It's very easy to dislike some of the visitors that make their appearances in our gardens every growing season. They start dropping in just as soon as the weather provides even a tiny hint of warmth. After all, many of them have been in or on the very cold soil all winter. They really aren't too different than me in that respect! They just want to get out of their shelters and bask in the sun. Well, most of them anyway - some will only come out to bask in the moonlight, or on overcast damp days as seen in the picture below.
Unfortunately, these pests will visit whether we welcome them or not. I've realized over the years that they cannot be avoided completely. It's like having a wonderful relative who visits from time-to-time and, on some of those occasions, drags the forever cranky, negative aunt Tulip along with her. We learn to live with the situation in the spirit of harmony. Our gardens are the same. We must learn to live with the bad guys as well as the good friends who visit our little plot. The key is to keep the situation in balance.
Over the past 70 years or so, the chemical industry has provided an ongoing flood of both dry and liquid compounds designed to kill farm and garden pests. The trouble with many or most of these products is that they were non-selective. They killed pretty nearly all the insects in the area, both good and bad. And, among the worst of them, DDT not only killed insects, it also nearly wiped out the bald eagle population of the United States.
More recently, I've seen a host of "natural" and "organic" products enter the market. That is a good thing, but not necessarily all good. Poison ivy is all natural, but I'm not going to stick my arm in a patch of it. The simple fact is that some poisons are really quite natural and used in commercial insecticides. Pyrethrum based insecticides are a good example. Pyrethrums are a poisonous, but natural substance derived from certain varieties of chrysanthemums. They are, however, harmful to humans and highly toxic to cats. Some forms of these substances linger where they are applied for as long as 30 days after application. You may not want to apply them directly on your garden's fruit or vegetables. One container I read also warned to not allow this natural product to get into ponds or waterways containing fish. And, of course, they do an effective job of killing bugs. So what are gardeners to do when the pest guests arrive? Use these products very judiciously or find alternatives that do not contain poisons.
In my next post, I'll list the common garden pests I'm most familiar with and detail what I do to combat them.
See you soon!
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