Garden Pests

Just when your garden looks its finest, you come out one morning to discover that PESTS have been at work! The coneflower petals are jagged, roots are dug up, rosebuds are gone – yep, the pests come out in full force mid-summer when the weather is the hottest and your garden the most vulnerable. Here are a few tips for combating pests – please feel to share your ‘cures’!

RABBITS:

Large cat or dog!
Mix ¼ cup human urine, ¼ cup of castor oil,¼ cup ammonia in gallon of water and spray over area you want to protect.
Place dried sulfur (available at farm and garden stores) or wood ashes around the edge of your garden.
Sprinkle blood meal around your crops after each rainfall (but don’t use this method if you have dogs, because they’ll be attracted to the scent and start digging).
Sprinkle powdered red pepper around the garden or on targeted plants. Rabbits are great sniffers, so that may keep them out.

MOLES/VOLES:

Use soiled cat litter and sprinkle it in the runs every 3 feet or so. (Questionable results).
Give them a dose of castor oil. Mix 3 parts castor oil to 1 part dish detergent. Use 4 tablespoons of the concoction in a gallon of water. Soak the tunnels and entrances with the mixture.
Dip an ear of corn in roofing tar and place it in one of their tunnels. They don’t like the smell of tar, and you’ll block their escape.
Sprinkle powdered red pepper in their tunnel entrances.

SQUIRRELS:

Save orange and lemon rinds and store them in the freezer in the winter. In the spring and periodically during the summer, bury the rinds here and there just under the surface of the soil. They discourage squirrels and cats from digging.
Plant one or two cloves of garlic near spring bulbs in your flower bed, or sprinkle garlic powder or cayenne pepper on the soil when plants are ready to bloom. Repeat after rain.
Scatter dog hair and sprinkle blood meal around your garden.
Set up ultra high-frequency sound devices to repel squirrels and other small animals.

SLUGS:

Lay boards or pieces of cardboard on the bare soil around your plantings. Each morning, turn the boards over and scrape the hiding slugs in to large plastic containers. Cover and place in your freezer. When frozen stiff, dump them on your compost pile.
Place shallow dishes of beer around the garden to lure the slugs to a drunken death.
Or mix water with molasses, cornmeal, flour and baking yeast the replace the beer.
Circle plants with wood ashes, diatomaceous earth, copper sheeting, or crushed eggshells.
Crush seashells and spread them around the plants. The shells will also add nutrients to the soil.
Plant highly scented herbs among your vegetables and flowers.

RED ANTS:

“Combat” made by Clorox.
Sprinkle some hot pepper flakes where the ants are nesting or roaming.
Mix about one pound of used coffee grounds in one quart of hot water and pour it on ant hills.
Sprinkle uncooked Malt-O-Meal cereal where you see fire ants.

APHIDS:

Import ladybugs to your garden to feast off the aphids.
Spray a strong stream of cold water to dislodge them.
Coat the plant’s surface with insecticidal soap every three to five days. Rinse the soap off after an hour to prevent damage to the plant’s leaves.

JAPANESE BEETLES:

Handpick.
Shake the beetles from your plants onto tarps in the early morning and then drown them in soapy water.
Drench sod with parasitic nematodes to kill larvae.
Lure them away with the scent from pherome traps. Hang the traps around your garden about a foot above ground in sunny locations.

GRASSHOPPERS:

Sevin spray, not the dust works well. Grasshopper bait works but they eat everything else first! Keep undergrowth cut down to discourage them.

DEER:

You can contact the Department of Natural Resources, Game Management Division and obtain free deer repellent!

Hope this helps! If you know some other good tips, submit them here and we’ll add them to this page.