Common Garden Pests and How to Get Rid of Them

WHAT ARE GARDEN PESTS

We build beautiful gardens for a couple of reasons and some of them include rectifying boredom, creating great outdoors, feeling of satisfaction to see something grow, or simply just because it makes the world beautiful. However, there is always a pitfall in growing your own garden and it is important to know how to avoid it or manage when needed. It is true that every vegetable gardener, no matter how small or big his garden is, can never avoid pest issues. The only way to be able to grow a healthy and fertile garden is by controlling these pests and the best way to do it is by using organic methods if possible.

It is widely known that bugs are gardeners most dreadful enemy. They come in various forms and shapes, but all have one common goal and that is to ruin your garden. However, a single bug is not necessarily a problem. Others become worried straightaway when they see one munching on their plants, but that’s how our nature works. As intelligent gardeners, you need to remember that no matter how you take extra care of your garden, it is normal to be confronted with garden pests at some point. Furthermore, not all damages require immediate action, you just need to set the level of damage that is fairly endurable before you act on the problem. There are a lot of garden pests to mention and below are some of the most common and detrimental pests to your vegetable garden.

COMMON GARDEN PESTS

It is a good practice to inspect your garden on a regular basis so that potential problems can be identified and managed right away. Below is a list of garden pests commonly encountered:

Animals
Aphids
Blister Beetles
Cabbage Worms
Corn Earworms
Cutworms
Grasshoppers
Red Spider Mites
Root Maggots
Slug and Snails
Red Spider Mites

IDENTIFYING WHICH ONE IT IS

In order to achieve and maintain a healthy and productive garden, it is best to first identify your enemies. Knowing the common pests is essential in maintaining a healthy garden as this will help you determine which one needs direct attention, as well as decide what needs to be done to solve the problem.

Animals

Animals like deers, rabbits, racoons, birds, and even your own pets, such as dogs and cats, can be your enemies in the garden. First of all, get to know what exactly are the animals despoiling your garden since this will help you determine the next appropriate steps in protecting your vegetation. Building a high fence for deers, for example, would be ineffective if your actual problem is with racoons or rabbits. Following their tracks, particularly for nocturnal animals, is one good way to accurately pinpoint which animal is ruining your garden.

Aphids

When you notice sap-sucking insects surrounding young plants on your garden, then you are dealing with aphids. They are tiny insects shaped like pears that may come in red, green, brown, yellow, black or even gray. Their color depends on the type of specie (approximately 4,000 species) and their source of food. They are small (approximately 1/8 inch long) and are soft to touch.

Depending on the type of specie and stage in life, aphids can either be winged or non-winged. Adult aphids have wings while young ones normally don’t have one; however, they may grow wings too, especially if their population is quite high. They have two antennaes at the tip of their head and a pair of tube-like structures projecting backward out of their hind end which are called cornicles. Furthermore, you can easily identify aphids when you see a black mold thriving on leaves. This mold is from the viscous fluid, also known as honeydew, secreted by the aphids as they feed.

Blister Beetles

blister beetle

This pest is named after its welt-raising liquid released whenever it is squeezed or slashed. This fluid contains cantharidin, a blistering agent that can be used as a treatment to the lesions caused by pox virus. Aside from that, it can also be used in removing warts.

There are several non-toxic beetles that might resemble blister beetles. Therefore, proper identification is important in order to protect and make sure appropriate pest control can be taken. There are about 250 type of blister beetles and they differ in size and coloring. Most full-grown blister beetles are one-half to one inch long. Their bodies are generally soft and their heads are wide with antennae. The frontal part of their chest between their head and body resembles a slender neck. Their wings are soft to touch and flexible, and they have relatively long legs.

They come in diverse colors, striped or flat, and can be bright, as well. Basically, those that have the shades of gray and brown matched with yellow stripes wing covers are called striped blister beetles. The ash-gray blister beetles are entirely gray while the black blister is of course black. Finally, margined blister beetles are typically black with gray to cream band along the edge of each wing cover.

Cabbage Worms

Worms generally move sluggishly; however, unlike any other typical worms, cabbage worms can be really destructive. They sometimes can leave a great and irreparable damage to your garden when no proper intervention is taken.

This type of worm is about 1-1/4 inches long and is velvety green in color. Their short fine hairs and light yellow strips on their sides and back are very discernible. Cabbage worms have five sets of pro-legs. You will know if a cabbage worm is already full-grown if it appears white or pale yellow, and contain three or four black spots on its wings.

Corn Earworms

A full-grown larvae of a corn earworm is about 1-1/2 inch long and they can be seen as lightly striped from light green or pink to brown. Their color becomes darker as they age. Adult corn earworms usually fly at night and are greenish gray or brown in color. Their wings can spread up to 1- 11/2 inched and they have unconventional dark lines and spots on the external borders of their fore and hind wings. They can be seen feeding on nectars during daytime if they are not hiding in a nearby fauna. Also, adult moths are known to be good flyers and can move long distances.

One corn earworm is enough to cause a severe plant damage. This pest carries a lot of names, depending on the type of plant it has affected — it is known as the cotton bollworm when it attacks cotton while it is called tomato fruitworm when it is found ingesting on tomatoes. .

Cutworms

Cutworms, the name given to the larvae of adult moths, can be described as soft-bodied, plump, and are gray or dull brown in color. It’s length stretches around 1-2 inches and it normally curls up when either at rest or in motion. You can see them ingesting plants during the night while they dig their bodies into the soil during daylight.

Cutworms are actually caterpillars, but they are mistaken for larva most of the time. Among the most popular cutworms is the black cutworm. You can easily identify this specie because of the tiny dark spots all over their bodies. Cutworms come in different colors from gray to pink or green and black, depending on the type of specie. Female cutworms normally lay their eggs in dry soil after they mate so it is important to keep an eye out of them.

Flea Beetles

flea beetles

Adult flea beetles are usually small of about 1/10 inches long, glistening, and are either dark brown or black in color. When troubled, they jump to escape using their large posterior legs. In some cases, they contain white or yellow stripes on their wings. Their larvae, on the other hand, are also small around 1/8 – 1/3 inch long and are cream-colored worms. They thrive belowground and ingest the roots of young plants, as well as on developing seeds. Gardeners need to be extra careful of this pest because they carry agents that transmit viral and bacterial diseases.

These remarkably small beetles move very swiftly and leap like a flea. Just like cutworms, there are many plants that are considered hosts to flea beetles. Some of these plants include tomatoes, radish, corn, potatoes, and eggplants. Signs of infestations include small, round holes in the leaves.

Grasshopper

Adult grasshoppers are usually 1-2 inches long and they may come in brown, reddish yellow or green in color. They are characterized by their fully-developed wings, but they only use their back wings for flight. Grasshoppers have shorter antennaes compared to the length of their body but they have long hind legs which allow them to leap at long distances. On the other hand, nymphs are smaller and only have wing sprout, but they look just about the same as the adults.

You can identify female grasshoppers from males by their size; females are generally bigger than males. They also have an egg-laying tube-like structure that can be seen at the end of their abdomen. Furthermore, grasshoppers create a sound by rubbing their hind legs against their abdomen or forewings.

Red Spider Mites

Also called the two spotted spider mite, red spider mite feed on both indoor and outdoor plants. They are about 1mm long and they appear to be yellowish-green in color, with two noticeable dark green spots on their back. There are two kinds of red spider mites, one is the European red spider mite and the other type is called the Southern red spider mite. The latter is considered to be the most common as it attacks a much diverse variety of plants while the former is usually seen only on apple trees.

There are a number of spider mites and you can distinguish each of them by merely looking at their colors with the help of a magnifying glass. During the cold season, they become inactive, their colors turn red, and can be found mostly in brickwood cracks or even between bamboo stalks. During the warm season, they become very active. Female red spider mites lay their eggs during spring season and carry on until summertime. As breeding continues, infested plants become masked with webbing which causes their leaves to wilt and die.

Root Maggots

Adult root maggots are about 1/5 inches long and are dark gray in color. People sometimes misidentify them as houseflies, but only smaller. You can find their eggs primed at the base of their host plants. Maggots, on the other hand, are only 1/3 – 1/4 inches long and are apparently smaller in size, yellowish white in color, heads are needle-like, and are legless. Also, it is important to note that their feeding manner can build entry points for rot diseases such as black rot.

Root maggots got their name from the fact that they feed on the roots of root vegetables such as onions and radish. The problem with this pest is that infestation may not be totally evident until damage is done to your root vegetables. Evidence of infestation show small openings in the roots or tubers of the plant.

Slugs and Snails

snail

If you find snails just around your garden, it is usually the common garden snail which is called the brown garden snail. It’s shell is brown and coiled which is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, and its body is gray in color. Slugs can best be represented as snails without shells and they are directly related to clams and oysters. They are soft-bodied and are brownish or grayish in color. Their size ranges from 1/8 to 2 inches and even becomes longer when extended.

Slugs and snails are considered to be the most infuriating pests in the home gardens throughout North America. They can be found in moist, shady regions along a rock foundation or in well-fertilized vegetation. They usually feed at nighttime on various plants, as well as on deteriorating plant parts. Slugs intimately resemble snails in terms of their anatomical structure and biology, except that snails have shells while slugs don’t. Both slugs and snails depend on their hefty foot for movement along with the slime they produce for gliding.

GETTING RID OF GARDEN PESTS

Making a garden is indeed fun and exciting; however, it doesn’t end up there. You need to take certain measures in order to keep your garden from all the pests surrounding it. All these pests problems, nevertheless, have earth-friendly solutions to keep your garden off the hook.