Get to Know about 10 Insect Pests
- Author: Saiqa Najeeb
- Last Updated On: July 26, 2023
Although the majority of the insects in your garden and yard won’t do damage to your plants, there are still plenty of them to keep you on alert. As an organic gardener, you are dedicated to destroying the bad people while safeguarding the good men and defenseless bystanders. You need to have some knowledge of both organic pest control techniques and insects themselves in order to do that.
This guide will introduce you to 15 insect pests that can wreak havoc in your garden. Let’s explore insect pests and how you can eliminate them.
1
Aphids
These oblong insect pests eat the juices from plants by drilling holes in the tissue. Their sizes range up to 1/8 inch, and their hues range from black to green, crimson, or even translucent, depending on the species. Aphids leave behind honeydew, and sticky sap excretions, which draw ants and can turn black if covered in sooty mold.
Aphids tend to gather on the newest leaves and buds and can multiply rapidly on weaker plants. Spray them with insecticidal soap, use beneficial insects like green lacewings, ladybirds, or sticky yellow traps, or blast them away with a hose.
2
Apple maggots
These insect pests, which are a little smaller than houseflies, spend the winter in the soil before emerging in June or July—most often in northern climates—to start laying eggs in apples, crabapples, plums, and other crops. Fruit is ruined when maggots hatch and burrow through it. In the autumn, rake up infected fruit and throw it away before the maggots emerge and establish themselves in the soil for the winter.
Use red, apple-like spheres that are coated in sticky goo and baited with a specific lure that has an apple aroma to catch adult flies. Start trapping three weeks after the spring blossoms’ petals start to fall, and keep doing so through the end of August, cleaning and replenishing the sticky substance as necessary. In young or small fruit trees that are 6 to 8 feet tall, use one to two traps.
3
Cucumber beetles
Vegetables including squash, corn, beans, and peas suffer substantial damage from types of striped and spotted cucumber beetles that eat enormous holes in their leaves, roots and fruit. Additionally, these insect pests have the ability to spread bacterial and viral wilt diseases across your garden. Larvae and adults both eat plants for food.
To prevent adults from dropping eggs, control by covering plants with row covers until they blossom. To remove winter hiding places, remove plant residue from the garden. Use beneficial nematodes to suppress grubs in the soil, then Surround WP or another particle film barrier to confuse adults and deter feeding.
4
Ataenius spatulas
In the spring, these black, one-fourth-inch-long insect pests leave their eggs in turfgrass. Small white grubs emerge from the eggs after hatching, and they eat grass roots up until summertime. New adults emerge from the dirt after pupating, mate, and then dig a little hole about an inch deep to prepare for the winter. Reduce grass thatch and promote parasitic and predatory beneficial insects to deter the pest.
5
Bagworms
Moth larvae are known as bagworms. Bagworm caterpillars use scraps of plant matter to build dangling 1- to 2-inch-long, baglike structures for themselves after hatching in late spring. The tiny caterpillars consume the leaves and twigs of numerous trees and shrubs, including juniper and arborvitae. Cut the bags free, strip the silk from the stem, and then burn them. In the early spring, you can spray Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or an insecticide containing spinosad, or you can use sticky pheromone traps to catch adults.
6
Flea beetles
The one-and-a-half-inch long, shiny, blackish beetles feed in big groups and can skeletonize leaves in a few days despite their strong mobility. Adults first appear in the spring and are mostly destructive by July. Larvae that hatch from eggs put in the soil consume the roots of plants until late summer.
Control by using a row-cover cloth to cover sensitive flowering plants and vegetables, or by delaying planting until the beetles have passed. Nematodes that are helpful attack the grubs. A tiny handheld Hoover cleaner can also be used to remove them when they are still sluggish in the morning. Feeding may be inhibited by a particle film barrier like Surround WP.
7
Billbugs
The grubs eat the grassroots and lower stems of the grass, whilst the adult beetles eat the leaves of the turfgrass and have long snouts. Bermuda and Zoysia grasses are their favorites. Planting endophyte-containing perennial ryegrass and tall fescue will help control. These grasses should not be used in areas where sheep, cattle, and horses will graze because endophytes release a poison that is harmful to both insects and mammals.
8
Spider mites
Even though these virtually microscopic arachnids are present in enormous numbers, you can start to notice the delicate webs that they construct. By using a magnifying lens, find them. They consume plant sap, weakening plants and discoloring leaves. They are particularly active in dry environments. Fruit trees, tiny roses, oranges, pines, and houseplants are popular hosts. Use a powerful water blast to thoroughly clean plants, dormant oil in the early spring, light horticultural oil in the summer, or insecticidal soap in the winter to control. Favorable insects, many of which consume spider mites, should be encouraged.
9
Imported cabbage moths
Each wing of the white moth has a distinguishing black dot. In the spring and early summer, they flit about your garden, laying their yellow eggs on the undersides of cabbage, broccoli, and other cole crops. After hatching, the fuzzy green caterpillars start munching on leaves and budding flower buds, leaving behind mounds of their emerald feces. Control pests by placing floating row coverings over crops or by hand-picking and destroying caterpillar eggs. Depending on the situation, spray Bt or Spinosad. The adults are attracted to yellow sticky traps.
10
Lace bugs
These 1/8-inch-long insect pests absorb the sap from the undersides of leaves, which causes the leaves to appear blotchy or yellow, or white. Look for their sticky, brown droppings under the foliage. Vegetables and flowers, as well as ornamental plants including firethorn, mountain laurel, cotoneaster, and rhododendron, are at risk. on suffocate bugs, hose off insects, or apply horticultural spray oil on the undersides of the leaves. On severe infestations, use neem or insecticidal soap.
Finally…
You are equipped to take action. By getting to know about these garden enemies and understanding suitable management techniques, we can protect our homes, gardens, and crops.
This guide can help you make informed decisions about which garden pests you may encounter and how you can get rid of them organically.
Arm yourself with the right information and say goodbye to these insect pests.
