With the arrival of good weather and high temperatures, pests in the garden are another aspect that we will have to watch if we do not want a little oversight to ruin one of our favorite plants. Today we propose a series of tips and tricks that can help us keep these pests under control with fewer commercial phytosanitary products. In this way, we will protect our health and reduce the negative effects on the beneficial insects surrounding us.
The best way to maintain a healthy garden is through prevention.
When choosing plants, it is important to choose those that are best suited to our environmental conditions. Among these, the ones that will give us the least problems will be the autochthonous species. A location that does not favor the proper development of the plant will also make it more vulnerable to attack by pathogenic organisms. Therefore, the choice of the plant and the correct location are aspects that are part of prevention. These tips are valid both for the plants located inside our house and those we grow in our garden.
An additional preventive measure in gardens is to maintain the natural hedges and trees that surround them in good condition. These serve as a refuge for many animals that, by feeding on insects, help us keep their populations under control.
Proper maintenance that reduces the presence of leaves and flowers from the previous year or that improves aeration through pruning of adequate intensity also helps reduce the probability of attacks by eliminating the possibility of refuge from pathogens and reducing the favorable conditions (humidity). Keeping plants clean regularly also allows you to detect attacks quickly if they appear.
Placing many plants of a single type in the same place is equivalent to creating a haven for the pathogens that attack them. For this reason, it is advisable to combine different species, which on the other hand, can also be beneficial from an aesthetic point of view. Let us also think that plants repel certain pests, so planting them near those most susceptible plants constitutes a good defense system. An example of this is marigolds, widely used against aphids. If we grow annuals, or a vegetable garden, rotating the species between different locations each year also reduces the likelihood of attacks.
Despite everything, it often happens that all our prevention efforts are not enough to avoid the occasional infestation of a pathogen. In these cases, it is essential to detect the attack as soon as possible since this will allow us not to resort to very aggressive treatments. In particular, there are different treatments with everyday products that can help us in these cases.
For example, one of the most common insect pests is aphids, small insects that live by forming colonies on our plants. It is often enough to spray the infested plant with a solution based on water, soap, and a little alcohol to kill them. Keep in mind that it is common to find ladybugs near aphids. Please don’t kill them! These types of insects are the natural predators of aphids; they will help you to kill them.