How to Manage Yard & Garden Pests this Spring

Some insects are beneficial to your spring lawn and garden and others are downright pests. By managing trouble-making insects, you can avoid holes in garden flowers and leaves, tunnels bored into wood, dead plants, and other unfavorable outcomes. A Florida-friendly way to manage undesirable pests is with a well-rounded approach involving prevention, regular inspection, environmentally friendly spot treatment, and safe handling of needed pesticides and chemicals.

Basics of Florida Landscape Pest Management

Insects aren’t the only types of pests that need to be managed in Florida gardens and landscapes. Other pests are weeds, viruses, and other diseases. To maintain a flourishing, healthy lawn, it is essential to keep a vigilant watch for signs of pest problems. Once you identify evidence of trouble, make distinctions so that you can protect beneficials and eliminate or reduce the pest population. Examples of beneficials are ladybugs, spiders, dragonflies, lady beetles, and bees.

Here’s more rules of thumb for responsible pest management in Florida:

• First, try to manage pests with non-chemical methods. As necessary, move on to pesticides that are the least toxic, such as horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps.
• Treat only the affected plants or sections of your lawn and garden and ask that any professionals helping you with pest control to do the same.
• Remember that the goal isn’t the elimination of all pests. Minimal damage to plants is done if pests are kept at a low level, and pests are often food sources for beneficials.

Examples of Sustainable Pest Control

Prevention

You can help to keep unwanted insects out by growing healthy plants free of disease in a well-tended garden. Watch out for weeds because they can become safe havens for other pests. Routinely inspect leaves. Remove, pinch off, or deadhead damaged and discolored leaves or plants. Supply plants with nutrient-rich soil, and water them appropriately. Thriving plants are much more difficult targets for pests. When healthy plants come under attack, they are better able to withstand the circumstances while you use the best tactics to manage the pests.

Disrupt Passage

Snails, caterpillars, and slugs are creeping pests that tend to approach plants from underground. Encourage them to move on and go elsewhere by making the soil underneath your plants a hazardous area. Spread a layer of crushed eggshells under vulnerable plants to keep these types of pests away.

Attract Natural Predators

If you discover a certain type of pest invading your lawn or garden, do some research to determine whether you can attract that pests’ natural enemies to come along and deal with the unwanted insects for you. Aphids, aka “plant lice,” for example, are prey for ladybugs, lacewings, and wasps. Toads, lizards, and ground beetles make prey of slugs in the ground.

Use Natural Aromatic Deterrents

You can keep out a variety of pests out by using natural aromatic deterrents. Potato beetles and aphids, for example, will stay away from a garden containing lemongrass, citronella, fennel, basil, catnip, or mint. An added plus is that some of the herbs serving to deter unwanted pests also attract desirable predators that keep other insects under control.

Visit Cypress Creek Landscape Supply

For all the pest management supplies you might need, visit Cypress Creek Landscape Supply. We carry high-quality products for the care of your lawn and garden, including herbicide items, pest items, and hardware. Visit Cypress Creek Landscape Supply at 12734 N Florida Avenue in Tampa, FL, or call (813) 933-7944 today.