Having To Deal With Garden Pests

There is nothing more frustrating to the gardener than to walk through their garden to find holes in all of their plants that looked fine only hours before. The explanations for some of these plant-destroying holes are of course garden pests. Some of the main garden pests are slugs, worms, caterpillars, birds, snails, and the occasional gopher. Although you can never wipe out these pests entirely, after all your hard work in the garden you have to do something.

Insects are one of the worst things to have in your garden; they can live under the soil, in old weeds or piles of leaves, or in a number of other places. In order to help keep insects away, always try and eliminate places in your garden and near your garden that these insects and other plant diseases could be living. Remove old leaves, weeds, or any other decaying matter that insects and diseases could be living in from your yard. Also, regularly turn over your garden soil and break apart any clumps of dirt so that you can eliminate the living spaces any insects that might be hiding underground.

Another way to rid your garden of the pests is to use dormant spray, which is used to keep destructive insects and diseases under control. It is best that you use dormant spray when your plants are dormant, usually around February or early March. Dormant spray is only effective if you follow the correct instructions. Be careful you follow the instructions correctly as some insects can be beneficial to your garden, so be sure to find out which insects help your garden - before you accidentally kill them.

Another pest problem besides insects is birds. Instead of chasing them away, why not put a bird feeder in your yard. Instead of costing you time and money with the birds eating your garden, the birds eat at
the bird feeder. In the long run it’ll save you money. Not only can a bird feeder help keep birds away from your garden, but they can also be a new part of your yard decoration.

If you start seeing mounds of dirt around your yard, and your plants keep dying, you can assume that you have a gopher problem. Gophers are rodents that are five to fourteen inches long. Their fur can be black, light brown, or white, and they have small tails. One method of getting rid of these root-eating pests is to
set traps. The key to successfully capturing a gopher using a trap is to successfully locate the gopher’s tunnels and set the trap correctly. Another way to get rid of them is to use smoke bombs, which you place into the tunnel and the smoke spreads through out it and hopefully reaches the gopher.

If you suspect that your gardens are being pillaged by any of the pests mentioned, try your hardest to eliminate the problem as soon as possible. The longer you let the species stay, the more established it will become.