Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange
Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [pest-control]

For questions about controlling garden pests. Use this tag with questions about how to keep identified pests at bay. For unidentified pests use the [pest] and [identification] tags. For questions about pesticides use the [pesticide] tag.

Garden pests can include , other invertebrates, mammals, , and domesticated creatures. Although "" indicates that they actively destroy plants and crops, this tag can also be used for (cats/s) that merely cause inconveniences (see example question).

A range of control methods are available including synthetic , organic s, traps, and deterrents. Clearly not all methods are appropriate for all pests or situations, and many methods are illegal for specific pests and jurisdictions.

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Do aphids return to the host plant after being sprayed off?

What happens to aphids after you spray them off a plant? Do they wander around until they find a new host, get rescued by ants, die, or something else? Am I just moving them from one plant to another by spraying them off?
Steve HHH
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What insects killed this red cabbage?

Watering the lettuces, I spotted a Red Cabbage head leaning sideways on the ground. On close inspection, here's what I saw: Three little worm-like bugs having a feast of the bottom of the stalk of this head of red cabbage. Their posse was crushed…
Charney Kaye
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Are ants/flies a threat to a raspberry bush?

Ants in my garden seem to especially love this raspberry bush at the moment. I also notice these two little things that look like tiny flies sitting on the leaves- except they are not moving, like dead flies. Ants seem to be hanging out around…
Charney Kaye
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What should I do about squiggly white lines on my artichoke leaves?

I have an artichoke planted in a raised bed in southern California, USA. The new leaves at the core look healthy and happy, but the biggest, oldest, outermost leaves develop white squiggly lines. At first it's just a few, but eventually the leaf…
Robert
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Control aphids on a linden tree

We have a 30 year old Little leaf linden (Tilia cordata) on the north side of the property. Although it is apparently healthy every year it gets galls on the leaves and aphids. The aphids secrete a sticky sap which covers the car from June through…
kevinskio
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How do I keep my compost bin from breeding bugs?

I want to have a compost bin but my wife is (quite validly) concerned that it will be a bug factory. We already have a lot of gnats that drive her crazy. Any suggestions?
Clay Nichols
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Getting rid of fruit flies in the compost bin

A few weeks ago I put up a compost bin in my garden, similar to this one (bottomless and placed directly onto the soil). Soon after I began to use it, I noticed swarms of fruit flies inside. The first thing I added to my compost was shrub and other…
user149408
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Fig tree mystery worm problem

A friend has a fig tree which seems to be the target of a worm. As far as I can see the leaves and fruit do not have any bite marks or worms/insects inside them, but the fruit born was less this year, and they mentioned that they think a worm or…
frufo
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Does winter wash stain brickwork

I have a healthy Jasmine that is trained against a brick wall. It covers a width of some 3m and reaches to 2.5m tall. It has suddenly been afflicted by a large aphid infestation, so I was planning to use a winter wash to kill the eggs over the…
Chenmunka
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Aphids on my houseplants

I think I have black bugs on my plant since last year and I worked on it for months and then I thought I killed it. I used soapy water and when it did not work I used pesticide. It almost killed my plant but somehow I recovered it. This year, they…
Eva
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Bag worm infestation on small pine trees

I noticed that some of my small pine trees (4 ft.) started turning brown and upon closer inspection I noticed 100's of bag worms all over the trees. I spent quite a bit of time pulling off the bags. My questions are: If I just throw them on the…
Jason
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How to make a fake scare owl, and do different animals respond to different abstractions?

I would like to keep squirrels off of my peach tree. They have gotten over half of the peaches already. Is there a way to make a home-made scare owl? I have found a few resources on-line, but they vary in complexity, from simply hanging old cd's to…
David LeBauer
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White object under pomegranate tree leaf

Anybody know what this is on my pomegranate tree leaf?
EmNM
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What is this leaf miner / tenter in my small bush/tree?

I have a small bush/tree. I don't know exactly what it is. What I see is the new growths folded over onto each other, and connected together. When I pull them apart, I can find tiny white worms with black heads, which are about 5/8 inch long. The…
Jeffrey Blattman
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white pupae and larvae

Hi, I have just been in my garden planting some plants and I found these. I don't know if the larvae are the same as the pupae? The larvae are about 16mm long and the pupae about 10mm. The soil was quite damp but not wet as it was close to a pond.…
New gardener
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