Questions tagged [pest-control]
For questions about controlling garden pests. Use this tag with questions about how to keep identified pests at bay. For unidentified pests use the [pest] and [identification] tags. For questions about pesticides use the [pesticide] tag.
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How can I get rid of gophers in a non-lethal way?
Gophers or ground squirrels are common pests in North America, that can destroy the fruits of your hard labour. They create extensive underground tunnels and are mostly active at night. A typical ...
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How do I identify and control spider mites
I am looking for an extensive answer with references that:
lists many of the plants that can be attacked by spider mites
the conditions that encourage them
brief information about their lifecycle
how ...
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Insect infestation on my pepper plant, what do I do?
I have spotted that one - and only one - of my peppers plants has a number of small black flies of some type hanging around the soil. And while writing this I've just spotted that one (and only one!) ...
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How can I keep mockingbirds off potted plants (ornamental peppers)?
I have a rectangular pot on the deck full of ornamental peppers ('Poinsettia' and Chile Pequin "bird peppers"). As is typical of ornamental peppers, they're about a foot high and covered with small ...
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What is this black spotted disease on my orange tree?
Is this mushroom or animal? I can remove the black dots by slightly scratching the leaves.
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How can I prevent squirrels (or other small mammals) from eating my tomatoes?
Something has been eating my tomatoes just as they begin to ripen. Each day I've been finding one or more tomatoes half-eaten but still attached to the vine. On a couple of days I've also found bits ...
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How can I get rid of rabbits in my yard?
I have rabbits that routinely build nests in my yard. How can I get rid of the rabbits legally? I don't want some officer from the DNR knocking on my door because I improperly hunted or poisoned them.
...
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How can I remove moles from my lawn?
The pest control professional told me that there may be moles in my yard. Some parts of the lawn were torn up, especially in small areas where the lawn did not grow well and was bare. They told me ...
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What is the best organic way to defeat slugs?
Most of the seedlings I have planted out this year have been eaten by slugs within a day.
I have my final two runner bean plants that need to go out.
How can I prevent these from being the next ...
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What is the best way to prevent animals from eating my garden without a fence?
We have a raised bed garden that does well for the most part. For aesthetic purposes, my wife will not let me put a fence around the garden. Most of the veggies and herbs do well and do not get ...
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Is there any way to prevent vole lawn-destruction during snow-cover?
The open area behind our back fence is home to hundreds of voles. The hills look like this:
During the summer, I can successfully restrict their intrusion into my yard by putting poison into the ...
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How do I deal with millipedes eating my vegetable seedlings?
After cursing all the slugs in my yard and removing the few that I could catch, I was quite shocked yesterday to discover 100+ young plants all chewed to the ground.
I was going out at 9 - 10pm to ...
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Best practice to prevent aphids and spider mites?
What is the best practice to prevent aphids and spider mites? I group them in one question because they make similar damage to plants.
I want to know the level of humidity for aphids and spider mites ...
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Ants and white/gray/brown spores all over my gardenia
I planted my gardenia four or five months ago.
I noticed, recently, that (a) growth has stunted, and (b) there are ants all over the plant (base, leaves, etc.).
There are also white little dots (...
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How to keep chipmunks out of my garden?
Forget rabbits, I have a fence around the garden, my real pest problem is chipmunks. I've got a fence, with some below ground barriers, to keep larger pests out and to keep them from digging but the ...
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What is eating my vegetable seedlings?
I recently grew some lettuce and carrots from seed, but within three nights they were completely eaten.
I then used a seed growing tray and then transplanted about 40 out into the garden bed. But ...
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Can anyone identify this abnormality that is on my dwarf citrus?
I recently noticed what looks like small beetles on our dwarf citrus tree. Can anyone identify this abnormality?
Click image for full size
Is this something harmful that I should attempt to treat?
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Bay Leaf Tree (Laurus Nobilis) with severe scale
I'm new to gardening as I have just bought my first house. I inherited a very large (about 6m tall) Bay tree that is severely sick. I took a sample to my local garden center and I was told that it ...
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What is the white, powdery, substance on my hibiscus?
We live in Southwest Florida. About a month ago, or maybe a little longer, I trimmed back our hibiscus plants. Today, I just noticed this mass of white, almost powdery, substance on the branches and ...
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Tips on controlling fungus gnats
I planted some sweet potato tubers that have been growing vines for a few months now. The plant is potted in the same cactus soil I use for my cactus plant-- very high drainage-- in a tin pot with a ...
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How do you safely and effectively stop a cat from pooping in your yard?
Our neighbor's cat keeps pooping in our mulch and around our yard. Is there a safe and effective way to stop neighborhood pets from doing so? Has anyone used a method that works well?
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How do I get rid of white flies on my basil?
I've recently noticed that my basil and other herb plants are infested by tiny white flies. They spread out like snow-flakes when I spray the plants with water, and there are scary looking number of ...
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What plants will deter mosquitoes?
Does anyone have any plant recommendations that could deter mosquitoes? The location is North Texas, and I am looking for something that could be used on or around the deck. This might make the deck ...
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How do I get rid of pill bugs in my vegetable garden (or is it even the problem)?
I have had multiple plants in my vegetable garden that have seemed to just vanish from the garden over the period of about a week. I have notice pill bugs eating the remains of the plants. They seem ...
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How do I get rid of ducks from my backyard?
There are a couple of ducks in my yard (male and female). I think they have come to my backyard to make a nest. I fear that if this happens half my backyard will become off-limits due to an angry ...
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How do I prevent raccoons from eating my corn?
This harvest I was not able to pick a single corn cob. Some large animal(s), I suspect raccoons, got to them before they were ripe (I would find peeled and gnawed corn littering the lawn and the corn ...
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Do techniques to repel slugs also work on snails?
I have seen the thread on an organic way to repel slugs. However, usually I only see snails in my area. Will the techniques in the answer there work on snails too? Also,
By the way, I've never seen ...
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1
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How does vacuuming beetles work?
I've seen advice in books and online that I can deal with my striped cucumber beetle infestation by vacuuming. Unfortunately they don't get into details. I'm ready to drag the shop vac into the garden,...
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Indoor garden built in an office - little flies problem!
We built this indoor "garden" in our office as a prank for one of our employees who was out for a stint. It was only meant to be temporary, however we have all grown a liking to it.
We ended up ...
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How can I discourage venomous snakes from living in my property?
I noticed that a copperhead has made his home under my front porch. He has been spotted two days in a row, and, yesterday, I nearly stepped on him. I prefer not to mess with him as I have read that ...
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Are there any bad effects in using nematodes in pest control?
I have a pest situation on my apricot tree caused by the beetle Capnodis tenebrionis (see this question). I am averse to using chemical pesticides, and I read that nematodes can be used to control C. ...
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How can I deal with the beetles eating my grapevine?
My mother is in a furor because the grapevine that she planted last spring and which flourished last year is now infested with little black bugs. From what I can tell, they seem to be flea beetles. (...
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How are fire ants removed without endangering vegetation nearby?
My parents seem to have a large problem with fire ants in their backyard. They're more of an inconvenience than anything.
What seems to be the most effective method (chemical, or a technique based, ...
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what are effective, non-chemical, ways to control japanese beetles?
I'm beginning to see adult Japanese beetles on my dahlias and other flowers. It doesn't look like a heavy infestation but I am wondering what are some non-chemical control methods. I've read that ...
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Can anyone identify this infection with my Mango Tree?
The blisters seem to be spreading only to the older (darker, interior) leaves, and the sap is dripping out of the blisters (literally raining down)
What is this?
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Orange tree has pest or blight [duplicate]
A few leaves on my orange tree have this.
What is this?
What can I do about it?
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best control method for mealy bug on dwarf white pine
The dwarf white pine has mealy bug which hide in the bark scales as well as living on the needles. It is only five feet tall so I can reach all the branches.
Will soap and water harm the waxy ...
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What is this tiny black insect found on my cacti?
I need help identifying an insect, it is very small, not much bigger than the head of a pin, it is black. It kind of resembles a slug because it has the true small antennas.
It was originally on a ...
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What plants will keep ladybugs happy?
What plants/grasses can I plant to entice the ladybugs in my garden to stay? They are great for controlling aphids, but seem to move on pretty quickly.
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How to get rid of insects on basil while leaving the leaves safe to eat?
With reference to this question: Insect infestation on my pepper plant, what do I do?
I have these insects in my indoor "kitchen window sill" basil and they do seem to be chewing it fast enough to ...
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How do I prevent critters from chewing my sprinkler system?
I have a lot of trees in my yard...and squirrels. I'm not 100% sure the squirrels are the critters doing the damage, but it seems the most likely. My neighbor says he's seen a possum in his yard ...
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What are some good companion veggies/flowers/herbs to scare off beetles?
I've had the biggest problems with Asian Stink Bugs (an invasive species that is terrorizing the Midatlantic USA region) and Asparagus Beetles. Oddly enough the asparagus beetles (right pic) are ...
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Keeping rats from eating my plants
I have many plants in my balcony, around 20, and recently my Mom has noticed that rats are eating the plants. They finished Holy Basil in one night! All leaves are gone, even the buds. They are also ...
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How can I discourage wasps?
We built our house last fall, and I've already found one wasp next in a corner of the eaves. I know that one of our neighbors has a huge problem with wasps, and has a large amount of exterior exposed ...
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Where do Asiatic Garden Beetles spend their days?
(Asiatic Garden Beetles are a new pest in the mid-atlantic and northeast US. They look like a smaller, cinnamon-colored European Chafer, the size and shape of a coffee bean. The grubs do the usual ...
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What is happening to the leaves of my avocado?
I have an avocado plant in my outdoors balcony. It's been growing nicely, but there are small brown dots/holes in the leaves for some time now. I don't see anything in the underside of the leaves, and ...
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Is it too late for row cover to help with insects?
Last year I used row covers on PVC frames to effectively keep cabbage worms off my broccoli and cabbage. I put the covers on in spring as soon as I put the seedlings in the ground, and then took them ...
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Are woodlice eating my carrots?
I lifted some carrots this evening. It being December these are carrots which have been in the ground some time. They're big and fat, they need cleaning up and the damage needs cutting out, but ...
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Killing fruit flies without pesticides?
We currently have bowls of apple-cider vinegar set out, and the flies are definitely attracted to them but very few are actually ending up IN the vinegar. Mostly they are just sitting on the bowl.
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How do I get rid of lawn grubs?
My lawn is progressively getting worse every year.
I've got large bare patches that just won't take seed, and in the spring and fall I've got racoons and skunks digging up grubs. There is also a ...
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