Every gardener should be familiar with common garden pests. Some bugs are very disastrous to the plants and others are not that destructive. Pest damage varies depends upon the type of pests and plants. Some garden bugs can only ruin the leaves, however, others can kill the plants from the root.
Similarly, some pests can be a cause of diseases among other plants and pets. However, it’s not that difficult to keep unwelcome visitors away from your garden. This article guides you about different garden pests and how they can be catastrophic for your garden. Let’s get started…
Top 10 Common Garden Pests
1. Aphids
Aphids are tiny critters with long antennae and have two tubes projecting rearward from their abdomen. You can find them everywhere in plants like flowers, vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, etc.
These pear-shaped creatures suck plant sap causing leaves to drop and foliage to distort. You can get rid of aphids by washing plants with a strong spray of water. Further, you can also use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil to control these bugs.
Read complete guide about: How to get rid of aphids
2. Caterpillars
Caterpillars are segmented larvae that have fleshy legs on the rear and six legs in the front segments. Though they are harmless to humans but can destroy the entire garden overnight. They can be found on shade trees, ornamentals, fruits, and vegetables.
Caterpillars don’t only chew on leaves but also tunnel into fruits. You can easily deter them by encouraging native predators and parasites. Plus, you should also apply floating row covers to get rid of them.
3. Cutworms
Cutworms are very dangerous pests especially for seedlings or newly growing plants. They are 1 to 2-inch long gray or black segmented larvae which can be found on early vegetables and flower seedlings.
They chew the plants through stems at ground level mostly in May and June. You can control these bugs by using cutworm collars or delay planting.
4. Mexican Bean Beetle
Bean beetles are oval-shaped, yellow-brown, and ¼-inch pests. However, young larvae have dark yellow grubs with long, branched spines. You can easily identify them by looking at the 16 black spots on their wing covers.
The Mexican beetle bugs can be found on lima beans, soybeans, and cowpeas, etc. They chew on leaves from beneath and leave a lacy appearance fluid on the leaves. You can control these bugs by using floating covers and spraying the plants with insecticidal soap.
5. Flea Beetle
It is another common garden pest that produces small round holes in the leaves. A flea beetle is a small, dark bug that jumps like fleas when disturbed. They mostly destroy vegetable crops.
Adult flea beetles most often destroy young plants and their larvae feed on plant roots. You can deter them by spray plants with kaolin clay or garlic spray.
6. Scales
These are minute flying insects that look like hard or soft bumps on stems, fruit, or leaves. However, larvae can’t fly like adult scales so they only crawl. All these garden pests have threadlike mouthparts. You can find them everywhere including indoor and outdoor plants.
Scales weaken the plants by sucking plant sap. As a result, plants become yellow and start losing the leaves. If you don’t care about the plants, they may die. Honeydew onto the foliage and fruit is an indicator of their existence.
You can get rid of the scales by pruning out the infected plant parts. Further, native predators also deter these garden pests. Applying dormant or summer oil sprays also keeps them away from the plants.
7. Mealy Bugs
Mealybugs are small, fluffy, and mold like insects. They are fully functioning creatures so they can destroy the entire crops if you neglect their existence. Their main target is indoor plants because they love the protected environment.
These bugs can’t tolerate external weather conditions. Therefore, you will most possibly find them on indoor plants. Mealybugs breed very quickly so they can be havoc on the crops. They destroy plants by sucking the sap from plants. You can get rid of them by covering the crops with floating row covers.
8. Tarnished Plant Bug
Plant bugs are fast-moving, mottled, brown bugs that can be found on flowers, vegetables, and fruits. The garden pests have forewings with black-tipped yellow triangles. Like many other pests, they suck plant juices resulting in leaf and fruit distortion, tip dieback, stunting, and wilting.
There are different ways to control these garden pests. For example, you can deter them by keeping your garden weed-free in spring. Applying floating row covers is another good option.
9. Red Spider Mites
These tiny critters live under leaves and suck the sap. As a result, leaves turn yellow and start falling. Fine webs on the leaves indicate their existence.
There are plenty of ways to get rid of red spider mites. For example, you can control these pests by raising the humidity. Plus, you can also use natural pesticides to remove red spider mites.
Also learn: How to get rid of spider mites
10. Vine Weevils
Vine weevils are other most popular garden pests that can be destructive for the entire crop. Because they kill the plants in two different ways. First, adult black vine weevils munch through leaves. You can know about their existence by looking at the eaten-leaves.
Second, fat, grub-like larvae are buried down in the soil. They feed off the roots and destroy the plants. You can control these garden pests by picking them off from the plants. The best option is to use nematodes because it is a popular and safe method.
Closing Words
We have covered the 10 most famous and very dangerous garden pests in this article. There are many other types of pests found in gardens such as leaf miners, codling moths, slug, and snails. Proper care of the crops can keep them away from the plants.
If your crop is under attack, you should try to deter the garden pests in the early stages. Otherwise, you will have to eradicate your entire crop. You can get rid of them by spraying different types of chemicals depend on the pest type. However, the most recommended method is to your organic pesticides.