Control Your Pests

Posted by Ena Clewes
September 19th, 2007
Filed in Garden Pests and Diseases
Tags: ants, pesticides, pests

Most gardeners find that a good offense is better than a good defense.

As soon as you plant your first seeds, you need to take measures to control your pests.

It is sometimes difficult to decide, when you should step in with pest control, as many times it involves using lots of chemicals.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you spray before you see any bugs?
• If you see a bug, do you rush to spray the entire garden?
• Do you check every plant, when you find one?
• Do you think that nearly all bugs in your garden are bad?

If you found yourself answering yes, to most of these questions, you really need to rethink your actions. That’s because, 95% of bugs found in your garden are either beneficial or do no damage to your garden!

So, How to Control Pests the Organic Way?

Only spot treat your plants having pests. Water is one of the best weapons against pests. Given time, the beneficial insects in your garden will do a good job of controlling pest insects. (Basically, they will find a food source, such as aphids, and lay their eggs nearby. When the new generation of insects hatch, the larvae will feast on the aphids. Viola, problem solved!)

Make sure your plants are healthy and vigorous.

Know your enemy

If you have bugs in your garden ( and who doesn’t!) find out what they are. This also holds true for plant diseases.

You could check it out at your local nursery, or there are many good books available, that will offer insect identification. After your research, you may find that the bugs in your garden, are doing no harm at all!.

This little guy in the garden is negelecting his duties, he is supposed to be chasing flies!

After having done all the research you can, you may find that the pests in your garden, are not ones you want to take up residence, so here are a few suggestions;

Select a pest control measure that targets the pest. This means using the insect’s own biology against it. As an insect cannot become resistant to it’s own biology, so you will win this battle every time.

If you are targeting ants, then use a bait that the ant will carry back to its nest and feed to it’s young. Although this wont kill them right away, the nest will disappear in a week or two.

I find that no sooner do I get one insect eradicated, when another pops up!

It is always wise to encourage beneficial, natural controls. Use plants that have many small flowers packed tightly together to attract beneficial insects. Use bird feeders to attract insect-eating birds.

Remember, to attract and keep the good insects in your garden, do not use pesticides. It is also a good idea to have fresh water on hand, both for birds and also for other pest eating creatures.

meet you on the garden path.