“Garden Pests & How To Combat Them”- An Experts’ Take!

To be fair, having insects in your garden is not the most horrible thing. In fact, most of them are quite beneficial in eating other pests and pollinating flowers. The trick here is to find out those garden pests and insects that look to damage your garden.
If you have no clue about, here’s a post educating on the matter!

Snails & Slugs:

Snails and slugs get their food using their spiky and rasping tongue. And since most snails tend to hibernate during the winter, they cannot move across the soil. They usually climb high when retreating to their shells to prevent drying out.

As for slugs, they remain active all year and tend to move above and below the surface. The common thing among them is they tend to feed mostly during the night.

Symptom:- 

One clear way to identify them is to check their trail of slime, holes in the leaves and completely eaten seedlings.

Prevention Steps:-

• Dig up the soil to disrupt the slugs and its eggs.
  
• You can even rely on beetles, frogs, birds and hedgehogs to remove them.
  
• Inspect the plants and put barriers of dry materials like sheep wool or grit. The slugs won’t be able to cross it, but then you need to redo it every time it rains.
  
• Lastly; you can use slug pellets- but be very careful as some of them contain harmful chemicals which can hamper your garden.

Allium Leaf Miner:

They are tiny maggots that feed on onions and leeks.

Symptoms:- 

The best way to identify it would be to see those white spots, leaf splifs and distorted plants that are about to rot.

Prevention Steps:-

To ensure proper garden maintenance, get rid of all the debris accumulated in your garden and dig up the soil to expose the pupas to the predators.
However, allium leaf miners tend to lay eggs right throughout the entire year, and they can also survive in harsh winters. So, keeping total control over them can be difficult on your own.
One option you can employ is hiring a professional garden maintenance specialist in Sutherland Shire to help you with this issue.

Aphids:

They are the commonest garden pests that you will find. They are often called blackfly and greenfly. And being sap-sucking pests, they tend to every part of the roots, stems and leaves. But be careful as they also tend to carry viruses.

Symptoms:-

Large clusters around a young plant, thus causing it to become weak, distorted and eventually dead!

Prevention Includes:- 

• Regularly checking the plants for aphids.
  
• Not using too much of nitrogen-rich fertilisers.
  
• Encouraging animals who eat aphids.
  
• Blasting a strong stream of water at your garden plants to eliminate Aphids.
  
• And putting away plants which are seriously hampered by aphids and putting them in soapy water.

Rosemary Beetle:

Rosemary beetles are primarily yellowish-brown larvae with brown patterns- 6-8mm in length. Matured ones are 3-4mm long and filled with fine hair. And they tend to lay their eggs in fruit blossoms.

Symptoms:- 

They tend to feed on the fruits, thus making them hard and distorted. But the good news is they rarely cause excessive damage.

Prevention Steps:-

• Puncture the soil around the plant stems using a fork mainly to bring the larvae and beetles to the surface.
  
• Keeping a flock of birds in your garden as they tend to eat them up.

Vine Weevil:

Vine Weevils are 1cm long and are curled in the shape of C. Being plump with a creamy white body and a brown head; they tend to pay around 500-1500 eggs in a couple of months.

Symptoms:- 

Damage seen in the compost of grown plants and their roots. Also if you come across plants appearing dried out or wilting, then it is a clear case of vine weevil infestation!

Prevention Steps:-

• Put a band of wide PVC tape around your plant pots and grease it with a quality insect guarding glue. This will prevent these pests from crossing over.
  
• Check your plants regularly, and also look to shuffle the pots from time to time.
  
• Encourage natural predators like birds, hedgehogs, frogs and even shrews to kill these pests.

Use these suggestions to combat your garden pests. And if you need further assistance, be sure to contact an expert specialising in quality garden upkeep and lawn mowing services in Sutherland Shire. They will be happy to lend in their experienced helping hands.