Do you have a garden? If so, do you have any pests? My guess is that you do have pests, regardless of where your garden is located. A pot of herbs on a windowsill may have pests like insects or mice. A container garden on the deck or patio may have pests like insects, birds, squirrels, dogs, cats, or rats. A raised bed garden, greenhouse or in ground garden may have all of the pests mentioned above, plus any animal that lives in the woods and fields surrounding the garden. There are a few things that work with no harm to anything but these small pests, which is what is preferred because we must always treat the earth and all that dwell thereon with respect. We can start with the smallest pests like insects and bugs and examine the available controls to see if they work.
1. Insects and bugs love the small tender green spring plants. My mother, who was a lifetime gardener, always sprinkled hardwood ashes on tender plants like lettuce or other greens, beans, squash or anything else that is planted early in the season. I don’t remember her ever using anything else as a “bug dust.” I usually use a dust that is harmless to dogs and other similar animals, as well as being safe for vegetables that are to be harvested and eaten. Depending on the weather, plants may need to be dusted every time the rain washes off the dust. The early season insects and bugs disappear with the early season and other insects and bugs take their place. We are talking about potato bugs, tomato horn worms, white cabbage moths, squash borers and all of their friends and relatives. I just continue with the same dust treatment throughout the changing seasons.
2. The next group of pests consists of the small animals and birds, moles, field mice, rabbits, skunks, squirrels, raccoons and ‘possums. My primary problem pests are crows, squirrels, and rabbits. Crows eat new corn, ripe strawberries and blueberries and sometimes new bean plants if they are early beans. The berries are easily protected with netting, which keeps away the crows as well as deer. Rabbits and squirrels eat anything that is tender and green, including onions and tender ears of corn. The only way to keep them out of the garden is to fence with chicken wire. About two feet high is enough to keep out rabbits, but squirrels will climb a fence if they are hungry. The squirrels we have are all so fat they are too lazy to climb a fence unless there is fresh tender corn to steal. I plan to try tying a piece of metal window screen around each cornstalk this year. Hope that will be too much work for the squirrels to deal with. I lay a piece of chicken wire down on my rows of corn as soon as it is planted. The wire keeps the crows from eating the corn sprouts. The “crows eating corn” problem has been solved for me for years.
3. The last group is a challenge for anyone with a garden, orchard, flower pots or landscaping. They are the deer, bears, wild hogs, wild turkeys, coyotes, foxes, and the neighbors’ cows, horses and chickens. I have to deal with the deer and although some of the other animals are around, the garden location is too public for them. Deer like to eat crowder peas after the peas are dried on the vine. I combat this by picking my peas in a “snap” or mature but green stage. These peas can be frozen as is, or put in a secure place with plenty of air circulation to finish drying. I usually have a few peas left on the vines that are not mature enough to pick so they finish drying and the deer have some to eat. Deer love young okra. I have tried several ways to keep them out of my okra. The most successful way has been to string a large, fuzzy yarn back and forth through the okra plants like Christmas garland. They seem to be afraid to pick the okra through the garlands of yarn. They may be afraid of spider webs, or they may think they will get trapped. I don’t communicate with deer but I definitely know they are smart and resourceful when it comes to picking okra to eat.
Deer, and crows, love watermelons. There is a way to keep them away from melons. Wrap the melon in a piece of old sheeting or any kind of fabric when the melons are small. The piece of fabric should be fairly thin (like a bedsheet or piece of a cotton shirt). Fold the fabric under the melon so it is covered. The melon does not need direct sunlight as long as the vines and leaves are in the sun. Leave the fabric folded around the melon until it is harvested. I hope none of the crows or deer learn to read! This is a very successful control of two of our smartest garden pests.
4. Plant disease is not a real pest but is usually caused by real pests. A good example is damage from squash borers. These bugs bore a hole in the squash plant which causes the plant to die. There is no sure extermination of the borer after you notice the first wilted and dead squash plant. The control consists of immediately pulling up all squash plants and putting them into the compost pile. Do not re-plant anything in the area where the squash plants were pulled up until the next season (three to six months). Once the borers are established in one plant, they will migrate to all surrounding plants. For this reason, I usually grow squash throughout the garden. One or two plants in a spot is best. If you notice a wilting or dead squash, pull it up and move it away from the garden. Also, pull up any squash plants within about ten-feet of the original wilted plant. This method will stop the borers from spreading into your other plants. They do not attack anything but squash plants as far as my experience goes.
5. Other plant problems which are one-of-a-kind are corn “smut” and mold on sweet potatoes. The corn “smut” is caused by something like a cancer on individual corn stalks. There is nothing to do but pull up the entire corn stalk and dispose of it in the compost pile. This is not common and usually will happen to one or two corn plants in your entire garden. Mold on sweet potatoes seems to be caused by under-aerated, damp soil at a certain time in the potato’s development. It seems to usually affect part of the potatoes in a hill. I always dispose of any potatoes with the mold, rather than taking a change on preserving the mold which possibly could affect next year’s “slips” from the original potato.
The most effective control of garden and landscaping pests is close observation of your plants. If you see brown leaves and stems, clumps of eggs on the underside of leaves, holes in plant leaves, wilting plants, deformed vegetables, or anything which does not look like a healthy plant, investigate to try to determine the cause. There are many good garden pest books to read, much helpful information on the web and people at your local County Extension Office who are glad to answer your questions.