It’s Time to Prevent Spring and Summer Garden Pests
Every year I fill my garden boxes with fall crops full of hope. Unfortunately my boxes are full of slugs and by January I’ll be lucky if 50 percent of my plants survive. The same thing happens in the spring – aphids, squash bugs, cucumber beetles and cabbage cutworms crawl out of the soil and begin to attack my future crops. There are local treatments and tricks, but the real answer is to go back in time to the fall and take care of the problem before it starts.
Remove plant debris
At the end of the summer season, it is tempting to leave everything in place. But these plants provide the perfect hiding place for insects to sleep and lay eggs in the spring. Compost them properly, in a compost heap that reaches a temperature to virtually kill insects and any other viruses or fungi. Rotting fruit on the ground can attract vertebrate pests (in other words, cats, dogs, wildlife and rodents).
Remove plastic and non-compostable materials.
If you’re like me, you have awnings, trellises, and tarps from your gardening projects all summer long—it’s important to arrange these materials properly, too. They can also provide cover for unwanted pests such as cucumber beetles and pumpkin bugs. Clean them and then put them away rather than leaving them in the yard.
Down to your soil
Insects such as squash borers, cabbage cutworms and cabbage cutworms can survive the winter if they are well covered. One solution is to use a tiller and move the soil. This should bring the pupae and pupae to the surface, exposing them to colder temperatures in which they are less likely to survive.
Trim the edges of your lawn and grounds
Pests need shelter such as grass, plants and other hiding places in hard to reach areas. If you remove these spots at the edge of the property, you will create a more hostile environment for pests and they will be less likely to want to jump over there. This is especially true for harlequin beetles and a number of cabbage-loving pests.
Rotate crop families, not just crops
If you are planting a winter crop, remember that you will still need to rotate your beds so that you have less opportunity for crop-specific diseases and pests to take hold. But it’s not as simple as rotating broccoli where cauliflower grew last year. You want to think in terms of entire crop families. Move kale to where spinach was last year, and cauliflower and broccoli to where winter beets and carrots were.
If you are going to keep the leaves, chop them finely.
Many people advocate leaving leaves alone in the fall, thus giving the good bugs a chance to rest until spring. However, if you do this, you will also protect the pests. Sometimes you have to sacrifice something good to prevent something bad, and you will need to weigh the value of that choice for your own garden. Either way, if you shred your trash finely, it will turn into compost faster, providing less hiding place for insects.
Treat with topical solutions.
It’s easy to say: just skip the hard work and use a topical treatment like Sluggo or diatomaceous earth. Like all decisions, this has its costs and benefits. DE has limited effectiveness, must be reapplied frequently, and can harm beneficial insects. Sluggo needs to be reapplied frequently and can create a concentration of iron phosphate in the soil that can be taken up by vegetables. I couldn’t do without Sluggo and try to limit its use, but in the fall I always make sure to give my beds a good dose.