No homeowner wants to take a beating from insect pests. Seeing your crop destroyed or your garden made bereft of its bloom can shatter even the most stoic of homeowners. Thankfully, there are just too many solutions to keep the insect pests at bay. I like the term “fooling them no end”.
Set trap for those insects pests which like shade
A few insect pests like to rest in humid, shady areas when the noon sun becomes a tyrant. These insects, such as pill bugs, snails, sow bugs, and earwigs, can be easily lured into being trapped in seashells and fractured crockery, among other things. Once trapped, you can dump the insect pests in a bucket full of soapy water.
Use an ornamental decoy
Grow an ornamental crop among many other really useful ones. This way, the insect pests are likely to get attracted to such ornamental ‘decoy’ crop, letting go of your good crops. For example, if you have found blister beetles damaging your tomato crop, it may be a nice idea to grow red root pigweed in between tomato plants.
Use a row cover
Try sheltering your crops under row cover. This way, you can effectively keep cabbage maggots and squash bugs at a distance.
Pursue biodiversity
Insect pests have a field day in gardens which follow monoculture. Things begin to heat up for the pests when your garden pursues biodiversity, thereby, mixing signals for the insect pests. Growing different plants side by side confuse these creatures, and they fail to get a hang of your garden. It is like their sense of surefootedness vanishes. I am all for growing peas with carrots and onions with broccoli.
Don’t let debris accumulate
Do not let your faded flora, wasting crops, or overstayed-their-welcome kind of fruits remain in your garden. These are the happy-hunting yards for insect pests. Clear your garden as soon as debris begins to accumulate — one sure-fire way to control pests at bay!
I hope these 5 methods will give your garden the sheen it so richly deserves. How do you safeguard your crops and garden from the insect pests?