Lawn Pest Control
Natural lawn pest control is very easy once you get to know what type of insects are considered your allies and which insects are your enemies (pests). For example, you can easily tell if caterpillars have just invaded your garden just by looking at large round notches in the leaves. Similary, yellowed leaves with tiny webs on their under-sides can often be blamed on mites.
An easy and fun way to determine whether an insect is considered to be your friend or foe is too take a closer look at it. Most predators such as ground beetle usually have long, pointed jaws that are well suited for grasping other insects. Plant eaters such as grasshoppers have short, chunky mandibles.
Regardless, not all plant problems are caused by insects. For example, a plant that turns reddishbrown could simply need some water. It might be possible that there might be an under attack from grubs at its roots or it could be the victim of some plant diseases. Before you can start identifying garden pests, you need to realize that pests are arranged by groups of closely related organisms so that problems such as eelworms, slugs, snails, aphids and birds can be dealt with effectively.
You should begin your inspection by checking your plants' overall appearance. Be sure to look out for any gross irregularities such as a section of a row that is not keeping up with the rest of the row or a grouping of leaves of a different color. It would be wise to turn over the leaves to examine the undersides so that you can take a close look at the junctions of branches and stems as these are the favorite gathering spots for lawn pests such as aphids, Mexican bean beetles and whiteflies.
Identifying The Real Lawn Pests
One of the most common insects that many gardeners make is the ladybug beetle. The Mexican bean beetle is a destructive plant-eating pest which is often mistaken for a ladybug beetle which is one of your garden's great benefactors.
The best way to tell them apart is to count count their spots. Ladybug beetles have varying numbers of spots while bean beetles have exactly 16.
If you spotted any slow-moving lawn pests such as beetles and caterpillars during your inspection tour, be sure to bring along a large tin can or wide-mouthed jar handy with several inches of water at the bottom so that you can drown them easily. When catching these pests, make sure that your swiping hand is gloved, as some insects such as blister beetle and caterpillar can emit poisons that can cause skin irritation. Many insects pose little or no threat after they have reached the adult stage. Several swallowtail butterflies may eat a few leaves but they are worth the damage. Be sure to keep an eye on their larvae though as the offsprings can damage a lot more than a few leaves as they devote most of their time to the business of eating. The grasshopper is also another obnoxious intruder, ravenously devouring leaves and vegetables.
Aphids give themselves away by the sticky, silvery streaks of honeydew they secrete. They are notorious for reducing plant vigor by sucking out the sap and spreading destructive diseases. Their honeydew secretions are an ideal medium for the growth of sooty mold such as the blackfungus that spreads over leaves and interferes with the process of photosynthesis. Whenever you start seeing a number of them on a single plant, you should consider starting a spraying program, because aphids are among the most prolific breeders on earth. Within a week or two, that same plant might be crawling with aphids numbering in the thousands.
Beetles are the most varied and numerous members of the insect world and they pose a special problem for the gardener as some of them are your allies while others are your enemies. Some beetles such as firefly grub and ground beetle are useful for devouring lawn pests such as slugs, snails and worms. The Ground beetles are usually large and black and they have a particularly ferocious appearance. You can find them resting under stones or moving swiftly across the soil.
Lawn pests that attack the interiors of plants are among the most destructive and also the most difficult to find and to fight. Larvae of beetles or moths hatched from eggslaid inside a tree trunk or a thick stem can only be destroyed by probing with a thin wire. Upon hatching, the larvae begin feeding and tunneling through the plant, seriously disrupting the flow of water and nutrients throughout its system.
In short, most lawn pests have two things in common:
- They can be seen feeding upon the plant.
- They all undergo gradual metamorphosis.