Pests tips
Stopping pests and diseases early, mostly without sprays: covers, timing, and good habits.
Look under the leaves
Aphids, mites, and most insect eggs hide under leaves. A quick look every few days catches problems while they're small enough to pick off.
When: Growing season
Give helpful bugs a few days before you spray
Ladybugs, lacewings, and tiny wasps often wipe out an aphid outbreak on their own within a week or two. Spraying kills them along with the pests, and the aphids bounce back first.
When: Spring, Growing season
Knock aphids off with water
A strong spray of water knocks most aphids off, and few climb back. Repeat every few days. If they keep coming, try insecticidal soap.
When: Spring, Growing season
Cover crops before the bugs find them
Put row cover or insect netting over cabbage, kale, and other greens the day you plant. It keeps out cabbage moths and flea beetles with no spraying at all.
When: Spring · For: Cabbage family (brassicas)
Cover young squash until they flower
Row cover over young squash and cucumbers keeps out squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and vine borers. Take it off when the first female flowers open, so bees can pollinate them.
When: Spring · For: Zucchini / Summer squash, Winter squash, Pumpkin, Cucumber, Cantaloupe, Watermelon
Scrape off squash bug eggs
Every few days, check under squash and pumpkin leaves for clusters of shiny bronze eggs, and crush them or lift them off with a piece of tape. Catching them before they hatch saves a lot of trouble.
When: Growing season · For: Zucchini / Summer squash, Winter squash, Pumpkin
Leave hornworms that carry white cocoons
Those white grains on a hornworm's back are the cocoons of tiny wasps that are already killing it, and they'll hatch to go after the next ones. Pick off the rest: look for their dark green droppings on the leaves below.
When: Growing season · For: Tomato, Cherry tomato, Pepper, Eggplant
Yellow sticky traps show what's flying
Hang one near seedlings or in the greenhouse. It catches fungus gnats and whiteflies, and shows you early what's around.
When: Late winter
Spray in the evening
Even gentle sprays like soap and neem can harm bees they land on. Spray after bees are done for the day, and never on open flowers.
When: Growing season
Collars stop cutworms
Wrap a strip of cardboard or a toilet paper tube around each transplant's stem, pushed an inch into the soil. Cutworms can't chew through it.
When: Spring
Pick big pests by hand
Knock Japanese beetles and potato beetles into a cup of soapy water. Do it in the cool of the morning, when they're slow to fly off.
When: Growing season · For: Potato
Take a close look at speckled leaves
Fine pale speckles and thin webbing mean spider mites. Tap a leaf over white paper: if tiny specks start walking, that's them.
When: Growing season
Trap slugs under a board
Lay a board on damp soil overnight. In the morning, lift it and scrape off the slugs hiding underneath.
When: Spring
A short fence keeps rabbits out
Rabbits rarely jump a 2-foot fence of small wire mesh. Bury the bottom a few inches, or bend it outward along the ground, so they can't dig under.
When: Spring
Keep deer out with a tall fence, or two short ones
Deer clear a 6-foot fence easily. It takes 8 feet to stop them, or two 4-foot fences set 3 to 4 feet apart: they won't jump into a narrow space where they can't see a clear landing.
Clear out diseased plants
Pull plants with blight or wilt and put them in the trash, not the compost. The disease survives the winter in dead leaves and comes back next year.
When: Growing season, Fall
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More garden tips
- Watering 11 tips
- Soil and mulch 13 tips
- Weeds 8 tips
- Planting 17 tips
- Plant care 9 tips
- Seed starting 12 tips
- Containers and small spaces 11 tips
- Harvest 17 tips
- Weather and seasons 13 tips