Everyone dreams of sprucing up their garden with trouble-free plants that stay healthy for life. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to maintain its beauty in the long term, because various enemies may endanger the fruits of your garden. A disease destroying the foliage or a colony of caterpillars attacking are common problems for the gardener.
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THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ENEMIES OF YOUR PLANTS
The 4 types of enemies that correspond to insects and pests (which belong to this zoological group) are:
1- Sucking parasites, such as:
- aphids
- chewing pests like caterpillars
- soil pests such as cutworms.
2- Mammals, such as rodents or herbivores.
3- Diseases caused by bacteria, such as:
- soft rot of some rhizomes
- fungi such as scabies and viruses.
4- Weeds.
SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES
- Pests only become harmful if certain conditions favor their proliferation, such as the absence of beneficial predators.
- In any fight against diseases and insects, prevention is better than cure.
- Harmful pests must be fought in an ecological way so as not to destroy the global balance and protect our environment.
- Weakened or stressed plants are vulnerable to disease and insects.
- It is generally easier to control an insect than a disease.
PEST PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT
To prevent or control pests in your garden, it is best to hire professionals such as Desla who specialize in all types of pests, although we can always take action on our part to try and keep the pests in check. from a distance. Here are the actions you can perform:
INSPECT YOUR GARDEN REGULARLY
Walk around your garden at least once a week to check for unusual growth, leaf damage, or any other signs of disease.
IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
It is very important to clearly identify the problem when it occurs. We fight differently depending on the type of plague. Thus, a fungal disease is treated with a fungicide while we intervene with an insecticide if it is an insect problem.
FIND THE CAUSE
Eggs, threads or larvae signal the presence of insects. Leaf spots can be the result of fungal attack, but also a cultivation problem. Ask the experts at your Passion Jardins garden centre, they can help you find the cause, take pictures to show them the problem!
TREAT THE PROBLEM
Once the source of your problem has been identified, you can attack with:
- an insecticide: a product that kills insects
- a fungicide: a substance capable of destroying fungi.
Then follow these steps:1. Choose a treatment method.2. Check if using it solves the problem.3. Repeat the treatment or change the method if it is not effective.
PREVENTIVE CONTROL
Prevention is the best intervention strategy because it minimizes the need to use pesticides that are harmful to us and our environment.
GARDEN CLEANING
Dead or insect-infested plants should be removed. In the fall, dead plant stems and soil debris should be raked up so that they do not serve as wintering havens for insects.
USE OF REPELLENT PLANTS.
The use of certain plants repels certain predators or minimizes their damage. Thus, the smell of herbs and plants, such as garlic, basil, lavender, thyme and calendula, masks the presence of the predator’s favorite food.
KNOWLEDGE OF ALLIES
Predation plays an important role in maintaining an overall balance that prevents certain insects from becoming too numerous and thus destroying your ornamental plants.
Two batrachians, the frog and the toad eat many harmful insects, such as slugs under our hostas, earwigs, cutworms, various caterpillars, etc. They must therefore be protected if you are lucky enough to harbor one or more specimens. Even though they inspire loathing and loathing in some people, see them in a different light and keep them as allies. They are responsible for the destruction of millions of insects per day. Various insects are also helpful predators, including ladybugs, spiders, and centipedes. Know them and protect them.
STERILIZATION OF GARDEN PRODUCTS.
If you’re doing a sanitary pruning, it’s very important to sterilize the clipper or saw with something like isopropyl alcohol so you don’t spread disease.
GOOD FERTILIZATION
An application of compost every year strengthens the plants so that they can fight attacks effectively.
GROUND COFFEE, BREWED COFFEE WASTE
Coffee grounds have a reputation for being an effective repellent against certain insects. It settles at the base of plants. Thus, it repels insects such as aphids and ants, creating an olfactory barrier.
ASH
Placed on the ground, wood ash prevents crawling pests, such as slugs and snails, from approaching our plants.
EGG SHELLS
Crumbled eggshells form a barrier against snails and slugs.
LIVE FIGHT
INSECT TRAP
Catching insects is an effective and non-polluting technique that you will gain from mastering better. As such, the use of sticky traps is an effective means of control. They have a great power of attraction and are not toxic. For example, a yellow sticky trap exerts an irresistible power of attraction on aphids. These traps can also be white, blue, red or green.
You install them near the foliage of the plants. Flying insects stick to it and get stuck in it. In addition to destroying a considerable number of them, you will be able to detect the increase or decrease in the number of pests present in your environment.
REMOVING THE INFECTED PART
You can cut off infected parts of a tree or bush and destroy them by burning or throwing them away.
THE “VAQUITA”: EXCELLENT FUNGICIDE
Vaquita, or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), can be used as a fungicide in the garden. This product is non-toxic and biodegradable. The treatment is effective both in prevention and when the first symptoms appear.
However, it must be weekly to be effective. Of course, sometimes it only delays the appearance of fungi if the optimal conditions for the development of these fungi are met, such as continuous rains or epidemics.
Here is the recommended recipe:
- 4 liters of water
- 10 grams (1 tablespoon) baking soda
- 40 ml (2½ tbsp.) horticultural oil or mild soap.
SOAP
A tablespoon of dishwashing liquid mixed with 1 liter of water provides an effective solution to fight against shellless insects, mainly sucking insects.
THE TOBACCO
Mix 10 grams of tobacco in 2 liters of water and bring to a boil. Then filter the mixture through a fine cloth before spraying the resulting solution.
BEER
Slugs and snails love beer so much they drown in it. It is therefore sufficient to deposit some at the bottom of a semi-buried container.
ISOPROPYLIC ALCOHOL
A cotton swab dipped in alcohol helps dislodge scale insects from leaves and stems.
VINEGAR
By watering your plants with a mixture of white vinegar and water, you can get rid of certain insects. Here is the recommended recipe:
- 1 liter of water
- 1 tablespoon of vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of liquid soap.
HOT WATER
You can try flooding an anthill with 10 liters of hot water that you mix with 10 tablespoons of soap.
BABY OIL
Here is a recipe that uses baby oil for foliage:
- 2 tablespoons baby oil
- 1 tablespoon of soap
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 liter of water.
It is recommended to rinse the foliage 15 minutes after application with water.
HORTICULTURAL OILS
In recent years, it was still called dormant oil, in the sense that these oils were heavy and could only be applied when the bushes and trees were in the dormant stage, that is, when the shoots had not not hatched and there was no growth. trace. More dilute oils allow you to apply this pesticide in the spring and summer.
These products are inexpensive and not harmful to the environment. Just check the list of plants on use labels to make sure they are not damaged, as some plants are vulnerable to these applications.
REDUCED RISK TREATMENTS
PYRETHRUM-BASED INSECTICIDES
The pyrethrin in pyrethrum is effective in controlling grubs and soft-skinned insects. In fact, it destroys them by paralyzing them, but it also repels them. It applies at the end of the night.
USE OF CHEMICAL PESTICIDES.
The use of pesticides is a solution of last resort. However, when necessary, it is in your interest to immediately use the right means, because many so-called organic products kill not only the “bad insects”, but also the “good ones”. Useful chemical insecticides and fungicides exist on the market when biological and cultural means fail. Just ask your Passion Jardins retailer, and he will guide you to the right options.