1. Slugs took top honors because the maximum bothersome pest in domestic gardens, with 55 percentage of respondents saying the slimy critters supply them hassle 12 months after yr. Handpicking changed into surprisingly rated as a control measure (87 percentage success fee), followed with the aid of iron phosphate baits (86 percent) and diatomaceous earth (eighty four percentage). Opinion became divided on eggshell limitations (beaten eggshells sprinkled round plant life), with a 33 percent failure price among gardeners who had attempted that slug manage technique. An clean home cure that acquired tremendous assist became beer traps (80 percentage achievement charge).

counting on larger predators — inclusive of chickens, garter snakes and geese — seems to be the most dependable way to acquire lengthy-term manipulate of garden slugs, as well as numerous types of beetles, cutworms and lots of other pests. ducks are reportedly sharp slug-spotters, whether you allow them to paintings over the lawn in spring and fall, or enlist a couple to function your non-public pest manipulate assistants at some point of the season.

“Hungry geese observe me around the garden daily. They love slugs and turn them into eggs,” commented a Mid-Atlantic gardener with 10 to twenty years of enjoy. within the Pacific Northwest, numerous longtime veterans of slug wars stated ducks are a gardener’s first-rate (and maximum interesting) way to give up persistent issues with slugs.

2. Squash insects had sabotaged summer and wintry weather squash for 51 percentage of respondents, or even geese couldn’t resolve a critical squash bug trouble. maximum gardeners mentioned the use of handpicking as their primary protection, along with cleaning up infested vegetation at season’s cease to interrupt the squash malicious program life cycle. The cost of companion planting for squash bug control became a point of war of words for respondents, with 21 percent announcing it’s the high-quality manage approach and 34 percentage pronouncing it doesn’t help. Of the gardeners who had attempted it, 79 percentage stated spraying neem on egg clusters and juvenile squash bugs is helpful. about 74 percent of row cowl customers located them useful in managing squash insects.

several respondents talked about that delaying squash planting until early summer time and growing the young plants underneath row covers outcomes in some distance fewer issues with this pest. This makes sense because herbal enemies of squash insects emerge as greater numerous and lively as summer progresses. till then, hold scraping off the ones egg clusters, and handpick as exceptional you can.
five. Squash vine borers had caused issues for forty seven percent of the survey respondents. The first-rate suggested manage strategies have been crop rotation and developing resistant types of Cucurbita moschata, which includes butternut squash and a few kinds of pumpkin. The C. moschata sorts are borer-resistant due to the fact they've strong stems. interestingly, if you’re trying to fend off squash vine borers, lanky, long-vined, open-pollinated varieties of summer season squash (zucchini and yellow crookneck, as an instance) may additionally fare better than hybrids, due to the fact OP sorts are more likely to develop supplemental roots in which the vines contact the ground. Many gardeners unload soil over these places, so if squash vine borers assault a plant’s major stem, the plant can keep on growing from its backup root machine. because borers attack stems, compact hybrids, which have a tendency to grow from one or two essential stems, are certainly greater susceptible.

One tactic is to attend out the borer’s egg-laying season. “To keep away from squash insects and squash vine borers, planting vining vegetation late and masking them with row covers until the primary female plants has been effective for us” (Midwest, six to ten years of experience).

6. eastern beetles slid in at No. 6, that is surprising due to the fact they don’t pose issues in extraordinarily hot or cold climates. forty-six percentage of respondents suggested working in the unwelcome corporation of jap beetles, with handpicking being the maximum popular control method. a few gardeners develop lure plants of raspberries or different culmination to keep eastern beetles faraway from flowers. several typically used interventions — garlic-pepper spray, milky spore disorder, pheromone traps and row covers — had high failure quotes.

numerous respondents said chickens ended their problems with jap beetles, with guinea bird and ducks also recommended for ridding areas of eastern beetle grubs and adults. Even if you don’t permit your chickens scratch to your garden, your handpicking may be more exciting due to the fact you’ll have some thing tasty on your birds whilst you’re finished gathering the beetles. In late spring, when eastern beetle larvae are near the soil floor, letting wild, worm-ingesting birds work over the region may have a lasting impact, too. numerous readers shared that having nesting pairs of robins and bluebirds (which feed insects to their young) is the best way to hold jap beetles from getting out of hand.

7. Tomato hornworms claimed the No. 7 spot, and had been of challenge to 42 percent of our survey respondents. Bt and handpicking were the favored manage techniques, and numerous folks commented that tomato hornworms are most of the simplest lawn pests to handpick (probably because they’re big, smooth to spot and bring a telltale, pebbly path). Many gardeners suggested seeing tomato hornworms often covered with rice-like cocoons of parasitic braconid wasps. “I had a number of tomato hornworms this 12 months, but the wasps took them out! just like in the photographs online and in computer virus books!” (Mid-Atlantic, greater than twenty years of experience). Gardeners named zinnias and borage as good companion flowers for decreasing hornworm problems.

8. Cutworms had been a situation for 41 percent of respondents, and effectiveness scores for the use of rigid collars (made from plastic drinking cups or cardboard tissue rolls) to guard younger seedlings from harm have been amazingly excessive (ninety three percentage effectiveness rating).

A common exercise to reduce cutworm damage is to domesticate the soil’s floor once or twice earlier than planting and hope robins and other trojan horse-ingesting birds will swoop in to collect the juicy cutworms. huge, robust seedlings are clearly resistant to cutworms, so many gardeners said they set out seedlings a chunk late to avoid cutworm damage.

nine. Grasshoppers had been a hassle for 40 percentage of respondents, and they regarded to be getting worse. We received many reviews that will increase in rainfall appeared to trigger an explosion in grasshopper populations. Chickens and guineas reportedly provide proper manage by using gobbling grasshoppers, but keep an eye fixed on your hen helpers to ensure they don’t damage vegetation. Gardeners described two thrilling setups incorporating chickens for coping with hoppers: a fenced garden with a fenced chook “moat” around its perimeter, and a series of 3 small fenced gardens, every with a gate into the chicken yard for smooth rotation of pecking offerings. (Sound cool? check out our commands on a way to build your personal fowl moat.) If grasshoppers have become worse at your place, you can want chickens greater than you think.

10. Cucumber beetles wouldn’t be so bad in the event that they didn’t transmit deadly bacterial wilt to cucumbers and melons, but as it's miles, 39 percent of our respondents named them as serious garden pests.

Neem, handpicking and good garden cleanup (putting off all plant particles) have been all rated as powerful manipulate measures, and another time fowl received many honorable mentions. Row covers earned greater huge use for the manage of cucumber beetles than for another pest, with greater than 80 percent of people who had attempted row covers reporting them to be powerful.

Seventy percent of gardeners who’d tried associate planting stated this method works for controlling cuke beetles, and sixty four percent of folks who’d attempted yellow sticky traps suggested those paintings.