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Chapter 12: Pest
Control
Thanks to some
judicious use of weed-killer, the weeds in Bud's new lawn were
now under control and he could finally relax. Then the insects
came...
One morning as Bud strolled out to survey his
lawn, he found several small ladybugs crawling around near his
walkway. Fearing they'd eat his grass, he killed them. Then,
over in a flowerbed on some perennial flowers his wife had
planted, he noticed some very small bugs.
He sighed.
Time for another consultation with Scott. He scooped up a few
of the small bugs along with some dead ladybugs, walked over,
and showed them to Scott.
After inspecting both bugs,
Scott announced, "You killed the wrong ones. Ladybugs are
beneficial insects — good to have. These other small ones
crawling on your hands, those are aphids. Bad bugs."
With revulsion, Bud crushed
the bad bugs and wished he'd known the difference.
As with weeds, there are a
wide variety of pests that either visit or inhabit lawns. Most
of them are benign or beneficial, but some — such as
deer, moles, and gophers — can be pests.
When is it a
pest?
Pest refers to an insect,
animal, plant or micro-organism that causes problems in the
garden.
Beneficials are
organisms in the air, on the ground, or in the soil that do
good things for your garden, like pollinating flowers, feeding
on insect pests, or improving soil.
Some pests are also
beneficial. For example, yellow jackets are both
predators of pests and painful to humans. When considering any
controls, weigh a creature's damage against damage to the
entire community of garden life.
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Insects, spiders, and other
crawling or flying creatures are a vital part of healthy
gardens. Most perform important jobs like pollinating flowers,
recycling nutrients, and eating pests. In fact, less than 1%
of garden insects actually damage plants. Unfortunately, the
pesticides often used to control pests and weeds are also
toxic to beneficial garden life — and may harm people,
pets, salmon, and other wildlife as well.
What to Do if a Pest Problem
Develops
Use Physical Controls
First. Many pests can be kept away from plants with
barriers and traps or controlled by simply removing infested
plant parts. These controls generally have no adverse impact
on beneficial garden life, people, or the environment.
Removal
Pests and diseased plant
parts can be picked, washed, or vacuumed off plants to control
infestations. In fact, pulling weeds is a natural pest
control!
• Handpicking can be
effective for large pests like cabbage loopers, tomato
hornworms, slugs, and snails.
• Pruning out
infestations of tent caterpillars is effective on a
small scale. Control leaf miners on beets or  chard by picking
infected leaves. Put infestations in the garbage or curbside
yard waste collection containers - not in home compost piles,
which do not get hot enough to destroy pests.
• Washing aphids
off plants with a strong spray of water from a hose
can reduce damage. Repeated washings may be required, as this
process does not kill the aphids.
Traps
It is possible to trap enough
pests like moths and slugs to keep them under control. You can
also use traps for monitoring pest numbers to determine when
controls may be necessary. Two simple and effective pest traps
include:
• Cardboard or
burlap wrapped around apple tree trunks in summer and
fall will fool coddling moth  larvae into thinking that they have found a safe
place to spin their cocoons as they crawl down the tree to
pupate. Traps can be peeled away periodically to remove
cocoons.
• Slug traps drown slugs
in beer or in a mixture of yeast or water.
Barriers
It is often practical to
physically keep pests away from plants. Barriers range from
5-cm (2-in.) cardboard "collars' around plants for keeping
cut-worms away to 2.5-meter (8.33-foot) fences for excluding
deer.
• Floating row
covers are lightweight fabrics that let light, air,
and water reach plants, while keeping pests away — they
are useful for pests like rust flies on carrots, leaf miners
on spinach, and root maggots on cabbage, broccoli, and
cauliflower.
• Mesh
netting keeps birds away from berries and small fruit
trees.
• A band of
sticky material around tree trunks stops ants from
climbing trees and introducing disease-carrying aphids.
Repellents
A variety of homemade and
commercial preparations can be used to keep pests away from
plants. Many gardeners claim repellants work, although some
are not consistently effective in scientific trials.
A mixture of raw eggs blended
with water produces a taste and odor that offend deer; some
gardeners add garlic and hot pepper. Spraying this mix onto
plant foliage can repel deer for several weeks or until it is
washed off by rain or sprinklers.
Garlic oil and extracts are
used to repel a variety of insect pests and also work as
fungicides.
Meet the
Beneficials!
Spraying any
pesticide may kill more beneficials than pests. Think twice
before you spray.
Ground beetles
eat slug eggs and babies, plus other soil-dwelling
pests.
Lacewings and their
alligator-like larvae eat aphids, scales, mites, caterpillars,
and other pests.
Lady beetle larvae and
adults feed on soft-bodied insects such as aphids, mealybugs,
scale insects, and spider mites as well as insect
eggs.
Hornets and yellow
jackets are effective predators.
However,
controls may be necessary if they pose a threat to people or
pets.
Centipedes may look scary, but
they feed on slugs and a variety of small insect
pests.
Use Least-Toxic Pesticides When
Physical Controls Don't Work
The pesticides listed below
have a low toxicity or break down quickly into safe byproducts
when exposed to sunlight or the soil, and are the least likely
to have adverse effects. However, even these pesticides can be
toxic to beneficial garden life, people, pets, and other
animals - especially fish. They should be used carefully and
kept out of streams and lakes.
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Specials.
Soaps, Oils and
Minerals
• Horticultural
oils smother mites, aphids and their eggs, scales,
leaf miners, mealybugs, and many other pests; they have little
effect on most beneficial
insects.
• Horticultural soaps
dry out aphids, white flies, earwigs, and other soft-bodied
insects. They must be sprayed directly onto the pests to work,
so repeated applications may be necessary. There are also
soap-based fungicides and herbicides.
• Sulfur controls many fungal
diseases such as scab, rust, leaf curl, and powdery mildew
without harming most animals and beneficials. For greater
effectiveness, sulfur can be mixed with lime. Sulfur is also
frequently combined with other materials to create more toxic
fungicides.
• Baking soda (1
teaspoon) mixed with dishwashing liquid (a few drops) and
water (1 liter [0.25 gallons]) has been used by rose growers
to prevent mildew. A commercial product is also available that
contains potassium bicarbonate, which is similar to baking
soda.
• Iron phosphate slug baits
are less toxic than other slug baits and not as hazardous to
dogs.
Botanicals
These
plant-derived insecticides degrade quickly in the sun or soil.
However, most are initially toxic to people, animals, fish,
and beneficial garden life. Use cautiously and follow label
directions closely, just as when applying synthetic
pesticides.
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• Neem oil kills and
disrupts feeding and mating of many insects, including some
beneficials. Also an effective fungicide, neem oil is the
botanical that is least toxic to people, animals, birds, and
fish.
• Pyrethrum, ryania, and
sabadilla kill many tough pests, but are also quite
toxic to beneficial insects, people, fish, and other animals.
These pesticides should only be used as a last resort.
Biocontrols
• Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) is a common, commercially
available bacterium that poisons caterpillar pests, including
cutworms, armyworms, tent caterpillars, cabbage loopers, and
corn earworms. Bt is not toxic to people, animals, fish, or
insects — although it can kill caterpillars of non-pest
butterflies and moths.
• Predatory
nematodes kill a wide variety of pests, including
cutworms, armyworms, root maggots, crane fly larvae, root
weevil larvae and other soil-dwelling pests. Proper soil
temperature and moisture are required for nematodes to be
effective.
• Beauveria bassiana
is a commercially available fungus that destroys an extensive
range of pest insects.
• Beneficial
insects like ladybugs and lacewings can be purchased
and released. A healthy and diverse garden will usually have
lots of them around already.
• Compost
teas use compost organisms to help control leaf and
root diseases. They are sometimes effective and they won't
harm any beneficial organisms.
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