How to get rid of garden pests and insects

Continue reading to learn more about how to remove garden pests and insects and how often you should pest control your home.

Tips for Getting Rid of Garden Pests and Insects

1. Choose Resistant Varieties

This is the easiest way to prevent garden pests and insects from being attracted to your home. Choose crops that are naturally resistant to pests, such as thyme, lavender, and wormwood.

2. Attract Useful Insects

There are certain helpful insects that will eliminate other pests in the garden. To attract these beneficial insects, grow blooming plants such as sweet alyssum, coriander, or calendula. Plant tall-growing perennials and flowers towards the far end of the garden. These insects that reproduce in your garden can ultimately keep other insects and pests away.

3. Encourage Healthy Soil

You will develop healthy and strong crops if the soil is healthy. They will be better prepared to fight infections, insects, and pests. You may improve the soil's health by using natural fertilisers generated from seaweed and fish. These natural fertilisers help in the activation of soil microbes. As a result, soil life improves.

4. Grow Different Crops

Growing various crops every year confuses insects, reducing their presence in places that assist you in managing the soil's fertility. Allow 2 to 3 years to pass before repeating the development of the previous crop. If your garden is small and in a shaded location, it is best to cultivate a cover crop or let the soil rest for a year or two.

5. Plant Different Crops Together

Insects are used in a mono-crop environment. Farms that grow a single crop must extensively spray their crops to keep insects and pests away. Pests are confused when various crops, herbs, and flowers are planted together.

Plant alternating rows of herbs and flowers to eliminate unattractive pests, and veggies with flowers and herbs that attract beneficial insects. By interplanting cabbage with onions, calendula, and cilantro, the pest will have a more difficult time infesting your crop.

6. Infestation Control

When you’ve got an insect or pest infestation, you must remove the infected plant to prevent the infestation from spreading. Avoid applying pesticides — start from the beginning and work your way through all preventive methods first.

To avoid harming helpful insects when treating an outbreak, first identify and distinguish between insects and bugs, beneficial insects, and their larval stages — killing helpful insects affects your garden's capacity to self-regulate its environment.

7. Plant in the Right Spot

Crops that need a lot of sunlight should be cultivated in areas where they will get enough. Crops that demand more moisture and water should also be cultivated in regions to help manage healthy development.

In addition, crops have been observed to survive improper circumstances for some time, but the stress eventually weakens them, leaving them susceptible. When it comes to avoiding garden insects and pests, growing crops in the proper spot is essential.

8. Use Floating Row Covers

Use weighted row covers that let water and light pass through during the summer while keeping insects and pests away. Floating row coverings cover only young plants. The sides must be weighted down with heavy materials, such as a rock block.

If, after trying every strategy, your crop still is suffering from an insect and pest infestation, consider installing permanent low tunnel hoops for the crop experiencing this issue.

Every morning, you must remove the cover for a few hours to let insects in to help in pollination.

How Often Should You Pest Control Your Home?

So, how often should you pest control your home? Regular visits by your local pest controller involve:

• Looking for changes or indications of pest activity.
• Checking traps.
• Putting preventative measures in place to limit the number of pests.

Pest control professionals may evaluate your building's or facility's infrastructure and hunt for new pest threats with frequent visits, even if pests are not visible. Moreover, regular visits assist in keeping pest control costs lower.

For residential buildings, quarterly pest control treatments, or every 2 to 3 months, effectively discourage common pests when you move into a new home or apartment. Monthly treatments over 3 to 6 months are advised for more serious infestations. However, the suggested frequency may fluctuate due to various factors such as weather conditions, building size, location, time of year, and pest type.

While you cannot avoid garden pests and insects, maintaining a healthy garden by promoting soil health and fertility through regular fertilisation is an excellent strategy to keep many garden pests away. 

Further Reading

• How to Get Rid of Possums
• Why Is Regular Pest Control Important?
• Natural Pest Control Solutions