You love your garden but hey wait! There is someone else who loves it too- garden insect pests. Bug pest control professionals understand that how it feels to see these pests munching on ripening produce of your garden. This is why they come up with great tips to keep your garden free from these insect pests. They are never in favor of using chemical pesticides as these products do more harm than good for your garden plants. Here, you will learn about most common insect pests and how to keep them away from your garden.
1.Aphids
Aphids are tiny, pear-shaped critters that can be in orange, green, yellow, and black color. These bugs have long antennae and they usually can be seen on most fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, flowers, and shade trees. These bugs suck plant sap and lead to foliage which results in falling leaves and distortion of the plant.
You can control these bugs easily at home –
- Strongly Spray your plant with simple water
- Encourage parasites and native predators like aphid midges, lady beetles, and lacewings
- When it is possible, use floating row covers to layer your plants
- You can even spray hot-pepper or garlic repellent in intervals
- For severe issues, use oil like neem oil or horticultural oil, and or insecticidal soap
2.Caterpillars
Caterpillars are cushy, segmented larvae having harder head capsule and six legs in the front. These insects also have fleshy faux legs at the back segments. You can easily find them on mulberry plant, fruits and vegetables, flowers, ornamentals and shade trees. Caterpillars like chewing leaves, fruits and veggies. You can prevent them deterring your garden by –
- Encouraging native predators and parasites
- Pick your harvest manually
3.Cutworms
Cutworms are 1” long, fat, gray, green or black segmented larvae that do their job actively at night. They are easy to found on most early flower and vegetable seedlings. These insects chew through stems at ground level. These insects have potential to ruin small plants completely and if you see them in your garden, act quickly-
- You can use cutworm collars on transplants
- Spray vinegar-water based solution every week
- Hand-pick cutworms from soil surface
4.Colorado Potato Beetle
Colorado potato beetle loves fruits and vegetables. The adult Colorado potato beetle has yellow-orange colored body with ten black stripes over covered wings. You can find them on potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and pentunias. These beetles damage the plants, affect yields production, and kill small plants if remain untreated. You can control them–
- Applying row covers can be helpful
- Hand pick these beetles using forceps
- You can use deep straw mulches
- You can attract native parasites and predators
- For extreme condition, use neem oil
5.Mexican bean beetle
Adults are yellow-brown, oval in shape with 16 black spots over wing covers. Their larvae are fat, and have branched long spines and dark yellow grubs. You can find them on cowpeas, snap beans, lima beans, and soybeans.
These beetles love chewing the plant leaves. You can control them by –
- Planting bush beans early
- Hand picking these beetles with forceps
- Calling bug pest control help
- Planting soybean trap crop
- Spraying with neem oil or insecticidal soap
6.Leafminer
Leafminer not usually threatens the plant, but it often becomes important to manage the extremely visible tunnel in leaves that affect the crop value. You can find them in host plants like beans, cabbage, blackberries, cabbage, peppers, lettuce, citrus trees, ornamental flowers, and shrubs.
Adult leafminer is often black to gray colored fly having yellow stripes and clear wings. You can control them –
- Use organic fertilizers to maintain plant health
- Call home care pest control professionals for personal assistance
- You can use yellow or blue sticky traps to trap egg laying adults.
- Fast acting botanical insecticides can truly helpful in severe case
7.Spider mite
Spider mites are tiny sucking pests that can ruin your home garden. These mites live in colony and you can mostly find them on the underside of leaves. These mites pierce the plant leaves tissue and suck up the plant fluids. To know if your garden has spider mites, check your plant leaves. If the leaves show light dots on the surface, the plant is infected.
You can treat spider mite with bed bug pest control and follow these simple tips-
- You can use bug blaster and wash your plant with strong water stream
- You can mix neem oil with water and spray the mix every 3-5 days to kill pests
- Call bug pest control professionals for expert help
- Dust on leaves, branches, and fruit attract mites. Use sprays to wash off the dirt bed bug pest control
These are some common bugs, insects, and pests you can find in your home garden. You don’t have to use those harmful chemical based fertilizers and pesticides to maintain good health of your beautiful plants and trees. You can simply follow these simple tips shared by bug pest control professionals and in extreme case, just call them at your place and get things fix in jiffy.