Tips on Keeping Your Garden Insect and Pest Free

There’s nothing that’ll guarantee that you’ll never have a pest problem in your garden. However,there are things that you can do to cut down on your insect and pest infestation. These four tips will help keep your plants healthy and pest free.

1.    Prevent Pest Infestation

The most effective, and the safest way to ensure that your garden stays pest free is to prevent pests from establishing a hold at all. To achieve that, you can:

·     Remove fallen or weak plants that will likely be infected, or sure to attract predators.

·     Add healthy compost and natural fertilizer to get a rich soil and minimize pest growth.

·     Apply mulch seaweed to your garden, they’ll strengthen the plants and keep pests like slugs at bay. 

·     Don’t let debris or weed to collect in your garden as they can be breeding grounds for pests.

·     Rotate crops so that plant-specific insects won’t spread in your garden

·     Water your plants early in the day so the foliage will have time to dry off. Wet foliage encourages fungal growth and attracts insects to the plant. 

2.    Introduce Helpful Insects to your Garden

Certain insects can be beneficial to your garden and you can tempt them into coming to live in your garden. These insects feed on harmful pests which in turn helps to keep your garden healthy. Some of these helpful insects include.

·     Chalcids, Brachonids and Ichneumon Wasps

·     Nematodes

·     Ladybugs

·     Hover Flies

·     Lacewings

·     Praying Mantis

3.    Use Non-Toxic Home Remedies

You can also prepare and try some home remedies foryour gardens. They worked well for your grandparents so no reason why they shouldn’t work for you. Some of the home remedies that can help with your pest issues include:

·       Spray a mixture of ivory soap, canola oil and water on insects to smother them

·       Apply long-lastingmilky spores to your plants to chase away beetles and grubs.

·       Spray diatomaceous earthon your flower beds and plants to kill offharmful insects that have small exoskeletons.

·       Spray a mixture of equal parts water and equal part milk on plants with powdery mildew and in a couple of weeks, it’ll be gone. 

·       A dilute mixture of baking soda and water sprayed on your plants every other day can help relieve fungal diseases. 

4.    Set Up Barriers and Traps

As annoying as pests can be, you can definitely outwit them and hinder their destructive process. Set up barriers and traps around your garden space to clear out pests. Here are some traps to try out:

·     Yellow sticky flypaper to catch flies and fleas.

·     Use pheromone traps to attract insects and kill them off while they’re trapped

·     Establish statues and mesh to keep rabbits and rodents away

·     Use nets to ward off birds, butterflies, and aphids.

Conclusion

Pest control and prevention arecrucial to having a beautiful, healthy garden. Prevention is always easier than control so try to make sure they don’t get a foothold in your garden in the first place. If that doesn’t work, taking care of the problem as soon as you spot a symptom should be your number one priority.