Questions tagged [pests]

For questions about garden pests such as insects, birds and mammals.

In horticulture, the word "pests" is usually used for macroscopic animals, although smaller organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi, viruses, nematodes) could be considered pests, as well as invasive plants (e.g. vines and parasitic plants).

Macroscopic animal pests are dominated by insects and mammals, although other arthropods, reptiles, and birds could all be pests.

All of these groups primarily contain beneficial or neutral organisms, so generally control methods should be limited and in the form of deterrents rather than chemical poisons.

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Can anyone help me identify these bugs destroying my garden please?

The garden is in Los Angeles County. The bugs appeared around the beginning of April. Attached are images. One is a close-up. One is some more bugs near a nickel to get a sense of their size. I have caught several of the bugs in the act of eating my…
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Are gnats or small flies common around compost piles?

I am new to composting and started my first pile a few weeks ago. I've only put the following things in the pile: Yard waste - grass clippings from mowing, clippings from my garden, clippings from trimmed bushes, pulled-up weeds, dead leaves on the…
Scott Mitchell
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Are there any ways to combat the Bibio lanigerus?

For the last year I've had small black flies (1-2mm) in my house. I also noticed that some of my plants were slowly dying, and when removing one from the pot I saw small silver (1mm) larvae undergound around the roots and the rest of the pot. A…
Tom Sol
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Acacia bonsai mealy bug clean up

I have a young Acacia bonsai which has been invaded by mealy bugs (I believe?), primarily on the branches circled in red. They are brown, stick themselves to the plant, and can be seen walking up and down branches (they have legs), especially after…
Dave New
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How do I deter the honey-bees from my compost bin?

I have two composting bins on the terrace beside my terrace garden (TG). A couple of days back I saw a swarm of honey bees near my TG, and from yesterday or so I am seeing that there are a couple of bees sitting all around the compost bin. I suspect…
lsbmsb
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I noticed some tiny white bugs on my Calathea, could they be responsible for this?

Recently I acquired a new Calathea and upon bringing it home I gave the plant a wipe down. I found there are what looks like tiny tiny specks of dust on the underside of the leafs so I wiped them off but as I was cleaning, I also noticed TINY TINY…
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What is the right combination of neem oil and other substances to treat tiny black flies infestation in soil?

What is the right combination of neem oil and other substances to treat tiny black flies (fungus gnats, I believe?) infestation in soil?
ina
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What are these small black flecks on my brussels sprouts?

I've been battling aphids all summer and they were ruthless to all my brassica plants. It's the beginning of October and they seem to have backed off of my kale (what's left of it), but I've still been finding them on my brussels sprouts. I was out…
emersonthis
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Aphid or mites on Japanese maple? (Acer plamatum katsura)

I have noticed this morning that my potted Acer tree is covered in what look to be black/brown aphids? I am in the North West England and we have recently had very wet and windy weather and wondering if the aphids have just boomed beasue of…
QPaps
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What is this tiny translucent insect on my shiso leaf?

Some leaves on my shiso plant were thinned and white at places. I looked at one of them with a small microscope (around x400) and detected this guy busy chewing: Apparently his kind has caused lots of damage at macro and micro levels, including…
minhle_r7
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Yellowish spots under and above the leaves

What are these yellowish spots under and above the bell pepper plant? And I can see black ants around these spots.
joble
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Ants on Zucchini flowers

I've noticed a lot of ants on my zucchini plants and in particular the flowers. Not sure whether this is an issue I should be concerned about and if so what could be done to manage them.
bb10
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Are moles effective at controlling Japanese beetle grubs?

My garden is under assault this summer by Japanese beetles from above, and moles from below. From my research, Japanese beetles lay their eggs a few inches underground, and moles are voracious insectivores. I've been hand-picking the beetles every…
alexw
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Should slugs and snails be treated the same way?

I've been reading articles on taking care of plant species such as basil and have noticed that though I've seen precautions for slug infestations, I haven't seen the same for snails. They're both mollusks so I'm wondering if they behave the same or…
Ark Lomas
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small white pests moving on my soil need identification

I see these very small white pests moving on the soil which belongs to my peace lily for around two weeks. -they are just on the soil -I haven't seen any change in their size or their color within these two weeks but they seem to grow in number…
moh91
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