Maintaining a garden can be a rewarding experience, allowing you to grow your own food, enjoy beautiful flowers, and connect with nature. However, it can also be frustrating when pests invade and damage your plants.
Whether you are a beginner in gardening or an experienced gardener, it is important to know how to identify and control the worst garden pests to ensure the health and success of your garden.
Garden pests and control measures
Garden pests come in many forms, including insects, mites, snails, and caterpillars. These pests can cause a wide range of damage, from chewing on leaves to transmitting diseases to your plants.
Some pests even kill entire crops, leading to significant financial losses for farmers and gardeners alike. Fortunately, there are various ways to control and manage garden pests.
Many natural methods and insecticides can effectively manage pest populations without harming the environment or other beneficial organisms such as pollinators.
Additionally, taking preventative measures such as proper plant spacing, maintaining healthy soil and crop rotation can help reduce the impact of pests on your garden.
10 of the worst garden pests
The following are the 10 worst garden pests:
Scales
Scales are tiny, sap-sucking insects that attach themselves to the stems and leaves of plants, often leaving a sticky residue behind.
They can cause yellowing, stunted growth, and even death of plants if not managed properly and in good time. To control scales, you can use insecticidal soap or neem oil.
You can also use a soft-bristled brush to scrape them off the plants. However, it is important to note that heavy infestations may require repeated applications of insecticides.
Caterpillars
Caterpillars are the larvae of moths and butterflies. They can eat through leaves, stems, and fruits, causing significant damage to plants.
To control caterpillars, you can use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a natural insecticide that targets only caterpillars. You can also use Spinosad, another natural insecticide that is safe for other insects and animals.
Handpicking caterpillars off plants can also be effective particularly where the infestation is mild.
Slugs/Snails
Slugs and snails are common garden pests that are both soft-bodied, slimy molluscs that belong to the same class of animals known as gastropods.
They usually leave slimy trails behind, making them easy to identify. They damage crops by nibbling through plants, especially young seedlings.
To control slugs and snails, you can use copper strips or diatomaceous earth to create a barrier around your garden bed.
You can also use beer traps or handpick them off plants and dispose them appropriately. Another effective control method is to attract predators such as frogs, toads, and birds to your garden to feed on them.
Spider mites
Spider mites are tiny, eight-legged arachnid. They cause damage to plants by sucking their sap leading to yellowing of leaves and their eventual fall off the plants. To control spider mites, use insecticidal soap or neem oil.
You can also spray your plants with water to dislodge them. If the infestation is severe, you may need to use chemical insecticides.
However, it is important to note that these chemical insecticides can also harm beneficial insects and should therefore be used only as a last resort. But you also have the option to use natural pest control methods such crop rotation.
Hornworms
Hornworms are large, green caterpillars that can cause great damage to plants. Their name is derived from the large red or black horn-like spine that protrudes at their tail end.
They can eat through leaves and fruits, and even defoliate entire plants if control measures are not implemented in good time. To control hornworms, you can use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or Spinosad.
You can also handpick them off plants and dispose of them where the infestation is mild. Another effective method is to attract natural predators such as birds and wasps to your garden. They will clear them off.
Aphids
Aphids are small, pear-shaped soft-bodied insects that range in color from green, black, red, brown, yellow and grey.
They cause significant damage to plants by sucking sap and transmitting diseases. To keep these bugs under control, you can use insecticidal soap or neem oil.
You can also release ladybugs, lacewings, and other natural predators to your garden to feed on them. Another effective method is to spray your plants with water to dislodge them.
Whiteflies
Whiteflies are tiny white flying insects that are about 1 to 2 millimeters in size. They can cause severe damage to plants by sucking their sap and transmitting diseases.
To effectively control whiteflies, use insecticidal soap or neem oil. You can also release parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside whiteflies, killing them.
Japanese Beetles
Japanese beetles are metallic green in color. These beetles have coppery-brown wings. They cause serious damage to plants by eating their foliage and flowers.
To control Japanese beetles, you can use pheromone traps to lure them away from your plants. You can also handpick them off plants and dispose of them before the infestation on your plants becomes severe.
Another effective control method for these beetles is to use insecticides that contain neem oil or pyrethrin.
Cutworms
Cutworms are the larvae of several species of moths. They cause significant damage to young seedlings by cutting through the stems, and that is why they are named as such.
To control cutworms, you can create a physical barrier around your plants using collars made of cardboard or plastic.
You can also use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or Spinosad, two natural insecticides that target only caterpillars since cutworms are moth larvae in caterpillar stage.
Allium Leaf Miners
Allium leaf miners are small flies that cause significant damage to alliums such as onions, leeks, and garlic. They lay their eggs on the leaves of these plants, and the larvae burrow into the leaves, destroying the vegetable plants.
To effectively control Allium leaf miners, you can use row covers to protect your plants from adult flies.
You can also rotate your crops. Plant alliums during warm seasons instead of rainfall seasons, or use insecticides that contain Spinosad or pyrethrin.