Tips and tricks to deal with garden pests
Judy White got a scare when she reached down one night to pick up what she thought was a leaf or a piece of bark off her deck.
“You can just imagine the fright I got when it was this huge slug,” says the Charlottetown, P.E.I. woman. The critter was about 41/2 inches long.
Besides eating her garden plants, White says the slugs also attract skunks to her yard. Someone suggested she try putting salt on them, but she found the idea disgusting, and reached out for help on how to deal with them. Kari Hjelkrem, now retired, is the co-founder and head gardener of Down to Earth Landscaping in Port Williams, N.S. She says there are as many bugs that enjoy our gardens as much as we do, including aphids, slugs, spider mites, caterpillars, grubs large and small, root weevils — too many to mention them all.
Some enjoy your garden at night, and some in the heat of the day. Some love high humidity, while others rainy days. Some bugs love plants that are not tended to, says Hjelkrem. No one condition attracts bugs.
In Newfoundland specifically, homesteader and permaculturalist Steve McBride says one pest many gardeners are dealing with is the cabbage moth, which will destroy anything and everything in the brassica family — cabbage, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, even mustard plants. Sawfly larvae are another major problem — he says the larvae clump together after hatching instead of dispersing, meaning they can strip the foliage off their targets, such as gooseberry, currant, or cherry trees, in a matter of hours or days.
With all the Newfoundland rain, McBride, like White, says slugs are also a major pest.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT PESTS?
Nirmala Chinnappareddy, also from Charlottetown, P.E.I., practices sustainable gardening, never using pesticides or sprays. McBride agrees.
“We don't use any insecticides or pesticides whatsoever, as many of these are indiscriminate in what they kill, and we are keen to preserve the intact ecosystem of beneficial insects, soil fungi, etc, for the health of the plants,” he says.
Chinnappareddy suggests rotating the vegetable plants to different locations in the garden every year. Hjelkrem suggests gardeners consider companion planting. This is the close planting of different plants that enhance each other's growth or protect each other from pests, such as planting carrots and tomatoes together or roses and garlic, she says.
Plant pest-repellant herbs and plants like marigolds, mint, dill, fenugreek etc., in between the rows, Chinnappareddy says. Their scent is not appreciated by many predators.
If you want to use sprays or insecticides, Hjelkrem suggests BTK, a bacterium found in soil in the natural environment, which should be applied before the heat of the day. Or try an insecticide soap, picking bugs off plants and putting them in a bucket of soap.
Combat the cabbage moth by covering the rows with sheer curtains, says McBride. Raised beds and hoop houses can be covered with sheer fabric, letting in sunlight and rainwater, but keeping egg-laying insects out. Another of Hjelkrem's tips is to water the garden in mornings instead of at night, as the bugs come out in the evenings to feast.
Crushed eggshells are also a pest deterrent. When smaller pieces of shells are sprinkled on top of the soil, insects like slugs, are put off by the crunch when they crawl over the sharp edges.
Slug problems can also be addressed by putting out a container with cooking oil. Slugs crawl into it and can't get out. Or, spray them with one-part ammonia and five parts water. This will not hurt the plants.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NATURE
On McBride's homestead, he tries to practice integrated permaculture principles, meaning instead of doing all the work themselves with tools, or sprays, or labour, they try to set systems up to govern themselves. One example of this is the use of brown bats.
Although populations are low in other areas of Atlantic Canada, brown bat populations are everywhere in Newfoundland. He suggests setting up a bat box to give bats a place to hang out on your property. The bats, which stay from late June until September, eat plenty of bugs. “Bats eat night-flying insects, so they effectively manage things like mosquitos, cabbage moths, etc.,” says McBride. “A little brown bat can eat 2,000 insects per hour ever day. So, our little brown bat armada literally eats millions of insects in our area, much to the relief of ourselves and our neighbours.”
Another system that has helped control the bugs in his garden is McBride's vermiculture worm compost. The same vermicompost pile that feeds his ducks and provides his garden soil also keeps the robins and starlings well fed and away from his garden. Given the choice, they prefer worms.
“We get many more strawberries now than we used to, and the birds are happy, too,” says McBride.
Birds can pose a problem if they are eating the crops but Chinnappareddy says she likes having them around as they help by eating grubs as well.
Hjelkrem suggests installing owls in the garden, or using noise deterrents to scare away the birds. Netting can be placed over fruit trees if birds become an issue.
One should, however, pick the fruit before the birds do, says Hjelkrem. They know when the pickings are good and learning from wildlife may be the best way to handle the issue.
SMALL ANIMALS
Keeping animals like rabbits, skunks, mice and deer away from gardens can be a little trickier. Chinnappareddy uses live mouse traps in her garden, saying every time they find mice, they make a trip to the woods to leave them. Her kids love that.
For larger animals, McBride has seen people make wire mesh collars for trees, to specifically keep out rabbits. Hjelkrem says chicken netting can also be used to keep deer out, but it's expensive, and deer are great jumpers, making it a pricey option.
As an alternative, Monica Kelly Parlee of the Older Mommy Still Yummy blog in New Brunswick suggests making what she calls a “deer guard” solution. The recipe, which can be found on her blog, consists of an egg, milk, oil, dish soap and water. She applies it to plants (but not food plants) to deter the deer from eating the flowers.
“I found this worked really well, the only downside was I felt the need to reapply after every rain, not sure if that was necessary but I did not want to chance it,” says Parlee.
In the end, Hjelkrem says the best advice is to keep it simple. We need variety and diversity, allowing nature to enter our lives to share the fruit of our labours.
GO ONLINE:
https://www.downtoearthgardening.ca/ https://oldermommystillyummy.com/deer-guard