Japanese beetle

The Japanese beetle is a very destructive plant pest that can prove really difficult and expensive to eliminate. The grubs feed on grass roots, and when they reach maturity, Japanese beetle adults attack the foliage, fruits and flowers of over 300 agricultural and ornamental plants. These insects were first spotted in the United States back in the 1900s, in the New Jersey area. They have further spread throughout the majority of states east of the Mississippi River. Infestations also occur west of the river in Iowa, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas or Minnesota. The authorities have created the Japanese Beetle Quarantine in order to prevent the artificial spread of the insects to other parts of the United States.

The contamination with the Japanese beetle is prevented by a careful inspection of every aircraft that leaves an airport to the seven protected States that have not been affected by the infestation with the Japanese beetle pest. An airport is designated as regulated if it satisfies one of the three mandatory conditions: it follows treatment according to the PPQ manual, it has an inspector to evaluate the situation, the aircraft has arrived and left the regulated airport during the same non-daylight period when beetles are inactive.

Even more severe measures are being taken to prevent the spread of the Japanese beetle by artificial means. Unless these measures are implemented without delay, it is possible for the quarantine to stop being effective, and contamination with the pest would then become general. For lots of gardeners, hand picking remains the most widely used form of Japanese beetle pest control. You have to spot the first adults when they arrive on your property and take action against them right away. Adults are less active in the morning and late evening, when they can be more easily destroyed.

Another means to keep Japanese beetle population at bay is to plant some non-attractive plants for the species. You can check a complete list of these plants on the Internet or with your gardening association: boxwood, carnations, Chinese lantern plant, dusty-miller, kale, lilacs, lilies, snowberry, sweet pea, mulberry etc. Use floral lures as traps, but they are effective only if the same pest control measure is taken everywhere in your neighborhood. Unfortunately, in urban areas traps tend to attract more beetles into the area than they would be present normally.

The ultimate resource against Japanese beetle pest lies with insecticides, but only after weighing the pros and cons really well.

Garden weed control

Garden weed control is necessary for good crops because plants have a variable ability to suppress weeds on their own. Weeds compete with the plants we cultivate for water, sun and space. Without a bit of help, gardening would not be effective at all, the plants would be anemic and the crops scarce. Therefore, man does interfere in the field and eliminates competition for the crops. The most basic type of garden weed control is manual plucking. You just eliminate the weeds one by one, yet, it's tiresome and time consuming. Herbicides are the alternative, but it's a solution that has fallen out of preferences because of the toxicity of the chemicals used.

The plants with a high ability to suppress weeds by their own natural mechanisms include: squash, pumpkin, peas, beans, melons, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn and cucumbers. Crops that require more insistent garden ween control include onions, greens, pepper, radishes, cabbage and broccoli, carrot and lettuce. Garden weed control is most effective during the crop germination period, because it gives the plants a head start on weeds. In order to achieve it, the plants ought to grow at the proper depth, have enough moisture and be fertilized. Make sure you use only high quality transplants and seeds. They ought to be free of weed seeds and seedlings.

In order to find out if your crop will be able to suppress the weeds, you should test the garden soil and follow specific recommendation to stimulate a rapid crop growth. If you use mulches, you have a better chance to reduce weed germination and growth. Ultimately, this will save the time and labor necessary to remove the weeds manually or mechanically. If you are concerned about environmental issues related to garden weed control, it's a better idea to use organic mulches only. They are obtained from organic plant material that decomposes in the soil, while enriching it.

Another tip for efficient garden weed control is to eliminate the weeds prior to planting your greens and veggies. Even if weeds emerge after planting, you should not wait too long before removing them. The larger weeds get, the more difficult they are to remove. If you don't eliminate the early season competition, it will reduce the crop growth, yield and quality. Don't let weeds grow larger than 3 inches before you pluck them out. Then things should go on smoothly for your garden.

garden slug

The garden slug is a common pest that gives a hard time to gardeners on more humid summers. This pest poses little problems in dry weather seasons when it does not roam through the garden that much. There are different types of slugs, and land-living ones are confined to moist environments due to the fact that they may desiccate. Unless they over-breed and pester your garden, slugs are not a problem. Quite the opposite. The garden slug has an important role to play in the ecosystem, eating dead leaves, fungi and other decaying vegetable materials.

The garden slug pest becomes a problem when slugs eat your living plants, preventing them from yielding. When you are confronted with such a pest, you'll need all your patience and clever gardening strategies to deal with the culprits, since slugs are annoying invisible pests. You won't see them at work because they hide in dark places and they come out at night. You can lure the garden slug out by scattering some squeezed out orange halves around the garden. Don't be surprised if you find dozens of snails and slugs in the orange halves. You can easily dispose of them afterward!

Grapefruit halves also seem to work. Other natural organic methods to get rid of the garden slug pest are the coffee spray and the beer trap. A weak coffee brew sprayed on the plants will make them unappealing to slugs. As for the beer trap, you should mix a little flour with a stale beer than leave the container for the slugs and snails to climb into. Wine, sugar water or water mixed with yeast could be alternatives to beer traps. There are also physical barriers that can be used against the garden slug.

Slugs will not pass over crushed egg shells, saw dust or wood shavings. You can spread these around the plants at risk, and you won't have to worry about the garden slug pest too much. It's not at all convenient to go out at night in the garden and try to pick them up manually. It takes time and it's pretty uncomfortable as darkness rules against your will. There may be more special situations that require different measures against the garden slug pest, but otherwise, this meek creature does not raise difficulties or challenges.

As compared to other pests, the garden slug is definitely a lot easier to deal with.

Garden Pests Moles

From all the garden pests, moles make such a mess of lawns and gardens. You can see their runaways and mounds of dirt particularly in spring, summer and fall. You may have just trimmed your lawn and feel happy with the way it looks when overnight mounds appear on it. The first thing to do in order to achieve pest control is to identify the culprit. Moles are not the only animals that make runaway galleries near the surface of the ground: there could also be voles or pocket gophers. Needless to say that you are not going to come face to face with these animals, because they hide inside the ground, but you can determine what species it is based on the signs they leave behind.

Moles make volcano-shaped mounds, but they do not hold responsible for the damage to the roots of the plants. Quite the contrary, they can be helpful by feeding on the grubs that eat grass roots. Voles make horseshoe-shaped mounds, while pocket gophers don't make mounds at all. You can use traps for garden pests, moles will run into them and you can then take them away from your lawn. Nevertheless, many people feel reluctant using traps and baits. Another option is that of mole repellants such as those made of castor oil.

There are also plants the smell of which moles find offensive. This is a humane way of dealing with garden pests. Moles will withdraw from the lawn or garden area and dig their tunnels somewhere else. Among the plants with a known repellant effect on moles we should mention the daffodil together with the Siberian squill and the crown imperial. Squill multiplies easily, and over the years it can fill an entire area of the garden. The bulbs of the crown imperial on the other hand is said to resemble the scent of a fox which will make moles hide away.

You can find more information on the bulbs and plants that you can use for natural control of garden pests: moles, voles or pocket gophers. The Internet abounds in sources of information, not to mention that you have the chance to order the bulbs online if you don't find them at the local flower's shop. As garden pests, moles are not as problematic as aphids, the Japanese beetle or caterpillars. Moles only interfere with the looks of lawn or garden without actually creating direct damage to your plants.

Garden Pests

Garden pests are so very numerous that they give a hard time to any gardener. While slugs and snails used to be the main problem for our gardens, beetles seem to have taken over in the top of the most destructive species for our crops. Japanese beetles and viburnum beetles eat the foliage of almost all plants in our garden. Other garden pests that raise concert is the glasshouse red spider mite that feeds on the sap of garden and greenhouse plants. The most affected seem to be acers, pears, plums, fuchsias, lilies, apples, roses and viburnums.

Keeping a tidy lawn and achieving good management of garden pests could also be problematic. Chafer grubs cause most of the lawn pest problems, although there may be issues with other pests as well. Chafer grubs are larvae of several species of beetles. They damage lawns by eating the roots of grasses. The loosened turf gets ripped up even more from autumn to spring when other animals try to reach the grubs in the soil to feed on them. There are commercial powders to be spread on the lawns to achieve good control of such garden pests. It's also a way of reducing the infestation with  Japanese beetles.

Then, if you have evergreen shrubs around the house, your plants may become infested with the cushion scale, an insect that sucks the sap of the plants. Although such garden pests have been around for a long time, an overspread has been signaled over the last years. You may want to act against them until the leaves of your evergreens become covered with a black sticky substance secreted by these insects.

Another example of highly destructive garden pests is the harlequin ladybird. It creates a reason of concern because although beneficial to a certain point, keeping the aphids population under control, the harlequin ladybird could easily create imbalances among other friendly insect species. These garden pests can be naturally brought under control in winter time when they get indoors.

The list of garden pests that gardeners in the United States are faced with is much longer. Various websites show tops of the most predatory by year. Sometimes weather variations also influence the threats for our crops. In dry years, slugs and snails are not much of a problem, yet other bugs and beetles proliferate. Gardeners have to adapt to variations and take timely measures to maintain the integrity of their crops.

Garden Pest Control

The concern for the environment and people's health seems to have touched everyone, with gardeners being one of the most environmentally conscious groups. Garden pest control is no longer about spraying an insecticide whenever insects are spotted; modern gardeners first evaluate the extent of both threat and damage before they warrant control. For example, there are insects that just cause cosmetic changes in your plants, without affecting their health. In such situations, many gardeners will decide that they can live with the injury.

The real problem with garden pest control is that there are no solutions to kill target pests alone, which means that killing non-target insects is inevitable. Gardeners thus have to weigh the benefits of spraying against the possible annihilation of beneficial insects. A good word of advice is to consider the age of the plant at the moment of pest attack. When garden crops begin to mature, they are more capable to handle an onslaught of flea beetles. If the pest strikes earlier in the stage of development, the plants may die.

Producers of garden pest control solutions have complied with the need for 'safe' gardening, which explains the higher number of ecological, natural pest control formulas on the market. However, there is still a degree of toxicity even in natural insecticides, otherwise it would not be capable to kill insects. Let's not forget that some of the most powerful poisons occur in nature. Take for instance Rotenone, a product derived from the root of a tropical plant. The manufacturer markets it as natural or organic garden pest control.

In reality, Rotenone is more toxic than man-made insecticides like diazinon (removed from sale nationwide). It doesn't mean that you should not use Rotenone, just be as cautious as you'd be with any other insecticide, that you know to be highly toxic. There are other forms of non-toxic garden pest control, including hand picking, the installation of floating row covers as barriers or the use of sticky, baited traps. Sometimes more garden pest control strategies should be used in parallel for a superior protection of your crops.

Growing healthy plants that can resist pest attacks on their own is another key factor here. The old mentality to destroy the bugs in the garden no longer applies to modern practices, because the line is so thin between real pests and beneficial insects. Therefore, garden pest control has increased in complexity, and evolves towards more and more environment-oriented choices every year.

Aphids Control

Aphids control is a necessity for every garden, regardless of extent. These tiny insects continuously poke at the leaves and suck the sap out of plants, leaving sticky honeydew behind them, thus further destroying the leaves. Aphids control depends first of all on regular inspections. You should take 15-20 minutes, several times, every week to inspect the plants, trees and flowers. It is much easier to control an aphid infestation if you catch it in the early stages.

The moment you discover the aphids, handpicking and pruning is the first measure to take. If you find larger congregations on your plants, you should remove those sections of the plant and drop the infested part in a plastic bag or in soapy water to dispose of the insects. Aphids control is also possible by directing a strong jet of water onto the plants. Water knocks the insects off into the ground from where it's very difficult for them to return on the plant. There are bug blaster hose attachments to use to make the task simpler.

Insecticidal soap is sometimes used by gardeners for aphids control. It kills the pest, but you have to rinse the soap off the plants after letting it act for two or three hours. The problem with insecticidal soap is that it could pollute the environment, and add a certain level of toxicity to the crops. Although considered harmless, lots of organic-oriented gardeners refuse to use insecticidal soap as a viable and safe means for aphids control. Such gardeners will prefer natural strategies to deal with the pest.

Ladybugs and their larvae have a voracious appetite for aphids. Control of this garden pest can thus be achieved by luring ladybugs in your garden. This is possible by using ladybug commercial food such as Formula 57 or Wheast. You can even purchase ladybugs from online retailers or nurseries in case you don't manage to attract enough insects into your garden. Other aphids natural predators are lacewings and their larvae. With these natural allies, you should be able to drastically reduce aphids infestations.

As strange as it might seem, aphids are equally protected by some species such as ants that feed on the honeydew. Therefore, you need to offer another food source to the ants so that you lure away this protection from the aphids colony. Then, natural aphid predators will be a lot more successful at keeping the aphid population in check.