If you don't like pests setting up shop in your home, you might be interested in hiring a professional exterminator to help you with your problems. However, unless you understand the tools that they are working with, you might find yourself wondering what else you can do to curb issues. For example, if you don't mention that mosquito problem, your exterminator might not know to treat that water feature with a pesticide that targets larvae. My site explains different ways you can prepare for your professional pest control treatment, so that you aren't left with issues later down the road.
Planting and growing a garden is a rewarding activity, as it can provide you and your family with healthy fruits and vegetables. Along with gardening comes caring for and keeping your plants healthy by protecting them from damaging insects and pests. But before using any pest control treatment, you want to make sure it is safe to use around your family. Here are some safe and effective tips you can do yourself to help you keep your garden plants free of pests.
Fall Pest Control
At the end of the growing season when temperatures begin to freeze, some insect pests in your garden will burrow down into the soil to hibernate until the weather turns warm again. Insect pests that bury themselves beneath the soil until the temperatures turn warm again in the spring include squash vine borers, cucumber beetles, and potato beetles. The horned tomato worm will burrow into the soil in the fall where it turns into a pupa until it will emerge in the spring as a moth to lay more eggs on your tomato plants.
A good way to combat and prevent the survival of these types of in-ground pests is to, first, remove any remaining vines and plants from your garden where these pests lived during the summer. Often, if the pests don't burrow underground, they can hide under dead foliage to hibernate for winter. Be sure to throw the dead plants into your trash for city pick-up, and don't compost them in your garden compost pile. It is likely that your composting pile won't get hot enough during winter to kill off these insects and their larvae.
Next, you should till your garden soil just before a hard frost. This turns up the soil in which the insects are lying dormant, where they will freeze and become killed off during the winter. Then, clean off any garden trellises or tomato cages using a bleach and water solution of ten parts water to one part bleach. Apply the mixture to your gardening supports with a spray bottle until you thoroughly soak them. Allow the bleach solution to air-dry to help the bleach solution work and clean the surface. Then, if you live in a climate that has snow and freezing winter temperatures, leave the structures out during winter to help further kill any surviving eggs or other pests.
Spring Treatments
When the snow melts and the ground begins to thaw, it is time to begin some spring strategies to further prevent a pest problem in your garden. Be sure you are making a map of your garden layout each season to help you keep track of where certain plants have grown. Then, the next year, you can place the same plants in another area of your garden.
For example, plant your tomato and squash or cucumber plants on the opposite side of your garden. If any hibernating or in-ground resting pests survive the tilling and freezing during winter, they will have to travel across your garden to find their preferred host plant. It is not recommended to grow your plants in the same spot, as this provides an instant habitat home for pests when they emerge from the ground in spring.
Slugs and snails can eat and damage most types of newly-emerging plants. To help eliminate a slug and snail problem in your garden, you can use a daily spring treatment to kill them off. Place several mayonnaise lids throughout your garden in the evening, filling them with grape juice. During the night and early morning, the slugs will be attracted to the sweet smell of the juice and drown in it. In the morning, check the lids and toss out any dead slugs. Continue this every morning until you notice no further trapped slugs in the lids.
Use this information to help you grow a healthy garden free of pests. And if a problem persists, contact a professional pest control company or visit websites like http://www.albemarlepestsolutions.com.
Share2 March 2017
