Tips For Naturally Maintaining A Pest-Free Landscape And Garden

One of the most important steps in caring for your landscape and garden is effective pest control. Some insects can completely destroy the vegetation in your landscape and garden. Learning more about some of the most common pests you may find in your garden and landscape foliage and the kind of damage they do is the best way to maintain the most control over them. Check out some of the insects that could be eating your vegetable garden plants and expensive ornamental plants and what you can do about them.

Chewing Insects With Big Appetites

If you find plants in your garden or landscape with chunks missing on their leaves, you more than likely you have a problem with chewing insects like caterpillars and grasshoppers. A couple of caterpillars can take down a plant in no time. The same is also true about grasshoppers. When enough leaves on a plant are eaten, it will eventually die. Knowing ahead of time the type of insects you are dealing with in your garden and landscape is vital for knowing how to get rid of them. Sprinkling all-purpose flour over your plants can reduce their attractiveness to grasshoppers. Hanging bird feeders and bird houses in your garden and lawn will attract birds that eat caterpillars.

Insects With Sucking/Piercing Mouthparts Can Destroy Plants Fast 

Insects like aphids and whiteflies have piercing and sucking mouth parts that can cause serious damage to your plants. If the leaves on your plants are yellowing and browning, you could have a problem with these types of insects. Aphids can also infect your plants with a virus that will spread and kill many plants. Whiteflies leave behind tiny white, powdery residue that resembles dandruff when the plant they are is shaken. You can easily wash away aphids with a water hose and once off a plant, they usually do not climb back up it. For whiteflies, hanging yellow sticky traps around your plants can be a good way to catch them before they are able to damage your plants. Whiteflies are attracted to the color yellow.

Gall Makers Can Produce Damaging Pockets On Leaves

If you have seen leaves in your landscape or garden with pockets or bubbles on them, you may be seeing the results of insects described as gall makers. The blueberry gall midge and the gall wasp are common gall makers that actually burrow underneath the tissue of your plant's leaves for feeding and for laying their eggs. You can release praying mantises into your landscape and garden for helping to reduce gall makers and other insects. A praying mantis is not harmful to you or your plants, but is a powerful insect predator. You can order praying mantis insects online.

Taking steps to keep your landscape and garden free of damaging pests is important to get the most enjoyment out of them. for more information, contact companies like Campbell's Pest Control and Landscaping.