home & property: gardens
How to beat the worst pests in your garden
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home & property: gardens How to beat the worst pests in your garden |
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by Gillian Yarbrough
Everybody likes wildlife in their garden. Lovely butterflies floating around in the air. Cute squirrels jumping around in the trees. However, not all insects and animals are welcome. Some creatures are can prove to be a real nuisance if, like most people, you want to grow beautiful plants and flowers. The seven worst of these are: Slugs Although these slimy little creatures usually spend their time below ground, they do like to pop up to the surface for just long enough to ruin your plants. They will attack the stems, leaves and flowers of almost any plants. Unfortunately no garden can be made a slug-free zone. However slug pellets will do a pretty good job. You can also make it difficult for them to get to your plants by using a layer of grit which the poor devils really don't like crawling over.Despite their name, these tiny pests can be black, brown, pink or yellow as well as green. They will eat pretty much any plants although they particularly enjoy roses and honeysuckle. The only real way to treat them is with insecticide which is absorbed harmlessly by the plant and then passed on to the aphids when they come to feed. Earwig These brown bugs grow well over an inch in long and attack the flowers and foliage of several common garden plants. Although you can use insecticides on earwigs, perhaps the most effective approach is with a torch. They feed in the evening so you can catch a surprisingly high number of them by going on a night time killing spree (if you have the stomach for it).Snails Much like slugs they will damage almost all of the plants in your garden. Similarly, it is not humanly possible to eradicate them from your garden. Poisoned pellets are your best weapon, although you can catch many of them by hand when they come out in the evening. |
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