Maybe it’s the relatively mild winters we’ve had the past couple of years but this year’s garden pests seem to be out early and in full force. Whether it’s slugs, flea beetles, cucumber beetles, lily beetles, or Colorado Potato bugs, chances are you will find one or all in your vegetable and flower gardens right now.
Due to the dramatic rise in use of home pesticides in the United States over the past decade I thought I would share some simple tips to help naturally combat common pests without relying on chemicals. Hint, you might want to get out the garden gloves.
Early in the season, flea beetles come out to feed on spring greens. To help protect your lettuce, floating row covers are a great tool in keeping insects out and are an especially great resource for small farms and home gardens. The same is true when protecting cucurbits (cucumbers, melons, squash, and pumpkins) from striped cucumber beetles. Row covers are a small investment to make for the health of young plants and with care, a cover can be used over a few seasons.
Kaolin clay is another preventative measure as it coats the leaves of cucurbits with a white film that serves to both irritate and repel cucumber beetles. Even easier, my co-worker uses her daughter’s yellow Frisbee and fills it with a little soap and water. The cucumber beetles are attracted to the bright yellow color, dive in, and so long beetle.
This same co-worker, on the topic of slugs, told me that she picks them up and throws them out into the grass, hoping a raven will eat it. I’m not sure about raven’s appetites for slugs but there are home baits that are commonly used such as putting beer out in a shallow container. I don’t know how effective overall that is but it does seem to help some. If you have pigs, I can tell you that to them, slugs are a delicacy and are to be consumed as fast as possible.
If you grow potatoes, you are familiar with the Colorado Potato beetle, currently busy laying its bright orange eggs on the underside of potato leaves and other nightshades like eggplant. The beetle itself, with brown and yellow/orange stripes, is easy to catch with a jar with a little soap and water in it. This time of year, I like to check the potato leaves by running my hands up along the branches looking for egg clusters. This is where the gloves come in – a simple squish takes care of any future beetle larvae that, when hatched, would love to eat your plant and become, at that point, really gross to squish.
When I reached out to Johnny’s Selected Seeds’ ag information specialist Karen Moore for tips she emailed me, “We love our beneficial insects.” These beneficials can be lured to your garden by providing them with the right habitat. Herbs such as dill, fennel, chives, and parsley will attract beneficial predators like lacewings and braconid wasps. The well-known ladybug and larvae feed on aphids, and can consume around 23 aphids per day. Karen also noted that removing overwintering habitat such as garden debris is good practice, along with scheduling crop plantings to avoid high pest populations. At Johnny’s research farm, they use floating row covers until plants are large enough that flea or cucumber beetles no longer pose much of a threat.
Contact the District if you have garden pest questions or go online to Johnny’s Selected Seeds Grower’s Library for all kinds of growing information at www.johnnyseeds.com.
Angie Wotton loves her work as district manager for the Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District. She also raises pastured pork and vegetables with her husband on their small West Berry Farm in Hammond. She can be reached 5329407 or via email at angela.wotton@me.nacdnet.net
