3 Pests That Can Wreak Havoc In Your Vegetable Garden

Unfortunately, as gardeners, we face many pests and diseases that are keen on devouring our crops before we can. Here are 3 common pests to watch out for if you want a bumper crop.

SNAILS

Snails absolutely love young tender seedlings and will happily chomp their way through your entire patch of newly planted seedlings overnight while you’re safely tucked up in bed and dreaming of the delicious vegetables that your new plantings will produce.

There are quite a number of ways you can rid your garden of these pesky little devils. It really depends on your preference and how much effort you want to put into controlling them. Here’s just a small selection of effective controls:

Snail Pellets

These are incredibly effective but if you have pets and want to protect the wildlife make sure you get a brand that is safe to use around your furry family members. I’ve used the ‘Multicrop’ brand very successfully to control the snail population. Plus if you get them in spring before they start multiplying you will find that the following year you’ll have less of a problem.

Copper Tape

If you have raised garden beds or are growing in pots then this can be very useful as the snails can’t crawl across it. Generally, you can purchase this at garden centers or hardware stores and then put it around the top perimeter of your garden bed surround or your pots. Make sure there is nothing that makes a ‘bridge’ over the copper tape otherwise the snails will crawl across it.

Snail Traps

you can purchase commercial snail traps or make your own using empty takeaway food containers. Cut a square ‘door’ into the side of the container but leave the piece attached and fold down so it acts like a bridge for the snails to crawl up. Then fill the container with beer and place in the garden near your plants. The snails absolutely love beer and will make a beeline for it. Once in the container, they’ll drown and you can get rid of them in the morning.

APHIDS

If you’ve ever grown roses then you know how much these tiny pests love tender new growth and they will cluster in huge masses sucking the sap right out of your lovely plants.

In an ideal world, it would be wonderful to just find a collection of ladybird beetles who would make short work of all those sap-sucking aphids. Using an ‘oil’ spray might be a little easier though. You can use white mineral oil which you can purchase from the garden center or even vegetable oils will do the trick. Just keep spraying them daily until they are under control.

Alternatively, you can make a spray using water infused with fresh crushed garlic. Aphids hate the smell of garlic and it tends to drive them away. If you plant garlic and onion plants randomly throughout your vegetable garden, they will act as a natural deterrent as well.

CABBAGE WHITE BUTTERFLY

You’ll see these little white butterflies happily fluttering around your vegetable plants in spring and early summer. Certainly, they look harmless enough however what they’re doing is laying eggs in your prized crops. They especially like brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants. Once the eggs hatch you’ll find small green caterpillars all over the leaves of your plants happily munching their way through leaf after leaf until your plant is bare.

The caterpillars are easily picked off the plants and disposed of but this can be time-consuming and you might miss some. A better way to control these harmlessly is to cover them with insect control netting which will keep the butterflies away from your plants. You can make a small frame to drape your netting over. Garlic spray is also useful to both deter and kill the caterpillars.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

While there are many pests that you might encounter in your garden, there are a variety of natural ways that you can control them. I always suggest that you use natural methods first before resorting to chemicals.