How to Protect Your Spring Garden From Pests?

Spring brings hungry garden pests that can damage healthy plants, so take preventative measures; start pest control now by removing old stems and debris where bugs hide, use row covers to keep pests off plants, and apply organic pesticides early before infestations spread.

Preventing pests will ensure your spring garden stays beautiful and thriving.

Common Garden Pests Found in a Spring Garden

One of the best defense techniques against garden insects to prevent infestations is to check your plants.

When you do this daily, you can control and prevent nibbling on your plants. Of course, you must examine the leaves and stems for harmful beetles and other bugs to do this. At the same time, you need to know the signs and destructive pests lurking in your garden.

When you know the signs of a pest infestation that harms plants, you can use the correct pest control to keep your young plants healthy.

What Does a Pest Infestation Look Like?

pest infested leaf with holes

Now that you know that you need to inspect your indoor plants‘ foliage, what should you look for:

  • Look for holes in leaves

  • Look for discoloration and fallen leaves

  • Leaves curling or droopy foliage

  • Severed young plants in flower beds or seedlings in crops

  • Slime or sticky webbing on the leaves and stems

If any of these signs are present, our best bet is that you have bugs in the yard and need to know what insects they are to control them.

Common Bugs Found in The Garden

In the garden, you get beneficial insects and nasty bugs. So you do not want to use pest control to harm your good insects. When you have bees, worms, butterflies, and spiders, these are beneficial bugs leaving the garden looking healthy.

But other insects can ruin your hard work.

APHIDS ARE A COMMON GARDEN PEST

aphids

Usually, aphids do not cause significant harm to the landscape unless they carry a virus. Nonetheless, these insects can bring viruses like the cucumber mosaic virus to your crops and other plants.

So, if you notice the leaves yellowed and twisted with stunted growth, aphids can be the problem.

You can find aphids on your plant’s stems, leaves, and flowers, which are tiny feeders. The pest has a pear-shaped body ranging in color from gray, green, brown, red, or black. When at the larval stage, you cannot easily spot them.

The easier way to know if it is an aphid is to look for two cornicles at the end of the abdomen.

STRIPED FLEA BEETLES

The striped flea beetles cause the most damage in the garden as they emerge from the winter homes with debris to feed on young plants. Over winter, they start laying eggs, and the larvae feed on the roots while adults make small holes in the foliage.

These beetles you find on the leaves cause irregular holes. The adult is black with a wavy yellow line on the wing. The eggs are white and oval, while the larva is white with a brown head and three pairs of legs, and the pupa is white.

Squash bugs

squash bug

Squash bugs work in a colony and pierce vines with their mouths. Then, they inject a toxic substance into the plant, sucking its nutrients. Eventually, your plants turn black and move to other parts, causing yellow spots on the leaves, making them turn brown and wilt.

We recommend keeping an eye on the underside of the leaves and the base of the plant. Adults are dark brown with gray markings on the back with yellow undersides. The egg looks like a white diamond but turns yellow-brown before turning bronze.

The nymph can be green with red legs and a head with antennae. The remaining ones are gray-white with dark heads, antennae, and legs. They can have two visible wing pads.

THE MOST common garden pests:

  • Mealybugs

  • Spider mites

  • Leaf Miners

  • Stink Bugs

  • Cutworms

  • Japanese Beetles

Another notable thing is that when you see an army of ants traveling up your plants, you can be assured some nasty bugs are around. The reason is that ants are attracted to the sticky substances left behind by some insects.

Prevention is Better Than Cure

Now that we have looked at the pest infestation signs you notice in early spring in the garden. How do you go ahead in preventing garden pests? Here are some tips you can follow to keep your garden pest-free.

Cultivate Healthy Soil

fresh garden soil mix

Healthy soil helps your plants build a robust immune system, as it is an excellent start to preventing pests. Using natural fertilizers like fish and seaweed once a month helps activate the soil microbes to keep the soil and your plant healthy.

Choose Pest Resistant Plant Varieties

This tip is an easy one for preventing pests in the garden. You can find different varieties of plants that are naturally resistant to pests. So mix your plants in flower beds to veg plots with resistant varieties available to naturally repel pests.

Choose a Suitable Spot For Plants

flowering plants in the garden

When planting your plants, place cultivars that need full sun together and others with the exact watering needs. It is essential for a plant that needs full sun to stand in a sunny spot, not full shade, as it will weaken them.

Introduce Natural Predators to The Garden

Whether you have mild or heavy infestations, introducing predatory insects like parasitic wasps and good bugs to birds will help. Place a bird bath in the garden to attract birds that enjoy eating pests.

Pest Control Repelling Them With Herbs

flowering wild garlic plant

Herbal pesticides are low-cost yet not harmful to crops and plants in your garden. It also helps deter pests planted among your other plants and veg. It is one of the easiest ways to prevent garden pests. These include plants like garlic, calendula, and coriander. Grow thyme, anise hyssop, or chives for the edge of gardens. 

Another great plant to repel insects naturally is lemon balm.

Rotate Crops

For your vegetable garden, it helps to do crop rotation as it confuses pests. It also allows you to manage soil fertility.

We recommend allowing three years between planting members of the same crop family in the same spot. We know it is difficult, but if you find pests in an area, do not plant veg there for two years.

Alternatively, you can plant a cover crop, allowing the spot to rest for that season.

Alternate Specific Flowers and Crops

vegetable and herbs garden

To prevent pests from using harmful pesticides for pest control, alternate the rows of plants with some plants that attract beneficial insects. For example, grow calendula, cilantro, or onions with your cabbage family.

Make Use of a Floating Row Cover

A floating row cover allows light and water while deterring pests. You can place it over seedlings until they become established. Most importantly, lift the covers for a few hours in the morning to allow the pollinators in.

Form Permanent Walkways

garden walkway

When you form permanent walkways with wood chips, gravel, or white clover, it attracts natural predators to stay. Hence, you are not tilling over the walkways, destroying their habitat.

Keep Your Hands on an Outbreak

We recommend removing the infested plants for a heavy infestation of bugs to prevent the damage from spreading. But to treat the infestation, you must identify the pest and the natural predators that can help fight it.

Keep Gardening Supplies Clean

gardening tools

When you keep your garden tools and supplies clean, it also helps to protect your plants. Before you use your shears or a trowel, disinfect it. Use clean containers to pots before placing new plants in them.

Removing Pests From The Garden

If you have noticed pest problems, we recommend using plant-based or organic pesticides to remove them. Still, it all depends on the bug you have that eats the foliage of your plants.

Many solutions, like soapy water and neem oil, make for an excellent treatment against infestation in the garden. We do not recommend chemical pesticide sprays as they are unhealthy for you and your plants. Yet, you can spray a plant-based insecticide spray as well.

Most importantly, try to attract beneficial insects to help remove unwanted pests.

Final Thoughts

Be proactive against garden pests by observing and tracking which insects arrive and what remedies work best, then strengthen your garden’s ecosystem through natural prevention methods like nutrient-rich soil rather than waging war on nature. With patience and working with nature, you can have a healthy garden that withstands bugs.

Whether you want to buy, sell, or simply reach out to other plant enthusiasts, Plantly is the right place to be!

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