I headed out for my walk yesterday and didn’t get far up the street when I saw one of our neighbours front yard. He had a couple of plastic lids covered with white powder.
He looked out at that time and came out to explain what he was doing. He had found a home remedy for getting rid of ants in his lawn using icing sugar and borax.
I told him we had a similar problem and used an online tip to get rid of our ants. He caught them early but we had an anthill in our lawn that was about 4 to 6 inches higher than the rest of the lawn. The home remedy we used was cornmeal which worked fantastic.
Glad he is thinking about the environment and didn’t just turn to harsh and harmful pesticides.After all this planet belongs to our children and their children.
Deal With Pest Before They Are A Problem
Keeping a close eye on your yard and garden is the best defense again harmful pests, before they become an infestation. Start by keeping potential problem areas cleaned up, this means getting rid of dead plants, work to have healthy soil and learn about bad planting habits that help pests flourish.
We like to use our compost bin to compost yard waste so they don’t become home to garden pests. Then you can use your compost to feed your garden and make healthier soil at the same time.
Plant Crops In Different Locations Each Year
Some garden pests will stay in the ground over winter and return the following year to wreak havoc on your crop or they may lay eggs that will do the same things. For this reason it’s best to rotate your crops each year so the pests don’t have their favourite food.
Try Doing Some Companion Planting – You can do companion planting to grow more than one crop in one location to add complimentary benefit to the soil such as nitrogen. However, I am not talking about that instead I am referring to growing plants next to other plants to repel destructive garden pests.
Use Good Bugs To Get The Bad Bugs
Not all home gardeners know that we have some good bugs to help us get rid of those bad one so don’t just start killing off all the bugs in your yard. Use the good insects as a more natural remedy for some of the bad pests.
I just read on my Facebook account that Mike The Gardener, the guy I get all my garden seeds from, released 1500 lady bugs into his garden. You also want to keep any praying mantis or lacewings. These three insects just love eating some bad guys such as aphids and mites.
Mike didn’t raise the lady bugs from eggs, instead he ordered them just like you and I could do.
Robins Help Me Keep The Grubs Down
I love watching the robins in my garden. They are always finding things to eat and when I’m digging in the garden they follow me around like chickens.
I think they’ve learned I’m not out to hurt them because just a few years ago we couldn’t get near enough to even get a picture and now they get close enough I right in there and work with me, well kind of.
From my office I watch them bouncing around the backyard grabbing grubs and worms. It’s really cool to watch them because they hear their dinner and focus by turning their head back and forth to focus on it and bounce over and start munching. Glad they help me keep the Japanese beetles grub population down.
Slugs By The Thousands
In our yard, both flower and vegetable gardens the pest we have to deal with most often is the slimy looking slugs.
Our first year of gardening we got about 3 zucchini because the slugs kept eating the flowers and they never got a start. The only thing that saved us was the dry weather. It seemed to put a stop to them and we managed to get a few zucchinis.
Now I use Slug-B-Gone as well as picking up and destroying any who have survived.
We try to keep anything thing in our yard that offers moist and shaded conditions for the slugs to hide in during the day. That has helped considerable. We don’t see the numbers we saw a few years ago.
We also use stakes and tie our plants up off the ground so they don’t offer those moist and shaded areas with their leaves.
Keep An Eye Out For Garden Pests
There are many remedies for pest today but a great weapon against garden pest is your watchful eye. When you see a problem deal with it immediately and swiftly. See a slug, pick it up and take it away then destroy it.
I’m James J. Decker, a hobbyist and DIYs and also a big of home improvement and gardening tools. I immensely enjoy how these amazing products improve productivity and efficiency, and allow me to do jobs for which I would’ve otherwise needed professional help.
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I like to have a garden and eat the food I grow. There are always pests and bugs that interrupt the process however. I think along with calling a pest control service to come and help me, I will also try planting my crops in different locations. Thanks for the tips.