Getting Rid of Garden Pests Part 2

The summer of 2015 was rough. Something had infiltrated my garden and was systematically destroying my cucumbers, zucchini, melons and winter squash. It looked like some mildew or fungus was turning all the leaves yellow. Not until it was way too late did I realize the problem was squash vine borers. Needless to say, I didn't get much off of my vinning plants that year.

In a previous post, I wrote about good gardening practices for preventing  damaging disease and fungi in your garden. This post will address preventing and treating unwanted bugs. Many of the principles that help prevent disease will also prevent bad bugs. So if you're already buying disease/insect resistant plants, providing an ideal garden environment, and practicing garden rotation, then you're already on your way to keeping bugs out. You can read my previous post here.

To keep damaging bugs out of your garden, encourage their natural predators. Loads of birds love to feast on insects so encouraging them to your yard via bird baths, nesting boxes and bushes to provide shelter and food is a great idea. Protecting your berry bushes aside, you really do want birds in your garden. You can encourage many great beneficial insects (like lady bugs and praying mantis(pictured)) by not spraying toxic chemicals near your garden and by leaving them alone when you do find them. Many times in our attempts to get rid of bad bugs by spraying harsh chemicals on them, we also kill off beneficial bugs at the same time.

For larger pests, like tomato worms and potato bugs, you can pick them off by hand an either A: squish them (we do with tomato worms even though it's really gross) or B: put them in a used water bottle with a little soapy water or gasoline. Yeah, it's a pain but it does work.

Another suggestion that I meant to include in my first post was if you see an infestation starting on a plant, whether it's a fungus or insect eggs, remove the plant or part of a plant and put it in the trash. Don't try to compost it, just get rid of it. If you catch it early enough, you might prevent an outbreak.

I didn't get into mosquitoes and ticks in this post because that really warrants it's own post. Want more info on bugs? Here you go:

10 Most Destructive Insects and How to Get Rid of Them

Enlist Beneficial Insects For Natural Pest Control

12 Plants That Repel Unwanted Insects