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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Identify The Pest in Your Garden Like a Pro!

One of the major problems that many inexperienced gardeners have is that they can't seem to identify which pest is attacking their plants. This is especially true if the pest fails to leave any traces behind other than the wholes in your leaves. So here's a video by Mike Raupp "The Bug Guy" from The University of Maryland Extension and it will help you to identify pests and disease that are attacking your garden.


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

3 Pest Control Tips That Could Save Your Garden's Life!

 

Tip #1 - Try the Natural Process First
Natural is always the safest! 

If you are not to squeamish, sometimes it is just better to pick off any bugs that are visible on the leaves of your plants. This works best with the larger pest like the caterpillars or grubs. It helps if you make this part of your daily routine as you water or care for your garden. For those of you that are just disgusted with the idea, just throw on some gloves and get the job done. They won't bite!


Tip #2 - Encourage Nature to Take It's Course
Let the predators take them out!

All the bugs that are causing havoc in your garden have enemies. Find out what their enemies are and use that as a natural process to eliminate those pest. For example, if you are having problems with aphids then you would want to attract dragonflies to your garden. They won't hurt your plants, but they will turn those aphids into a great meal! This is one of the easiest ways to eliminate pests without spending money and doing a lot of work to get rid of them.

Tip #3 - Use Safer Solutions 
You have safer solutions just sitting around the house!

As an organic gardener you more the likely know how harmful store bought pesticides and insecticides can be to your garden and that's why you should only use them as a last resort. But there are some things around the house that you can put together to create safer solutions that work. For example, if you have an ant problem around your garden then you can mix boric acid and a little sugar and get rid of those pesky ants. The sugar attracts them and the boric acid kills them. That beats spending $15-$30 on a heavy duty solution that can harm your plants.