Physical Controls

You can keep your garden relatively healthy by taking these two steps:

1. Keep the soil in good shape by adding soil amendments and nutrients.

2. Remove any plant that is severely damaged by pests, rotten, wilted or moldy.

Once you have a healthy garden, keep it that way by raking up any debris, and by digging in fresh mulches each year. Sanitation is a useful pest control practice.

Pick off plant eaters from the plants on a regular basis. Remember that pests are a problem only at certain times under certain conditions. So crunching a few bugs before they lay eggs may solve a major problem. Many books have been written on organic gardening and they contain a wealth of information for the non-chemical control of pests.

Cultural Controls

Methods you are already applying probably fit into the area of cultural controls. Common garden procedures are effective in pest management.

Many plant troubles blamed on pests can be caused by poor soil drainage. Use fertile, well-drained soil. Rotate annual crops, alternate between leaf and root crops. Do not crowd plants, let them breathe. Good aeration will let leaves dry rapidly after rain or dew. This in turn will lessen leaf spot diseases.

Plant crops that are suited to your soil, exposure, location and climate. Keep weeds under control as they are the nesting and breeding grounds for many pests. Keep all surrounding fences and lot lines as free and clean as your garden. Buy certified seed of disease-resistant varieties. Purchase virus-free, disease-free plants of resistant varieties. You will have to do some homework on varieties. Most labels on seed packets and descriptions in seed and nursery catalogs will indicate which varieties are resistant, and whether nursery stock is certified virus-free.

The cultural control methods are numerous and you can probably come up with your own. They are closely related to, and assist in, promoting biological and natural controls.

Biological Controls

The balance of nature contains predators and parasites working for you to naturally control pest problems. Primarily, natural controls refer to beneficial insects controlling pests. But the natural controls range from birds and toads (they eat insects) to earthworms (they work the soil).

Learn what the beneficial insects are and how to develop them in your garden. They include lady bugs, lacewing, praying mantis, certain mites, spiders, some wasps, ground beetles, pirate bugs, assassin bugs, and syrphid flies. In addition, some natural (biological) insect controls are available commercially, such as Bacillus thuringiensis. This bacterial product will control many caterpillars including the cabbage looper.

Prevention itself is a pest control, and your pest management program should aim at preventing or reducing pest problems no matter what combination of controls you use. Again, timing is the key to everything.

A certain amount of pest damage is inevitable, so do not demand or even expect total eradication of pests. Control to an acceptable degree is what you should seek.

Pests other than insects and diseases can cause considerable damage. Different parts of the country may have problems unique to that particular area.

Rodents may burrow and eat roots and tubers, or eat plant tops and fruits. Control is limited to traps or chemicals. Chemical baits are available for mice in fruit orchards.

Rabbits can be repelled by sprinkling-dried blood meal on the ground throughout the garden. It must be re-applied after a heavy dew, rain, or after a few days. Buried fencing around small gardens can be effective.

Deer can be repelled with electric fences, dried blood meal as above, moth balls scattered around, creosote rags in various spots, dogs, noisemakers or fencing.

Birds can be kept off fruit trees with nets available for this purpose, scarecrows, and noisemakers.

Your pest management program is the result of many variables, applied to your location and unique conditions. Season-to-season adjustments will be necessary, as the weather changes.

Successful "pest control" is primarily dependent upon prevention, and prevention is a direct result of the timing of control measures. A diary is a necessity for keeping a record of all problems, measures taken, results, variable factors, and weather.

You will develop a balance between all methods of prevention and cure natural, physical, cultural, or chemical. This balance you develop is pest management.

Top, adult and larva of lady bug feeding on aphids. Above, a bit of creativity, as well as fun, goes into making scarecrow to ward off birds.