Dealing With Garden Pests

Once you start growing your own, and assuming you are following organic guidelines, you will soon start to encounter the pests which plague almost all organic gardeners. It is fairly inevitable that you will lose at least a part of your crop to pests, but there are certainly ways to minimise damage and losses.

In this article we will have a look at some of the worst garden pests, from cats to earwigs, and look at ways to deal with them before they trample, steal or munch their way through you raised bed.

1. Birds

Birds will take advantage of any seeds scattered or sown at almost any time of the year. Wood pigeons and starlings are particularly destructive. Pigeons because they can cause utter chaos in a veg patch, and starlings because they can come in huge numbers once they know food is available. The answer can be as simple as covering your patch with light garden netting or placing some birds scarers around (old CD's hung from fishing line work well). It can also be a good idea to place a bird feeder in a different area of the garden to distract from the seed bed.

2. Slugs and Snails

The bane of every organic gardeners life, slugs and snails will eat almost any type of plant, and are particularly keen on young tender seedlings. The quickest and easiest way to stop slugs and snails is to spend a few pounds on a slug trap and fill it with beer or fruit juice. The molluscs are attracted by the fermenting smell and quickly fall in and drown. You can also make your own slug by simply half filling a jam jar with beer and burying it up to its rim in the ground. If growing in pots, you can buy copper tape which you stick around the pot. As the snail or slug tries to cross the tape, it will get a small electrical shock. In particularly bad cases, slug pellets might be the only answer. However, make sure they are safe for children, pets and other wildlife.

3. Aphids (greenfly)

Aphids can be hard to spot unless they appear in large numbers, so keep an eye out for curled shoots and leaves. This is a sign that aphids are at work. Covering your seedlings with a fine mesh garden fleece should work as a quick fix. In the long term, think about planting some companion plants near your crop. Things like french marigolds, chives and lavender will disguise the smell of the Aphids target plants.

4. Earwigs and Millipedes

In large numbers, these pests can do some real damage to young plants, especially potato plants. You can keep them off your crop by placing hollowed out fruit near your veg patch, or by placing pieces of old board on the ground.

5. Worms

No, not normal earthworms (the gardeners friend) but Cut worms, wire worms and leatherjackets. Attracted to young seedlings, and capable of munching through a surprisingly large amount, these hard to spot pests can be a real problem. To get rid of them, water your patch well and lay down old pieces of wet carpet. Turn the carpet over the next morning and you will reveal them . Either let the birds have a free feast or dig them out and dispose of them.

6. Caterpillars

Caterpillars such as a the voracious cabbage white can be a disaster for a vegetable patch. To stop them getting their 5-a-day, you need to stop the parent butterflies laying their eggs on the plants. A fine weave net or garden fleece will do this effectively enough.

7. Flea Beetles

Flea beetles can be identified by the tiny pin-prick holes they make in the leaves of young plants. Flea beetles hate moist soil so watering affected areas well can put a stop to them. You can also wave sticky fly paper over the plants to catch some of them as they jump.

8. Humans

Yes, humans! As food prices continue to rise, so does theft from vegetable patches. If creating a new vegetable patch keep this in mind when choosing a location. Try to position it out of sight of passers by. Security lighting can also deter nocturnal thieves.

There are also several "natural" ways to keep the numbers of pests in your garden to a minimum. By this we mean taking steps to attract natural predators to the garden, which will hopefully then do most of the job for you. Having a pond (even a small one) can really help with pest control. Frogs love slugs and will decimate numbers in your garden. Ponds will also attract bats which will make quick work of flying pests. A mini "pond" can be created very easily by burying washing-up bowl in the ground up to its rim. Place a couple of rocks in the bottom so creatures have a way to climb out and then fill it with water. You could even buy a marginal pond plant like a golden sedge and sit that, in its pot, in the water. Place some more small plants around the edge of the pond or let the grass grow long directly around the pond to give the frogs some cover.

Hedgehogs are another gaderners friend and can be attracted to the garden by creating a wild patch away from the house. Leave a small area to grow wild and hedgehogs can quickly start to make use of it. Once in the garden they will happily munch on slugs, snails, catapillers and many other pests.

Finally, you could try planting some sacrificial plants in the area of the vegetable patch. Nettles will attract Aphids and, in turn, ladybirds and lacewings. The Aphids should be happy with the nettles, but if they happen to stray onto your crop, the predators will be ready to clear them out.