Earth-friendly Garden Pest Prevention

If you tend a garden, there's no doubt you've invested a lot of time, money and energy into it. You can protect that investment by practicing some green pest prevention strategies. One form of green pest control is using items and plants that deter or reduce pest populations in your garden, while remaining safe to your plants, pets and family.

Encourage the Presence of Beneficial Critters

Slugs, snails, aphids, caterpillars, rabbits, moles, earwigs and deer are some of the most common garden invaders. One technique that you can utilize is to attract and encourage beneficial predators in your garden. One of these is the ladybug. Ladybugs are great to have around. Not only are they colorful and pretty, but they also eat aphids. This is why many garden stores sell ladybugs by the bag. Other beneficial insects include praying mantises and lacewing flies. These predators are only interested in feeding on other insects, such as those that may otherwise destroy your plants. Other animals that are beneficial for a garden include toads, birds, and non-poisonous snakes. While all of these love to eat bugs, some species of snakes also prey on rodents. It's probably not necessary to buy these predators from a pet store, as they generally follow their food source. Just be sure not to discourage the presence of these creatures, as they offer 100% free green pest control services 24/7.

Green Pest Control Strategies

Companion Plants
Companion planting is a green pest control strategy that involves growing plants which are natural pest deterrents next to the ones pests go after. Green onions, for example, can help keep rabbits away from your lettuce. Another example would be to plant radishes with your cucumbers to keep cucumber beetles away. Garlic is a natural deterrent of many pests, which makes it an excellent all-around companion plant. Chrysanthemums contain a substance used in insecticides, so they make a good plant to use as a border around pest magnets in the garden.

Rotate Your Crops
It takes around three years for many common pests to securely establish homes in your garden. Rotating your crops is a pest prevention method which works by disturbing the pests' habitat, encouraging them to move to a more stable environment.

Slugs Love Beer Too
Snails and slugs love beer. Maybe even more than you do. If you place bowls of beer around the perimeter of your garden, these gastropods will crawl into it and drown. You can also try milk as an alternative to beer for this technique.

Another way to keep snails and slugs away is by using crushed eggshells and sawdust. Snails and slugs don't like crawling over these substances, so an easy pest prevention method is to spread it in a ring around plants.

Keep A Clean Garden
Pests love trash and other messes. This is why keeping your garden clean is one of the more straightforward pest prevention methods. Fallen fruit and vegetables, leaves, weeds, dead plants and branches make attractive sources of food and shelter for many pests. This is why it's a good idea to keep items such as these to a minimum in your garden. Shells and other waste that can accumulate around a bird feeder are also attractive to insects. Consider placing it as far from your garden as possible, or using suet to reduce the amount of shells on the ground. If you compost, use bins with sealing lids. Avoid keeping piles of leaves and brush around. If you need to keep piles of stones, cinder blocks, or firewood, keep them away from your garden and elevated off of the ground to deter pests from making homes in them.

Deterring Deer
Despite tall fences or your best efforts to include uninviting companion plants, some deer can still be determined to get into your garden. These persistent characters may require more sophisticated green pest control methods. Some gardeners hang bars of soap around the garden as a scent-based deterrent. Some prefer noisemakers. Common examples of these are garden fixtures that move with the wind to make noise. Some ancient Japanese gardeners used bamboo water fountains that would strike a rock intermittently to make noise. You can build these deer-chaser water fountains yourself or purchase them online.

You can use green pest prevention strategies to keep pests at bay while using fewer chemicals. There are circumstances, however, when a pest problem can become too much to handle on your own. Just be mindful of when a pest problem has gotten beyond your control. If this happens, know that a good green pest control service should be able to thoroughly take care of the problem in a way that's friendly to your environment.

By: Ben Anton

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Interested in learning more about green pest prevention systems for your home? Contact Alpha Ecological, an environmentally-friendly company offering Hillsboro pest control services.