GARDENER'S READING ROOM
Fertilizers, Pest Control and Soil Management
Organic Gardening

Garden Fiends

Nothing is more satisfying than a meal prepared with food hand-picked from your own garden. But nothing is more aggravating than going out to pick that food, only to discover that it has been ravaged by an insect, disease, or animal. Here are a few of the most common vegetable garden problems and how to solve them.

• Slugs and Snails eat leafy crops and new seedlings. Protect beds with copper tape, use beer traps, or bait with Sluggo or Sluggo Plus.
  

• Aphids can quickly take over a plant and leave a sticky mess. Females are born pregnant, birthing up to 15 kids in a cycle that starts over in 5-7 days! Control them by washing them off with a hose, squashing them on the plant, feeding them to ladybugs, or spraying them with Bonide Hot Pepper Wax or Take Down Garden Spray (Monterey).
  

• Cabbage worms are problematic for many crops, eating holes right through leaves. Avert damage with row covers that are tight to the ground. Or treat outbreaks with Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew (Spinosad) or Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) sprays.
  

While we can’t always control kids with bikes or baseballs, we can manage damage from dogs and rabbits with a variety of barrier netting and fencing, as well as animal repellents such as Ropel or Repells-All. And for that nocturnal bird, deer, or neighbor who raids your garden, we even carry the scarecrow motion-activated sprinkler!

Got a vegetable problem that needs solving? Our staff is ready to help! Feel free to drop in with a sample, picture, or story.

By Charlie Shull and Molly Malecki
Skylights Summer 2011, Vol 26, No. 2

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