Having a beautiful garden is the hobby of many people. The pleasure of seeing beautiful flowers and plants growing healthy is unparalleled! However, for this to happen, you need to keep the pests away. Get to know the main undesirable garden insects in your home!
Despite being small, these little animals have a great potential for destruction when they are in the garden. It doesn’t take many of them to spoil or even kill the plants!
Types of Garden Insects
Locust
The locust is the worst known pest in agriculture. One infestation can wipe out an entire crop. This insect can eat the equivalent of its own weight in a day.
He is also a great master of camouflage: some species have green coloring and leaf-shaped wings. Others are brown and elongated like a branch. Some might even be mistaken for flowers!
No wonder that, in the story of the Bible, locusts are one of the ten plagues of Egypt: a swarm of locusts attacked and devoured the pharaoh’s crops, according to the story. Here’s how to eliminate this pest:
- Raise chickens: they find the grasshopper quite appetizing;
- Attract birds: they eat the grasshopper;
- Use neem oil to ward off this pest;
- Spray a solution with ten garlic cloves (good natural insect repellent ) and two liters of water daily on the plants;
- Find fungi that parasitize these garden insects and make them sick, such as Beauveria bassiana .
Caterpillar
The caterpillar is the popular name for the larvae of several insects of the order Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths. They feed on foliage, mainly younger and more viable ones, which devastates the plant.
As it is located on the underside of the leaf, it is usually only noticed when it has devoured almost everything, leaving it looking gnawed. Another hint that the plant is parasitized by the caterpillar is the finding of feces on the ground, small black balls around the plant.
Despite being one of the unwanted garden insects, when it changes to the adult stage, it becomes a beautiful butterfly or moth, which pollinates the entire green area. Therefore, it is best to remove the caterpillar and take care of it:
- Put it in a pot with some holes in the lid so it can breathe;
- Feed it tender leaves sprinkled with water to hydrate;
- Clean the pot daily;
- Place a log in the pot for it to hang from and cocoon;
- Change the can for a larger one when the butterfly emerges from the pupa;
- Leave the lid open so it can fly out when it’s ready after pupating.
Beetle
The beetle is an insect of the Coleoptera family, whose striking feature is the first pair of wings being quite hard. Both larvae and adults are unloved garden insects.
To identify the presence of an adult beetle on plants , just look at the leaves. That insect leaves us with holes. The larvae stay in the soil and attack the roots of the plants. Here’s how to control this pest:
- Attract natural predators such as the wasp Cephalonomia stephanoderis ;
- Use neem oil, garlic and aromatic herbs such as rosemary and coriander to repel this pest.
Snail
The snail is a mollusk, not an insect, but it still represents a garden pest. It’s not easy to control it 100%. The idea is to reduce the population to minimum levels that do not harm the plants.
Control is made difficult by the fact that the animal is hermaphrodite, that is, it has both male and female reproductive systems, reproducing quickly. A single snail can spawn around 400 eggs in a year. See the tips to control it:
- Keep the garden clean. The snail shelters in pieces of tiles, stones and wood;
- Use gloves to collect the snails you find in the garden;
- Use baking soda and cinnamon to repel the snail;
- Make traps with beer or chayote to capture it;
- Throw ashes on the ground to dehydrate the snail.
Garden insects (Mosquito)
The mosquito is not really a garden pest, but a rather annoying insect. In summer, with higher temperatures and more rainfall, the population doubles, as does the incidence of disease in humans.
It is no wonder that health authorities make many advertisements to keep houses clean to prevent the reproduction of this insect, especially in standing water, which accumulates in vase dishes and tires, for example.
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