Insects that eat, or feed off, our garden plants we call them pest insects but they are just part of the Natural World we live in and if there were no pest insects then that would also be the end of the beneficial insects that live by eating the ones we call pests.
Unfortunately there is usually far more pests than beneficial insects so we have to use control methods to keep the pest’s numbers down.
As I have said many times before the pests and diseases that affect our garden plants are actually Nature’s Cleaners, it is their job to take out the weak plants.
By doing so they aid in the demise of the sickly plants and as the remains compost down to feed and make room for the healthy plants.
So if we force plants to grow as they do commercially then those plants will be attacked by pests and diseases which the grower will use any number of chemical sprays to prevent their crop from being damaged and unsalable.
Which in fact only makes matters worse as the plants will now be weak and sickly from all the chemicals they have been exposed to.
Sometimes we are at fault by providing a massive food source for pests which allows them to rapidly increase their numbers and a bigger problem for us gardeners or growers.
For instance we plant a row of cabbages and to the butterflies thats food bonanza, heaps of foliage to sustain all the caterpillars that will hatch out of the eggs they lay.
But say one cabbage is growing in a field of lots of different plants, then Mrs Butterfly is going to have a problem finding it and if she does it will only support a few caterpillars to maturity.
In New Zealand we have a Native pest called the grass grub which is the larva of the bronze beetle.
Before New Zealand was settled by the colonialists the grass grubs/beetles fed on the sparse growing native grasses and a few other plants.
Not a lot of food source and so not a lot of grass grubs which were also a welcome morsel for the many Kiwis that foraged at night.
Then settlers cleared the bush and planted grass; hectares of grass and what a windfall for the grass grub beetles, as their populations grew to the millions of them that we have these days, every year.
Temperature is a big factor for many pest insects and when the temperatures are warm they can rapidly bred.
When we have an early spring with a week or two of early nice warm days and nights then the pests that have been waiting for those conditions come out to play and lay.
Then if we are hit with a cold snap for a week or so many of these early risers will be killed along with vulnerable eggs they laid.
When that weather pattern happens then it is not until January/February that we see their populations rise and become troublesome.
Otherwise we have problem populations happening by November/December.
So the key for good control of pests such as whitefly, leaf hoppers, aphids etc is to start control methods at the first sign of any pest.
Too often we also miss controlling pests early because they are on weeds or plants we are not concerned about or they are over the fence; as the neighbor maybe is not a keen gardener and then they have a breeding jungle of plants/weeds.
When they are over the fence those pests will keep coming over to your plants the whole season, and unless you ask the neighbour if you can tidy up and clean up their patch you have a yearly problem which will require constant controls till winter.
Sprays of Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil with Wallys Super Pyrethrum applied to your plants just before dark. Spraying under and over the foliage.
Repeated every few days if you have a bad infestation and then weekly to fortnightly to maintain control.
Placing Neem Tree Granules or powder on the soil or growing medium helps a lot as it creates a smell which helps disguise the smell of the plants, making it more difficult for pests to find their host plants.
An electric Insect Zapper that attracts night flying moths and beetles to the UV light for them to zapped on the high static electricity grid will also reduce you problems greatly.
Do a Google search and find a unit for about $40.00. One thing to remember they are often 230v plug in so you need to be sheltered from weather when you are playing with electricity.
Wallys Yellow Sticky White Fly Traps are also a g reat way to reduce the adult flying insect pests.
Then we have the pests that are not so noticeable such as Mealy bugs.
These white pests are like a small bit of cotton wool as seen on your plants and in particular container plants.
The adults are what you see sucking on the stems and leaves of plants and are easy to control with a spray of Wallys Super Pyrethrum but low and behold within next to no time they are back on the plant.
Why? Because the young live in the roots of the plant, also sucking goodness from the plant’s roots. They come up stairs later on which is when we see them..
So to control them in the root zone a sprinkling of Wallys Neem Tree Powder over the growing medium but not against the trunk.
It is best to give a watering over the powder then cover with some potting mix as it will go moldy as it breaks down and it does not look good.
Covered you wont see the mold.
Also making up a solution of Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil in warm water and watering that over the surface of the mix in the container maybe a better option and repeat that a few times till no more down stairs comes up stairs.
Root Nematodes are another pest we don’t see in the roots of plants but they can be there without your knowledge, even in your lawn grasses roots.
You can test for that in the lawn by applying Wallys Neem Tree Powder to a area of the lawn and watering in.
If after a few weeks that area’s grasses look better than the rest of the lawn, then yes you had root nematodes and so it would pay to treat the rest of the lawn.
Wallys Neem Tree Granules sprinkled over the soil in your gardens and in particular under your citrus trees can improve the health and vigor of your plants by the control of the pests.
Image credit: Ravi Kant
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As Wally says insects pests only feed on unhealthy plants. What he fails to mention is that they are only attracted to plants with excess nitrate in their leaves/sap. This occurs when there are insufficient minerals required to convert all the nitrate (assuming none has been applied as fertiliser) to proteins. The insects are attracted by the light reflected by the plants and the smell. So, stop applying to much nitrate, in whatever form it occurs in and start mineralising your soil. The best way is to make a high quality compost and incorporate additional minerals into it along with seaweed and animal manure.