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Perhaps the first question to ask is "Is this property suitable for frogs?" and following on from that "If it is, why are there not frogs here already?"
I have many, many frogs on my property since I am close to a wetland, so their noise in Spring is quite loud. There are also many snakes here which like to have frogs for lunch, but there ...
13
You've got a bad infestation of fig wax scale. The ants are there for the honeydew, and are ant-farming.
You want to get rid of the scale, they're basically living off of your plant, using up resources. If it's a small plant, you can use a pen or other pointy thing and pop as many off as you can, onto a small drop-cloth, to be destroyed. The rest can be ...
13
They look to be aphids. You can squish them with a pinch of your thumb and forefinger (you do not need to squeeze so hard as to crush the leaf). Repeat every time you see them, until you don't see them anymore.
They are also easily jetted off with a spray from a garden hose, but I doubt you want to do this with an indoor plant. Most insecticides, including ...
13
30 cm is absolutely not deep enough to deter the rats. They easily dig that deep to get to food. Regular Chicken Wire is neither strong enough or is woven small enough to keep them out. Try to google "Rat Mesh", and you will find wire mesh made for keeping rats out.
Take it seriously, you do NOT want rats near your house.
12
It appears that earthworms will not be harmed by it. "Diatomaceous Earth will not harm warm-blooded animals or earthworms
Earthworm farmers use it to treat their worm beds for parasites, fungus gnat larva etc. Earth worms are structurally different from insects in that they can actually digest particles of DE. The particles are then eliminated in their ...
12
Many people plant marigolds (Calendula officinalis, not the French marigold, Tagetes) as a 'trap' crop, but the 'trap' attracts aphids, particularly blackfly. The theory is, if the blackfly inhabit the marigolds, they won't inhabit your roses or whatever it is you're trying to protect.
In my experience, blackfly do love marigolds - not quite as much as they ...
12
I'd be very surprised if its actually rats eating your plants - rats will eat almost anything, but plants would be the last thing on the list, unless its a fruiting vegetable plant such as corn. You may have rats coming to check out the balcony, especially if, at any time, you've eaten out there or left other foodstuffs lying around, including things like ...
11
Snakes generally hang out where they can find food and shelter. To discourage them, you need to remove both incentives. Blocking out the porch is a good first step. You also need to remove any brush or wood piles, or anything in the yard that looks like a home to a snake. If you have a fence, keeping the grass cut short around it is a good idea. If you ...
11
How to check for spider mites.
Spider mites live on the underside of leaves, and are reddish brown or pale in color, oval-shaped, and very small.
Obvious signs of infection are white webbing, yellow blotches on leaves, and even silver or bronze streaks. If an infection gets particularly bad, leaves can start falling off.
To confirm an infection, take a leaf ...
10
Spiders eat meat (bugs), hence the web to trap them, and have no interest in eating plants. If you're seeing spiders, you probably have bugs that they're eating. If you remove the spiders, the bugs are free to eat the plants unencumbered. I would leave them. The caveat to this would be if the spider is a black widow, though its hard to imagine a black ...
10
Most spiders are friends to your garden, they eat insects, likely including pests you want gone. I can think of one true spider that you might not want getting cozy in your garden. Meet the Brown Recluse:
That darker brown fiddle-shaped marking on the head is suggestive of the species. Their eyes are more distinctive, one pair at the center, two pairs to ...
10
I haven't done specific research, but am happy to provide you with my personal experience.
Every year I grow many varieties of marigolds and they're always among the least bothered in my garden. Animals who eat annuals and perennials planted alongside my marigolds almost always completely ignore them. Those include chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, and larger ...
answered Apr 4 '16 at 21:39
Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
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10
Since woodpeckers don't eat wood, concentrate on killing the insects that the woodpeckers are actually eating (rather than "keeping the woodpeckers away" by some means other than removing their food source.) Though if the tree is as described, I'd also suggest taking scions to graft to new rootstocks as it may be in serious trouble and at least that way you'...
10
I've had rats living in my allotment compost bins for years; we try to ignore each other. My bin is made of pallets so is hard to make rat-proof. A plastic bin should be more secure, except for the open bottom - the obvious weak point for rats to enter. I don't know if 30cm is deep enough to deter rats, they're tenacious little sods. Personally, I'd be ...
9
Mantids are not spectacular for pest control because they're very indiscriminate in choosing their prey. They readily attack other beneficial insects as well as harmful or pest insects.
I always get a few each year, usually around something that is blooming. In my area, they like to sit and wait for pollinators.
They like to attack larger prey and tend to ...
9
Those are grubs. There are a lot of kinds of grubs, though, and they look so similar, you often can only tell them apart by their rear ends (seriously, see below)
They feed on roots (usually turf, but also trees, perennials, and other plants) as larvae, and then emerge from the ground as beetles, which feed on the leaves. I think they might be masked chafer ...
9
Spiders in the garden are total GOOD GUYS. The amount of insects they control is wonderful!! They will not bother you! Now Tagenaria aggrestice or the Hobo Spider, Aggressive House Spider, Wolf Spiders...Brown Recluse you DON'T WANT in your home. If they bite you you will probably need antibiotics or the necrosis could turn into gangrene. Not cool ...
9
Agreed, its an aphid infestation, specifically what's known as Oleander Aphid, which affects plants in the Apocynaceae family (which Adenium belongs to) as well as Asclepiadaceae - more info in the link below, if you really want to know about it in detail, but if you've got neem or horticultural oil as a spray, that should work in getting rid of them. I ...
9
Your Pokemons are waxy scale, or coccidae. Your description in the comments above is spot on: another name is "tortoise scale".
The Florida wax scale (Ceroplastes floridensis) looks quite similar, but I wouldn't venture a definitive id based on a few photos, Ceroplastes japonicus (pictures) is another possible candidate, and there are more Ceroplastes.
As ...
8
Hand picking them at night is a great way to get a large population under control. After you have reduced their numbers you could try a few things.
If you have mulch around your plants you may want to move it back away from the plant stems. Mulch is a great hiding place for slugs.
They do not like to go over any rough material so spreading some ...
8
You can't avoid bugs in compost. They're an important part of the process but there are a few things you can do.
If you do passive, cold composting, where you just throw in material and let things decay on their own over the course of months then you'll have an environment that is better for bugs. You can still do some things to deter nuisance bugs such as ...
8
I'm going to guess fungus gnats because I always think tiny black bodied winged bugs are fungus gnats but in this case I think I'm right. :)
It looks like you have the plants in containers. Is that how you purchased them or did you pot them yourself? I had purchased a bag of organic potting mix once that was infested with fungus gnat eggs. Once I watered it ...
8
Marigolds will keep some animals away - works best on insects. Some people say marigolds will keep cats out of a bed, but I have had some feral cats that hadn't read this and they went in the beds and did their thing where the marigolds were. Marigolds will keep nematodes away from the members of the Solanacea family - tomatoes, peppers, petunias, tobacco, ...
8
On the assumption you mean plants suitable for pots outdoors, lemon scented plants such as Citronella and Lemon Balm are good. Plants offered for sale under the name citronella vary - the one to look for is Cymbopogon nardus, or Citronella winterianus. Cymbopogon does not like cold temperatures, and should be fine with your climate, but regular (possibly ...
8
My guess is for moles and other critters. If it is true your neighbor wanted no mounds, trees, or other deformities in her lawn, she may have been preventing critters from digging into the yard. So she buried chicken wire to keep moles, rabbits, etc from digging into the lawn.
It's hard to determine her rationale. On the other hand she was maybe ...
8
I had an idea that planting lots of crocus in the back yard lawn would look beautiful in spring. The local squirrels and chipmunks agreed that this was a wonderful idea and as soon as I planted a bulb they were digging it up behind me.
I was putting sod down in an area of the backyard so I got the idea of a permanent solution. After removing the dead grass ...
8
It's the surface tension in your current setup that keeps the fruit flies safe. Even if they decide to party on the vinegar, they can simply fly away again and take a nice break elsewhere.
But your trap becomes a real trap if you add a tiny drop of dishwashing soap: they can no longer walk on the vinegar, but sink and drown.
Using this method, you can use ...
8
We make a simple paper funnel by just rolling a sheet of paper into a cone and stapling or taping it. Then we make sure there's a small opening at the bottom. We put this into a tall glass that has a little juice or wine in it - even a little bit of chopped up fruit sometimes. This works marvelously.
Also, check your drains. Fruit flies breed in a biofilm. ...
8
Be careful to only pick native species.
If you want to introduce toads into your garden for pest control, I have one word of warning for you: make sure to only use a species of toad native to the area you live in.
In Australia, in the 1930s, someone had a very similar idea to you, and they decided to import some South American toads, in the hopes that they ...
7
I have also had a big problem with pill bugs eating my plants. They have really been feasting on my beans and I have photos to prove it. What I found worked was sinking a little cup or can into the ground so that the top of the can is ground level and filling it with beer. The bugs are attracted to the beer and fall in. That really seemed to help control ...
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