your lawn is just a dry and patchy piece of ground. All good paintings are placed in good quality frames; treat your garden the same way. Care for your lawn as well as your garden.
Before you go laying down baits and poisons, turning your garden into a toxic waste dump, do a bit of research; there is plenty of information on the Internet to help you make your own pesticide. You can kill or deter garden pests without killing your neighbour's cat.
Don't spend all of that time planning, digging and planting your garden only to kill it with a chemical that you hope will help it survive. Study the pest that you want to eradicate, find out what their habits are, and use the best chemical or pesticide for the job. You don't use a hammer to paint a wall, do you?
Get your lawn and garden to a nice healthy state before you worry about the pests, some pests will go away once the garden is healthy. But don't kill it with kindness, too much water, too much fertilizer and cutting the grass too short can do more harm than good.
After getting your garden beautifully verdant, you may find that the snails and slugs will make an attempt to take over. These can be particularly harmful to vegetable gardens. In Toronto, Canada most pesticides have been banned, but Scotts EcoSense ferric phosphate is still used to eradicate snails and slugs. Why? Because it is safe to use.
It is obvious that garden pest control is probably the most important issue for the gardener. Educate yourself about the various pesticides that you will need to use to control the many pests that can make your garden look like a compost heap. Study the pests and you will learn the best way to eradicate them.
Vegetable Garden Pest Control
Pesky insects and bugs are a problem for most vegetable gardeners. Most bugs aren't particularly destructive, they're just annoying. But if you find a devouring your harvest, you're not going to be too happy.
Among the ugliest garden pests is the tomato hornworm. It is a fat, white and green worm with a big horn that resembles a stinger. It can be plucked from the plant using gloved hands and submerged in soapy water to kill it. Alternatively, you could spray the tomato hornworm with stomach poison insecticide, neem oil, or Bacillus thuringiensis.
Thrips are partial to a variety of plants. You'll know they've been there by the random white marks you see on the leaves. You can wash the bugs off by using a hose, and then apply contact poison to the plant.
Snails and slugs will devour the leaves on your plants, and they always leave a slimy trail as evidence. You can buy bait to attract and kill them, but you can achieve the same thing with a shallow dish of beer; they'll be drawn to it and drown.
Those plump white worms that you see in the ground are most likely grubs. When grubs attack your plants they start to droop and their growth will be stunted. They can be held in check by adding milky spore to the soil. Grubs eventually grow into beetles, which you can rid of with stomach poison insecticide.
Cutworms tend to attack a plant's stem at the base. Putting a paper collar around the plants is really the only way to keep them away.
A corn earworm will attack your corn cobs and make a meal of the kernels. Likewise, a tomato fruitworm consumes the insides of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Choose an insecticide targeted to the elimination of earworms.
Borers are found in many vine plants with thick stems. The only way to eliminate them is to cut them out of the plant. You might end up having to pull up the plant and destroying it if you find a borer near the base of the plant. You can usually get rid of them with insecticide.
Beetles are bothersome pests that enjoy munching on leaves. They are able to do an astonishing amount of harm to a vegetable garden, therefore it's essential to eliminate them. It's possible to pluck the beetles off the plants, or spray with an insecticide to destroy them.
Aphids are frequently found in a vegetable garden. Typically, you'll come across bunches of tiny, soft bugs in assorted colors. To eliminate aphids, use neem oil or insecticidal soap.
Both Barry Simston & Sarah Duke are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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