Whether a home garden is purely ornamental or designed to provide delicious homegrown produce, every home gardener will have to battle off the many pests who will be attracted by its bounty of growing plants. To help keep the garden ecosystem thriving and healthy it is important to understand the most common pests and how to organically control them. After all the hard work of getting the garden beds properly fertilized, tilled, aerated, planted, watered, and weeded and then along comes a critter and overnight all your greenery has turned yellow or disappeared completely into the seemingly bottomless belly of a squirrel or deer, a dedicated home gardener might be excused a certain amount of temporary insanity. Even experienced gardeners can be left maddened by an ambitious squirrel with a taste for tomatoes! The most common garden pests can be divided into two categories- the vertebrate and invertebrate.
Common Invertebrate Garden Pests and Organic Pest Control for Them
Out of the many many invertebrate garden pests, the numbers are far too extensive to include each one here. The following is a selection of five of the most common invertebrate garden pests and some of the organic solutions available at home.
- APHIDS
They are tiny soft bodied insects that cluster on new growth and suck the plant sap which causes stunted growth and curling leaves. One solution is to spray them with a mix of water and a few drops of dishsoap and neem oil, or insecticidal soap. Another option is to introduce a beneficial insect to the garden, ladybugs or lacewings, for example. Additionally, planting nasturtiums or marigolds as companion plants can help to repel aphids.
- SLUGS AND SNAILS
Technically they are soft bodied mollusks that feed on leaves, especially at night or after rain, and leave ragged holes and slime trails behind. To combat the potential damage done by slugs or snails, diatomaceous earth around plant bases or copper tape can deter them. Also, shallow pans or plates filled with beer placed around the garden bed will attract them and if that fails then try picking them off in the evening when they are more active and easier to find. Avoid planting lettuce near slug prone areas and intersperse rosemary and sage nearby which can be slug and snail deterrents.
- JAPANESE BEETLES
These common garden pests can do incredible amounts of damage with their voracious appetite for leaves, buds and flowers leaving little behind but skeletonized leaves, but the well-prepared gardener can handle them. If you time it right, adding milky spore to your garden soil will get rid of the grubs before they even develop. If that’s not an option, beetle traps are easy to use, but since they attract the beetles must be located away from the area where the garden is located. Neem oil or soapy water can be applied, and if all else fails pluck them off the infested plants and drop them into a bucket full of soapy water. Excellent companion plants include garlic, scallions, catnip and marigolds which may help keep the beetles under control.
- TOMATO HORNWORMS / CATERPILLARS
Both regular caterpillars and tomato hornworms are definitely of the very hungry variety. They are the larva of moths and butterflies and will eat their way through both the leaves and fruit of the plant. Tomato hornworms are bright green with white markings and can be plucked right off the vines, if you can spot them, but they can do a lot of damage before you do. If you see one that looks like it is covered in grains of rice it has already become the host to parasitic wasps, and if not, pluck that critter right off and relocate it. By planting dill, fennel, and borage predatory insects can be attracted to the garden and naturally solve the problem. Another option is to introduce Bacillus thuringiensis to the garden ecosystem, a natural bacterium which targets caterpillars specifically.
- SPIDER MITES
These microscopic arachnids thrive in a hot dry environment and are very hard to spot until the leaves turn yellow and spotty, then fall off. Solutions include increasing moisture around the affected plants and spraying with neem oil or insecticidal soap. Both garlic and chives are recommended as good companion plants to reduce spider mite infestations. Try spraying the affected plants with water to dislodge the mites before treating them.
Common Vertebrate Garden Pests and Organic Solutions
Besides the creepy crawling varieties of garden pests, there are also many critters with four legs and most importantly mouths and stomachs that can decimate a garden. Here are a few of the most annoying pests and some potential solutions.
- RABBITS
Cute fluffy bunnies become enemy number one and much less adorable when they have invaded a garden and taken every last squash off the vine. Low border fencing around the garden can make a big difference. It needs to be 2 feet tall but make certain it is buried at least 6 inches down because rabbits will burrow under otherwise. If that’s too much extra work, try either commercial or homemade garlic/chili spray as repellent and add plants such as lavender, onions, rosemary and marigolds which bunnies really do not like for their smell or taste.
- DEER
As far as garden pests go, deer will eat shrubs, flowers, vegetables right down to the ground. If you fence in your garden it will need to be at least 6-8 feet tall. If that is not an option, liquid fences are available and contain substances which have a powerful unpleasant odor that repels deer and rabbits too. There are solar powered ultrasonic devices that repel deer with soundwave technology as well. If those options are too costly, try light reflectors, motion operated sprinklers, or even egg based deer repellents, which can be effective. These particular pests do not like sage, thyme, foxglove or lambs ear- so plant a deterrent border around your garden beds that’s also pretty and smells great to humans.
- SQUIRRELS
These adorable and yet annoying pests eat a lot more than acorns. Squirrels dig up bulbs, and will eat almost any fruit or vegetable they find in the garden. One solution is to sprinkle fox or wolf urine around the beds as a repellent, use fine mesh garden cover over growing plants, or even to plant sharp sticks or skewers into the ground around vulnerable plants to make them difficult to access. Sprinkling blood meal or cayenne pepper around plants can also be effective. Squirrels do not like mint, so plant it around the areas where it’s needed but watch out since mint can take over a garden.
So much planning and preparation goes into any garden. It requires a significant investment of time and labor, not to mention the costs, so make sure that by the time midsummer rolls around the effort put into the garden is rewarded with a beaucoup of fruits, vegetables, herbs and cut flowers that are not only the most delicious, but healthier and more abundant, because no harmful chemicals were used and thoughtful solutions to any pests left the pollinators still alive to do their jobs! Happy Gardening!
