Nicolas Warliker offers advice and tips on how to deal with the 10 of the most common pests in your garden.
1) Slugs
The nicest way to control these is to encourage wildlife into the garden; frogs, toads, birds and hedgehogs. More uncommon are caribid beetles; these predators love to eat slugs and their eggs.
A popular method of control is to use slug pellets. Try mini pellets which are shower proof and with added animal repellent are far safer. Scatter the pellets roughly three to four inches apart for even safer application.
2)Aphides/green or black fly
There are more than 240 different types and many can have babies every six hours. A natural method of control is to encourage ladybirds, both the adults and larva. The latter can eat over 400 aphides before fully fed and ready to pupate. Another ‘goodie’ is the lacewing, whose larva are also voracious aphid eaters. Provado Ultimate Bug Killer is both a contact and systemic insecticide, so kills sap sucking insects like aphid from within as well. Avoid using on some food crops so do read the label prior to use. Py Aphid spray is an organic spray so is far safer to use, but kills pests on contact only.
3) Vine weevil
Vine weevil, at the lava stage, inhabit the soil and eat away at a plant’s roots. As adults they disfigure plants by taking horseshoe bites out of their leaves. Best control is Provado Vine Weevil Killer, which is watered into the compost. It also gives control of aphides for about four weeks. Again check to see which plants you should not apply Provado to. An organic alternative is to use Nematodes, which feed on vine weevil larva, these are microscopic bugs.
4)Lily beetle
This can destroy flowers, leaves and stems. For best results, again use the Ultimate Bug Killer (UBK) as soon as you spot the pest. Hand picking is quite effective, but beware of the lava, they have an uncomfortable habit of covering themselves with their own black excrement...rubber gloves needed.
5)Viburnum beetle
This is a fairly new but widespread pest which reduces viburnum leaves to almost lacework. Spray with UBK during the summer.
6)Red lawn ants
Perhaps one of the rather nasty pests since they can give you a nasty bite, unlike the black which do not bite. The nest is easily seen by the appearance of a small deposit of fine soil on the surface. Open the nest by driving a spade down into it and pour a proprietary Ants Nest Destroyer into the nest.
7) Leather jackets
Lava of the crane fly. Chews the roots of the grass with disastrous effect. Effective control is to moisten the area and in the evening cover with black plastic. In the morning simply uncover, sweep the area and gather up the grubs.
8) Chafer grubs
Fatter and larger than the leather jackets but can be controlled in the same way.
9) Sawflies
In the early stages, hand picking is effective, otherwise, especially on edible crops, use the safer Py Pyrethrum based spray.
10) Scale insects
Frequently, as they suck the sap, honeydew is excreted which falls into the leaves below causing sooty mould, which often can only be removed by washing the leaf. On non-edible crops use Provado UBK.