Insect Pest Control

If your vegetables are being destroyed insect pest control is important however, animals and insects are part to our environment and are often more beneficial than harmful. They are needed for you to have a healthy vegetable garden. There are strategies you can use to prevent any damage happening to your vegetable garden.

If you are still having problems there are organic practices and preventions that can help. One of these practices is to attract beneficial bugs and insects to your garden. Provide safety in a place for them to live, water by having some kind of water feature or bath for them to use and providing food by planting some of the flowers listed below will help you have a healthy vegetable garden.

Beneficial animals:

• Birds – place bird house, feeders, water bowls; protect berries and fruits with netting.
• Bats – bat house, flattened bird house with an entrance slot on the bottom
• Toads – provide water and shelter with an upside down clay flower pot with holes chipped out on the sides for an entrance. They eat slugs.
• Snakes – pile rocks and sticks leaving room for snakes to enter. They eat slugs, snails, and insects.

Beneficial insects:

• Braconid wasps
• Earthworms
• Ground beetles
• Honeybees
• Ichneumon wasps
• Lacewings
• Lady bugs (ladybird beetles)
• Praying mantises
• Robber flies
• Spiders
• Syrphid flies
• Tachind flies
• Yellow jackets (hornets)

Beneficial flowers:

• Marigolds
• Calendula
• Sunflower
• California poppy
• Flowers of dill, parsley
• Lemon balm
• Flowers of broccoli and celery
• Nasturtiums

Learn how to identify each insect, the damage they do, susceptible vegetables, and what to do if you are having problems by choosing from the following list of common insects:

• aphids
• cabbage worms (cabbage moth)
• carrot fly
• cutworm
• earwig
• flea beetle
• thrips
• wireworm

Check out animal pest control and disease for a list of common animal pests and diseases that can cause damage to your vegetables.

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