tips-to-rid-your-garden-of-pests

8 Tips to Rid Your Garden of Pests

Your safe-haven from stress; your garden is a lot of things: the crown of your home, a perfect bonding space with the family, and an extension of your nature-loving self.

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Sadly, there are these troublesome little creatures that just want to ruin the fun. Pests are a real problem for homeowners that ruin gardens. Cultivating colorful and flowering plants is not easy — it requires money, time, effort and a lot of dedication.

Protect your hard work with these tips to rid your garden of pests:

1. Use Homemade Insecticides

homemade insecticides

Using homemade insecticides is environmentally friendly and economical too. In addition, ingredients to these solutions are very accessible. You can buy the ingredients in a market near you.

Here are some examples:

a. Eucalyptus

Mix eucalyptus oil with water. Spray on infected plants and get rid of flies, bees and wasps.

b. Tobacco

Tobacco mixed with water and let sit overnight is a powerful weapon against pests such as caterpillars and aphids.

c. Citrus Spray

Get rid of ants and cockroaches with a mix of water, citrus oil and soap.

2. Bring Birds to Your Garden

bird

Take advantage of the food chain. Birds are great protectors of gardens. Their diets comprise of small insects.

You can do this by planting native plants in your home. Make your garden a familiar territory to them. You can also make your garden more attractive by adding water feeders or spaces perfect for nest building. You can even up your game by building a birdhouse up a tree or at a height.

3. Prickly and Hairy Plants

Prickly Plants

If large animals like deer are a problem in your place, you can resort to introducing prickly and hairy plants into your garden. They can shoo away large animals easily.

They’re normally built to serve this purpose. Their prickly spines and hairy texture are notorious in the animal kingdom for the unpleasant experience they can give once eaten.

4. Get Rid of Slugs

Slug

If you have slugs in your garden, the holes in your plants are most likely caused by them. They’ll eat almost any green leaf they see. They’re pretty innocent little creatures who move so slow and have soft bodies. However, they can be considered pests and could do a lot of damage to your garden if left unattended.

Get rid of them with beer. They’re attracted to it.

You can scatter cups of beer in your garden beside your plants and leave them overnight. In the morning, you’ll discover drowned slugs.

5. Keep the Lady Bugs

ladybug

These little red creatures are not pests but saviors despite being “bugs” --- a word synonymous with pests.

They’re often called “gardener’s best friend.”

They eat aphids and other insects with soft bodies such as mites and flies.

You can buy ladybugs online and have them delivered to you or you can find one from a local gardening store.

The next step for you is to put them in your freezer to slow them down. This will give you the chance to feed them in your garden. You will need some time to introduce them to their new territory before they decide to fly away. If you fail to do this, you could lose your tiny investment.

Make sure that they have access to water and food: collect bugs for them.

6. Purge Aphids

aphids

By far, these pests are the mosts terrible to deal with. They can do the most damage to your garden.

Aphids consist of 5000 species and 450 of them are described as pests to plants. They feed directly on sap, so really causing irreversible damage when not taken care of.

Furthermore, aphids are effective carriers of viruses. They can easily spread viruses from plant to plant in only a little time.

These pests can also trigger allergic reactions to sensitive people.

How do you stop them from pestering your garden?

You can easily get rid of aphids temporarily with water. Spraying your plants with a water jet everyday can prevent damage from these pests.

Use of insecticides is costly as aphids breed quickly. You can use homemade pesticides for a cheaper alternative and temporary solution.

Release of ladybugs in the garden is also effective but will also be costly since they tend to fly away after 48 hours. You can only rely on their eggs.

The most effective method could be water jetting the plants daily to physically and thoroughly remove the aphids.

7. Let the Experts Deal With It

gardening experts

There are a lot of effective ways to deal with pests in the garden. You can either do it with chemicals or natural ways. It depends. Who else to call when you don’t know what to do? The experts.

Pest control services are also available to solve pest problems in your garden. This may be the best way to take care of your situation.

Why should you trust the experts?

First of all, unlike you, they are more experienced in eliminating pest problems in other people’s houses and gardens. This makes them more knowledgeable in different situations varying in levels of infestation.

Pest control experts also always aim to extinguish the problem right at its core. They’re effective problem-solvers and you can learn a thing or two from them during their visit to your garden.

8. Visit Your Garden Daily

tomatoes

Almost all pests are quick breeders.

You’ll be surprised to witness these buggers chewing on your plants even after only 24 hours of relaxing outside.

Make it a habit to visit your garden every morning. You can drink a cup of coffee while you water the plants. This is actually very beneficial to you and your plants. A good ray of sunshine everyday will keep your bones healthy. While you’re at it, make sure you wash away these critters to keep them from chewing on your hard work.

Give nature a home…

Your home stands on nature. Now, it’s your turn to give back to it. With a home garden, you’re helping to improve the now crumbling health of the ecosystem. Be a responsible caretaker, and be one of the world’s helping hands.

About the Author Laura Bennett

Hello, I’m Laura Bennett. I love nature especially when it comes to flowers and different kinds of plants. I started a very small garden behind my house and I named it Humid Garden. So, I created this blog to provide aspiring and inspiring thoughts about gardening for gardeners and anyone who has the intention of keeping a garden.

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