Normally I don’t go looking for trouble, but it is the best way to head off potential problems in the garden. Keep your eyes open when you are weeding and you may be surprised by the kinds of pests you find. Look for telltale signs of common garden pests like holes in leaves, egg masses, and webs.
Scouting for Pests
Leaf miners tunnel between leaf layers in chard, spinach, lamb’s quarters, and beet greens leaving a light green meandering trail behind. Often you don’t notice them until you cook up the greens and find a lot of tiny worms. Yuck!
Cutworms are one of the many critters that do their dastardly deeds at night. In the morning you’ll find plants chewed off at the soil line leaving only stubs behind.
Sometimes if you dig around the base of the plants you’ll find a fat cutworm sleeping it off and you can remove him from the premises in any way you choose.
Another nighttime visitor is the slug. If large ragged holes are appearing in your hostas and petunia leaves, the slugs have been dining there. The only tip they leave are the silvery trails of dried mucus they slid out on.
We’ve all seen green aphids on plants in the springtime, but every summer we get a crop of red aphids on our heliopsis plants.
They are easy to dislodge with a strong spray of water and usually don’t come back.
I love my swallowtail butterflies, but after hosting about 20 of their caterpillars, my dill patch is looking pretty ragged.
Hopefully, it will have time to spring back before the cukes are ready to pickle.
Beetlemania
My sweet potatoes and morning glories share a pest, the tortoise beetle.
It has a hard shell and quietly rasps round holes in the leaves. Sometimes I find a few on the tomatoes and eggplants. In the past we have had the golden tortoise beetle which looks like it has been gilded with gold leaf—very shiny and too pretty to kill.
Flea beetles are tiny black hoppers that eat small holes in the leaves making them look like they have been hit with mini-buckshot. Their larvae, white grubs with brown heads, are 3/4 inch long - much larger than the adults. They live in the soil and eat plant roots.
If you grow asparagus don’t ignore it over the summer. Make sure to check for asparagus beetles. There are two kinds. One is black and white and appears very early in the spring. The other one is bright orange and it is active right now (mid-summer), laying eggs on the fronds which hatch into fat slimy worms that hungrily defoliate the plants. Like many beetles they tend to drop when when disturbed so stick a small container of soapy water under them and shake the frond a bit and they will fall right into it. The larvae cling on tighter and have to be squished.
Since we keep the young cucumber and squash plants covered with reemay to discourage the beetles from attacking the plants before they are strong enough to survive, the early cucumber beetles were at a loss.
I found them sitting on potatoes and tomatoes not finding much to eat. This kept the population down a bit so when we finally uncovered the plants as they started to blossom they were not overwhelmed with bugs.
There are a few squash bugs starting to show up and lay eggs on the underside of the zucchini leaves.
We try to squish these eggs daily to keep future generations of bugs to a minimum.
Mexican bean beetles are something I have not had to contend with yet which is a blessing. One female can lay over 500 eggs! If your bean leaves are being skeletonized check the underside for clusters of yellow eggs and crush them. Handpick the beetles or knock them into a bucket of soapy water and squish or drown the spiny yellow larvae.
We went a little overboard on seed potatoes this year so we have beds of potatoes growing all over the garden. No potato bugs so far but I keep checking. Colorado potato beetles will not only eat potatoes but other nightshades as well including tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and petunias—that is most of my garden! Like the bean beetles they lay masses of yellow eggs on the undersides of the leaves. When the brick red larvae hatch they eat large amounts of foliage. By now you know the drill—handpick the adults and squish or drown them and their offspring.
Plant Diseases
While you are scouting be sure to check for signs of plant diseases, too.
Hot, humid weather is perfect for encouraging fungal and bacterial diseases, so watch those tomato leaves.
Powdery mildew will start showing up soon, too.
If your cukes suddenly wilt and no amount of water revives them, you probably have cucumber wilt caused by the cucumber beetle. Remove and destroy these plants and start some new ones in another spot. There is still time for you to harvest some cukes before fall. Cover the young plants with a lightweight row cover until they start to flower. Late plantings often are not as bothered by the beetles as the early cukes are.
Be vigilant; if you stay ahead of the bugs you will be able to keep them under control without resorting to using chemicals.
For more pest and disease advice, check out our Pest and Plant Disease Library.
Reader Comments
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beetles
Vigilance is definitely the key. My Englemann's Ivy 2 years ago started to be eaten and its growth was stunted. In the fall it didn't even turn red. Last year I saw small brown worms on the undersides of damaged leaves, but at that point the whole ivy looked eaten. This year I inspected early in the spring and found small black beetles, which I picked off regularly for about 2 weeks. After that I pruned off holey leaves (many with worms underneath). It appears that the ivy has recuperated this season with lots of new growth and comparatively little leaf damage. Definitely worth the labor.
Something is clipping my buds.....:(~
Something is clipping the flowers, about 1/4in from the base, on my vegetables.
It is happening to all my stuff. Last year it was only my tomatoes, but this year it is happening to my potatoes, my cucumbers, my squash (zukes and pumpkins) and of course my tomatoes. The flowers look normal, but then dry up and when you touch them they fall right off the plant like they have been clipped by tiny clippers......any ideas what it might be and how to rid my garden of them? I would really like some fresh veggies this year.
I’m not sure that this is
I’m not sure that this is caused by an insect. It sounds to me like the flowers are not being pollinated. High heat can also cause the flowers to dry up and fall off.
green leaf hoppers
I grow roses, flowers and some veg but I don't spray anything—ever. I have a pretty good balance of predatory insects and pests most summers, but sometimes in hot weather I get infestations of green leaf hoppers. These are the one insect pest that I can't seem to beat when they appear. What attracts them, what deters them, what eats them? Any advice greatly appreciated!
Leafhoppers can be a big
Leafhoppers can be a big nuisance since they not only eat your plants but can also transmit a virus that deforms the leaves and stunts growth. Adults overwinter in garden trash so a thorough cleanup in the fall will help.They love plants like asters, potatoes, grapes, and beets. Petunias and geraniums are supposed to repel them. Dragonflies and some parasitic wasps will eat them and lacewings will eat their eggs. Leafhoppers are less active in the morning so that is a good time to spray them. Make a spray by covering 6 ounces of marigold leaves and flowers with 4 cups of boiling water. Let it sit 24 hours, strain, and dilute it with another 4 cups of cold water before spraying it on the plants. You can also use an insecticidal soap spray to kill and repel them and diatomaceous earth (DE) is also supposed to deter them.
Earwigs
I have tiny earwigs eating some of the leaves on my flowers, cabbage and mint. How do I kill them please. They destroyed nine cabbage plants so upset.
That is upsetting! Since they
That is upsetting! Since they are most active at night give them a place to hide during the day Try rolling up newspaper and placing it where they have been feeding. They will move in and you can toss the whole thing bugs and all. They also can be lured into an oil trap. Cut a small hole in the lid of a margarine tub or yogurt container. Add enough oil to drown them and pour in a little soy sauce, fishy smelling oil (like from a sardine can), or bit of bacon grease to lure them in. Bury the container with the lid at soil level so they can easily crawl in. I have never tried this trap but it is supposed tp be very effective. Good luck!
Garden Pests
Something is killing the marigolds by stripping off all the leafs
leaving just the stem and the flowers, which needless to say
kills the plant. Help. :)
Marigold pest
It could be the below pests:
Aphids. ...
Earwigs. ...
Caterpillars. ...
Leafminers. ...
Snails and Slugs. ...
Spider Mites. ...
Thrips. ...
Whiteflies.
Slugs or earwigs get my vote,
Slugs or earwigs get my vote, especially if the damage is happening at night. Try putting out shallow containers half-filled with cheap beer to lure the slugs to a drunken death. For earwigs mix up equal parts soy sauce, vegetable oil, and corn syrup or molasses. You only need about 1/2 inch of this mix in a shallow container. Bury the containers up to their rims near your plants. In the morning check the containers and you will see who the culprit is.