Dealing with Garden Pests

Pests can be described as those creatures that harm your garden plants and they can quickly cause a great deal of damage.  There is a huge army of pests, but most organic gardeners are unlikely to encounter the majority of them.  A basic knowledge of the most common types that are found in our domestic gardens is all that you should need to be familiar with in order to protect your plants and guarantee their health and successful growth.

Deciding whether a pest is a problem or not is very much a matter of opinion.  Commercial growers assess the importance of a pest in terms of their financial losses.  Domestic organic gardeners, however, tend to grow fewer plants or crops and mainly grow these for their beauty or for the pleasure of growing home-grown produce.  The decision on whether a pest is a problem will depend on the circumstances and experience of individual gardeners.  All organic gardeners must be willing to accept a certain number of pests in their garden as these form part of the intricate food webs that result in natural control.  If there are no pests, then the animals that eat them will disappear and open the door to future, potentially serious pest outbreaks.

It is important that you are accurately able to identify a pest that has been attacking your plants so that you can take the appropriate action.  Just because an insect is seen walking on an affected plant does not mean that it is the one causing the damage.  The only real way to control pests involves getting to know them.  Many pests produce characteristic symptoms that make it possible to diagnose the cause with relative certainty.  Some have a wide range of host plants, and symptoms may not always be as obvious on all affected plants.  Close examination may be necessary for the final diagnosis.  With careful observation and experience, it is possible to keep one step ahead of the pests in your garden.

It is important to control pests before they become a problem.  A single black bean aphid that lands on a broad bean at the start of the summer could turn into several hundred million aphids by the start of autumn.  Fortunately there are many predators that will eat the aphids.  Pests can cause a lot of damage in just a few day and therefore early action is essential if you want to save your plants.  Organic gardenrs must employ a full range of control measures to ensure their plants survive their seasonal invasion, including cultural practices (crop rotation, good hygene and encouraging biodiversity), physical controls (hand picking, traps, repellents and barriers) and biological control (using other animals that naturally eat pests).

It is worth pointing out that we tend to be unduly concerned with pests damaging our plants.  Supermarkets have conditioned us to expect blemish-free produce.  We need to judge the overall health of a plant rather than react when we see a pest.  If there were no pests in the garden, then there would be no predators.  Everything, even pests have their place, they all add to the interest and diversity that is the most unique quality of an organic garden.