Gardening can be considered a simple process only if we can perform this task without the pests interfering and attacking our plants. These little pests even though are little in size; they are capable of causing tremendous havoc. So it is necessary to watch out for them.
The analogy that exists between maintaining our health conditions and maintaining the garden is tremendous. By keeping our health we are able to prevent human illness, similarly we can keep the pests away from our plants by maintaining strict garden cleanliness. The wastes that we dump become the place where these insects can breed. Those spots which we do not care for and are unkempt do more harm than a compost pile.
You can follow certain rules to keep the pests down. The earthworms can aid us in stirring up the soil and thus the soil is open to water as well as air. Various birds such as sparrows, chickadees, robins, meadow, orioles and larks help us by feeding on the pests. Ichneumon – fly also does the same job and helps us, but the toads are the best deal. They help us as they can consume a large number of insects in one single meal. Now we have a reason to love toads and they sure do deserve kind treatment.
It is necessary for every gardener to make his/her garden as attractive a place to toads and birds. The only way to attract can be done is by housing birdhouses in your garden and by sprinkling grain. Water-Places are also an alternative to attract birds. If you prefer toads to birds then we have to find a different way to attract them. Toads like to rest in shade and during nights they get to work. Toads prefer their food live rather than kill and eat. So equipped with this information toads can be drawn to your garden by fixing up few stones underneath a shrub with damp leaves carpeting will do the trick.
Leaving aside these little helpers we are talking about, we can classify the pests into two kinds based on their working methodology. There are some which bite persistently at the plants while there are others which are capable of sucking the juices. Caterpillars and grasshoppers are of the former kind and have a mouth to do the required damage while plant lice, mosquitoes belong to the latter. These second category pests are the worst as they fasten themselves around the plant and feed on the plant’s life.
These pests can be killed by spraying a poison which contains Bordeaux mixture on the plants, which these pests ingest along with the plants.
Apart from this poison we can use insecticides which attack the insect directly. Insecticides when sprayed on the plants attack the insect’s body in a deadly way and these pests can be dealt with.
So far we talked about the pests which work over the ground. There are some underground pests like ant hills. In order to fight these we must be careful and follow the following remedies.
One of the questions that is asked time and again is ‘How to tell what kind of insect is causing the destruction of my garden?’ The only solution that I can provide is by investigating the destruction and also by spotting the insect responsible for the destruction, but the problem is that ‘seeing the insect’ is a very tough task to accomplish. One season there were cutworms in my garden and I never sighted one, but I was able to see the devastation caused. We can confirm the presences of a cutworm if we spot stalks of plants that are cut off completely.
If you own a vegetable garden, then you most probably will be having trouble with tomato worms. These worms are large yellow in color or they are green, striped and they eat their way into fruits.
Finally, there is this squash bug which is another troublesome pest. It has a slender and long body and is brown in color. Similar to squash bugs there are other pests like potato bugs, which can be identified by its typical black and yellow stripes in its back. These are the most typical pests to hunt your garden.
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Article Directory: EzineArticles
If we could garden without any interference from the pests
which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple
matter. But all the time we must watch out for these little
foes little in size, but tremendous in the havoc they make.
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