Natural Garden Pest Control - Homestead Backyard

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Common pests and how to control them naturally

Tomato hornworm: This is essentially the scariest and most destructive pest in a garden. While the pests aren’t dangerous to human beings as such, they pose a great threat to potato plants. This is because of the fact that they feed heavily and are capable of eating a significant amount of leaves from the potatoes. Roto-tiling and moving the tomato regularly is an effective way to manage these pests naturally. These pests can also be eliminated effectively by looking for them and actually picking them off. If you don’t have the time to do this, there are many organic products that you can by and spray off your plants and this will really work.

Cabbage worm: These kinds of worm alongside its counterpart parsley worms can serious damage leafy green plants if left uncontrolled. You can literary pick them off from your plants and this will keep them under absolute control. You will need to be very alert and keep checking for any signs of plant damage by the cabbage worms throughout the season. Alternatively, you can use organic products to spray your plants underneath the leaves and you will succeed in killing the worms together with their larvae.

Slugs and snails: while these pests are actually not bugs as such, they can cause a great havoc in your garden. This is because they determinedly feast on the stem and leaves of your plants and will particularly attack on your leafy garden vegetables. The best natural prevention for snails and slugs is use of baits which you can buy from your local garden center. However, you will need to follow strictly the directions given. These boxes usually contain Metaldehyde, which slowly kill the snails as they die. Be careful not to use these formulations around pets or birds as they can be dangerous when they eat them. A good way to control snails and slugs is creating barriers to ensure that the pests are not able to cross over to your crops. You can use materials such as wood ashes and crushed egg shells which are easily available at home and are easy to use with and cheap. Eliminating the snails physically will also work as well.

There are many other pests that can cause a great disaster in your garden such as whiteflies and aphids, Mexican bean beetle, squash vine borer, honey bees and bumble bees and ladybugs or lady beetles among others. For the larger pests, setting up traps and barriers is also a great option that you can consider. The truth of the matter is that there are so many natural garden pest control methods available at your disposal and you really have no excuse of using pesticides whatsoever. Natural pest control is easy, effective and most importantly, it is cheap.