Plant Pests to Avoid in Your Garden

All gardeners want the very best for their garden. Whether you are tending a flower garden, a vegetable garden, or an organic garden, you can always protect your garden from pests that intend to take over. Your garden needs protection in order to thrive. One of the best ways to take care of your garden is to be observant to what is needs. All gardens need protection from harmful plant pests. There are a plethora of garden enemies you should know about. What sort of plant pests should you be guard against? This entry lists various plant pests every gardener should avoid.

Aphids
Aphids can come in a variety of colors, so don’t be fooled by their presence. Aphids can infest various types of gardens. They can be a very dangerous pest for a garden. Aphids can rapidly spread disease throughout your entire garden. They are known to cause plants to weaken by sucking nutrients from their tissues.

It’s good to know that your Aphid population can be significantly reduced by one of their most common predators: ladybugs. If you encourage and protect your resident ladybugs, they can serve as an effective chemical-free protection for your garden.

Cutworm
Cutworms are not a plant pest with which you should be trifle. There are several species of cutworms that can invade and destroy your garden. Since cutworms can actually attack your garden plants from the soil line, beware. They have been known to feed on plant foliage, eat holes in plant roots, and even cut off seedlings. Your average insecticides are not the most effective way to treat cutworms. So what is a gardener to do?

Cutworms need to be counterattacked personally. If you have a small garden, you can just pick the cutworms by hand from your plants. For the pests below the soil line, you can generally just uncover your top layer of soil and pick them right out.
If you have a fairly large garden, you try spraying Sevin on your plants. This particular spray can be applied to the soil and the plant leaves.

Flea Beetles
Flea Beetles may be small in size, but this tiny black insect can cause super-sized trouble. Flea Beetles are a plant pest that can create pits in the leaves of various garden plants. The good news is that if you have a garden of mature plants, flea beetles may not cause a great deal of damage to your garden. If you are having a significant flea beetle infestation, however, then try applying a natural pesticide.