Pest watch

Left unchecked pests can take over your garden, damaging plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Their effects can be unsightly, if not devastating, because they cause leaves to discolour, flowers to drop prematurely and plants to lose vigour and eventually die.

If left untreated pests will also multiply rapidly, spreading from garden to garden, neighbour to neighbour.

Luckily, there are plenty of options to control pests in your garden, many of them organic and environment friendly. Let’s look at some of the most common garden pests and their treatment including:

Aphids
Thrips
Mites
Snails and slugs
Scale
Lawn grubs

Controlling pests in the garden

A healthy, well maintained garden is less susceptible to pests and diseases.

However, occasionally an uninvited pest may decide to make your garden its home.

Treated quickly, you can prevent it pest from becoming a real problem.

Prevention

Prevention is always better than cure. Here are our tips to help prevent pests:

1. Keep plants healthy:

Healthy plants are more stronger and resilient, so are less likely to be targeted by pests than weak or damaged plants.

Fertilise regularly
Remove weeds.
Keep your soil healthy.

2. Remove weeds:

Weeds are havens for pests and some are also 'host' plants in the lifecycles of some flying insects.They also compete with your plants for nutrients and moisture.

Controlling weeds not only removes possible shelter for insects but may also interrupt their breeding habits.

Mulch to reduce the incidence of weeds and remove any weeds that do grow.

3. Encourage good insects and birds to the garden by:

Planting bee friendly plants like lavenders, daisies, marigolds, Queen Anne’s lace, cosmos.
Make water available in the garden for birds, bees and insects. Make sure you have a shallow log or rock for insects to land on.
Build an insect hotel out of twigs, sticks and straw.

Common pests and how to control them

There are a few key insect pests that cause issues in Kiwi gardens.

These are the most common:

Aphids, thrip, mites and other sucking insects including scale

Control:

Use a high pressure blast of water from the hose to wash them off.
Encourage beneficial insects and birds to the garden.
Use a low toxicity spray - your garden centre will be able to advise options.

Snails and slugs

Control:

Go outside at night with a torch, pick them off your plants and squash them individually.
Try natural options: egg shells, coffee grounds, beer traps.
Apply snail pellets in areas where these pests have been seen or where damage is apparent.

How we can help:

Garden Galore Quash Slug & Snail control is a safer option for use around kids, pets and wildlife, with an iron ETDA formulation rather than the traditional metaldehyde/methiocarb formulations.

Lawn pests

Control: