Dealing With Garden Pests

Whether it’s a cute bunny, a hungry deer, ornery squirrels or bad bugs, dealing with pests in the garden is just part of gardening. And, often a very frustrating part of gardening! Over my many years of gardening I have dealt with many types of pests and while there are many, many remedies out there in cyberspace, I will share what has worked for me without using a bunch of chemicals.

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How to Keep Deer and Rabbits Out of the Garden

 At our last home, we were a few blocks over from a wildlife preserve, and when the deer ran out of things to eat there, or got bored with the menu, they paid a visit to my gardens. All it took was a visit from one deer, and then every night there would be two or more coming to dine. They weren’t really scared of humans either. Even the headlights from our car pulling into the driveway would not deter them. They would look up as if to greet us and then continue their feast. We had motion sensor lights in our backyard, but they became accustomed to those. I knew then if I wanted to protect my gardens, I was going to have to learn how to deal with garden pests.

The first thing we did was fence in our raised vegetable beds. We didn’t do anything fancy and it wasn’t at all attractive, but once the vegetables grew and filled in, the fence wasn’t all that noticeable. If you do fencing, be sure the bottom of the fencing is small enough so that baby bunnies can’t sneak through… speaking from experience.

I knew I wasn’t going to fence in my entire yard, or my individual flower gardens, so I had to come up with an arsenal against the deer and rabbits that were feasting on my veritable smorgasbord.

This is very important, deterrents must be used starting very early in the spring just as soon as you see little buds popping out of the ground. After a long winter, wildlife are starving and looking for just about anything green. Be especially vigilant with tulips, lilies, liatris, bachelor’s buttons, black-eyed Susan and many other delicious perennials.

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Products That Work To Keep Garden Pests (Wildlife) From Eating Your Plants

Here’s the thing with rabbits and deer, they become accustomed to smells and tastes, and their taste buds will adapt to yucky tasting plants. That means you’ve got to change things up, or use multiple deterrents. I had the best luck using Milorganite, and alternating Liquid Fence and Deer Off.  

• Milorganite is actually an organic fertilizer made from dried sewage. I know it sounds pretty gross, but it works. If you get it on grass, it will turn it a rich, deep green. It is also the cheapest deterrent out there. I’m sharing my Amazon Affiliate link, but I think you can probably get this product cheaper at your local big box store. It’s usually with the lawn fertilizers. I would simply use a funnel and create a line on top of the mulch around all my flower beds.

• Liquid Fence is a nasty concoction made with rotten eggs, garlic and other crud that critters don’t care for. I need to warn you that it STINKS, and that is putting it mildly.  The smell does dissipate, but the taste does not. It does have a wax product in it that makes it stick to the plant through rain. If you don’t shake the bottle really well, once it has dried on the plant, the wax will leave cloudy white spots on the foliage. Also, the product label states that it’s effective for 3 months, but I don’t find that to be the case and I usually reapply it after a heavy rain. That being said, the white spots on the leaves and the need to reapply still make the cost of this product and the hassle of using it totally worth it, because it works!

• Deer Off is also made with rotten eggs and garlic, but it’s seasoned with hot pepper, which is apparently off putting to deer, rabbits and squirrels.

So by using Milorganite and alternating Liquid Fence and Deer Off, I am able to keep deer and rabbit damage to a minimum.

Other Ways to Protect Plants From Deer & Rabbits

I also used these stake things filled with some sort of nastiness in my hosta beds and they seemed to work really well for our summer growing season. A few seasons I also shredded bars of Irish Spring soap and sprinkled it around my hostas. Although I loved the smell, I decided I liked it better on my man. I’m also not sure what effect Irish Spring soap has on the soil. I’ve also seen gardeners put the soap in mesh bags and hang them in the garden.

Add cloches or cylinder-type fences around plants that you know rabbits will eat, like tulips or lilies. I made up a bunch of cylinder fences out of this type of fencing and they work really well.

This is the one thing that I have found to protect plants from baby bunnies. They are so cute, but baby bunnies will eat anything no matter what you put on it. 

Plants that are Deer & Rabbit Resistant

If you’re in an area where you have lots of wildlife in your yard, there are many perennials that deer and rabbits don’t particularly care for. I put together a list of 30+ Rabbit & Deer Resistant Perennials that is available in the Gardening Resources Library. The list is divided by Shade/Part Shade Plants and Sun/Part Sun Plants. I would also recommend doing a little research on perennials that are deer and rabbit resistant in your gardening zone. By taking just a few minutes, you’ll be able to come up with a good list of plants to try.

Tips for Keeping Squirrels from Digging In Your Garden

Squirrels are my garden nemesis now. I don’t mind if they dig in the lawn, but not my gardens or my planters. Squirrels also love to eat some flowers. They’ve eaten my gazanias for the past 3 summers. No matter where I put them, the squirrels will find a way to get to them and eat them. I’ve read that the product Plantskydd works well to keep squirrels away, as well as other garden critters.

I’ve also heard that cinnamon will deter squirrels. I tried it in my planters and yes it keeps the little brats out, but you have to keep up reapplying it. However, but I can’t visualize sprinkling it all around my entire gardens. Have you had success keeping squirrels from digging in your gardens? If so, would you please leave a comment and let us know your secrets. 

Dealing With Garden Pests – Controlling Bad Bugs in the Garden

I’m not really all that keen on using pesticides, especially on vegetables. I also like bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators in my gardens and pesticides are indiscriminate about what bug they are killing. If you feel you must use pesticides, at least try organic first.

Diatomaceous Earth is a product that is made from fossilized aquatic organisms and the food grade is supposed to be safe for humans to consume. It has many uses, but we are only interested in what it does to bugs. Basically it binds to bugs, dries them out and kills them. Again, as with any pesticide, it will kill all bugs, the good and the bad. I haven’t used Diatomaceous Earth on flowers or vegetable plants, but I did purchase some to use on Japanese beetles that eat Virginia creeper. Virginia creeper is an invasive plant and deserves to be eaten, but if those Japanese beetles are left alone, they will just keep multiplying. I recommend this duster thingy for applying Diatomaceous Earth otherwise it blows all over and it will kill other insects that it comes in contact with.

This year I’m going to try some netting and row covers in my vegetable gardens to control cabbage moth and other things that chomp on my broccoli and cabbage. I don’t recommend using row covers on plants that need pollination. Flowering vegetables like squash, tomatoes, melons and many others need to be pollinated before they can form the vegetable.

The Truth About Natural Pest Remedies

Beware of all the so-called organic or natural bug remedies out there. Just because someone calls something organic doesn’t mean it’s organic. Case in point- Dawn dish soap recipes to kill bugs and weeds is NOT organic or natural. Read the label on a bottle of Dawn and you’ll find there’s nothing organic about it. However, if I can kill bugs with Dawn soap, I will choose that over chemical sprays that harm good bugs that are in the vicinity of where I’m spraying.  

We have a terrible time with box elder bugs and Dawn soap and water kills them, so that’s what we use. Is it organic, probably not. Also a good point to make when using Dawn soap and most insecticidal soap sprays, the liquid must come in contact with the bug, because the sprays have little or no residual effect.

Insecticidal soap sprays or dish soap mixed with water do work to control and get rid of soft shelled bugs and larvae like aphids and sawfly larvae.

How to Get Rid of Slugs in Your Gardens

I hate slugs! I can have the prettiest bed of hostas and by the end of summer the plants can be riddled with slug damage. I’ve tried beer traps, but apparently the slugs in my garden didn’t like my son-in-law’s cheap beer. I’ve tried crunched up egg shells and the slugs laughed at me. The only thing I’ve tried that truly works is a product called Sluggo. I sprinkle it around the base of my hosta plants in the spring when they are first emerging and again around the beginning of July. If I’m diligent and do both treatments, I will see very little slug damage, if any at all, in my hosta beds. If you have problems with slugs, I highly recommend Sluggo. Best part Sluggo is an organic product.

A Few More Practical Tips For Being Pesticide Free In Your Gardens

Be willing to hand pick pests like Japanese beetles and other beetles. I take a bucket of hot, soapy water and a long handled spoon out to the garden and use the spoon to knock the nasty bugs into the bucket of soapy water. Do this in the morning and not in the afternoon. Trust me, you’ll only try it in the afternoon once and after you get dive bombed by Japanese beetles you’ll remember morning is best. If you don’t have to contend with Japanese beetles, just count your blessings.

Be okay with other bugs that have a short life span. For instance, four-lined plant bug is such a nuisance in my gardens in the spring. They don’t damage flowers, but they suck the sap out of leaves and the leaves end up with tiny brown spots covering them. I choose to ignore the little jerks because they don’t really harm the plant. Once they’ve moved on for the season, I just give the plant a little haircut.

After a reader left a comment on one of my posts about the importance of bats to control insects, I did a little reading up on them. They aren’t as creepy as I first thought. I’m going to look into it a little more, but I’m seriously considering adding one of these bat houses to my back fence.

Other Articles You Might Enjoy:

How to Grow a Cutting Garden
Essential Gardening Tools
Creating and Caring For A Low Maintenance Flower Garden
14 Plants You Don’t Want In Your Garden
How to Attract Pollinators to Your Garden

Thanks for stopping by Gingham Gardens today! I hope my tips for Dealing With Garden Pests will help you conquer the pests in your gardens. If you have questions, or additional tips, please leave a comment below. I love hearing from other gardeners and I like to help when I can. Stop by again soon!

Happy gardening,

Joanna

p.s. Go ahead and feel free to “pin” these pictures. If you hover in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, you’ll see the little Pinterest icon. Just click it and pin away. There are also pins to share at the bottom of the page. Thanks a bunch!

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