Proven Methods To Keep Pests Out Of Your Garden

Both insect pests and animal pests aren’t much of a hassle until they start infesting and ruining your beautiful garden.

Trust me, you wouldn’t want to keep them around.

The longer they stay, the more they grow in number, the greater damage, and harm they can cause.

No worries, because we’re here to help and give some advice!

Visual And Auditory Devices

These scare and alarm animal pests instead of blocking or killing them.

For the auditory devices, you can put up noisemakers that trigger their senses and make them flee away from your garden. If you don’t want your garden to be noisy all day, you can get an ultrasonic option, these detect pest movement first, then release alarming noises.

Visual devices include motion-activated water sprayers, reflective tape, and fake predators that are either made of metal, stone, or plastic.

It’s important to remember that pests will eventually get immune to these devices as they get more and more familiar with their triggers.

Repellents

Repellents are super effective, but they need to be reapplied periodically to remain effective.

Boric Acid Powder

The boric acid powder is ideal for household pests like termites and ants. This is a highly toxic stomach poison for them, but less toxic to humans and pets.

All you need to do is sprinkle this around your garden and it’ll stick to the pest’s tiny legs, and when they come back to their colony, they’ll end up poisoning each other when they interact.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are for ants, they despise the taste of this fruit.

This is not only an effective repellent against colonies of ants but also the most organic one.

Neem Oil

Neem oil is a vegetable oil you mix two tablespoons of in a gallon of water. Once mixed thoroughly, you can spray it all over your garden.

This simple solution can kill a number of mosquitos, aphids, and many more insect pests.

Aromatic Herbs

There are numerous herbs that double as insecticides. Herbs like citronella, spearmint, peppermint, basil, and lemongrass work specifically against garden pests.

Herbs can also attract predators that’ll munch on your pests.

Insecticidal Soap

This might just be the most brutal repellent you’ll encounter.

It is considered “brutal” as this deterrent contains fatty acids that penetrate insects and causes their cells to collapse. It is pretty much a slow and painful death for pests.

Applying these only work on young and soft-bodied insects like aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, and more. It does no harm to ladybugs and other beneficial insects.

The main reason why this insecticide isn’t often used is that it requires it to be applied directly to insects. And the only easy way to do that is to lightly soak your entire garden, meaning you’ll need a lot of it.

Barriers

If you’re not really a fan of insecticides, you can always use physical barriers in between your garden and the pests. This only prevents the pests from accessing your garden instead of killing them as insecticides do.

Floating Row Covers

These are spun-bound fabrics that are very light. You can place them on top of your plants, staple them on your fence posts or on wire hoops around your garden.

Make sure to pin its sides securely to the ground, some pests crawl under the edges!

When your plants bloom and produce flowers, it’s a good idea to remove them and allow pollinators to access the fresh nectar.

Soft Polyethylene Mesh

Soft polyethylene Mesh is a temporary solution to pests. Some pests only appear depending on the season, so you can easily put this up and take it down when necessary.

It is way softer and more flexible than other net meshes and more durable in extremely low temperatures, they do not crack at all.

Invite Beneficial Animals And Insects

This might just be the most ironic solution to your garden issue. To get rid of some pests, you need to invite some of them too!

Not all pests affect your garden negatively, some of them are actually safer and more efficient than chemicals and other repellents.

Inviting them around isn’t really the toughest task, keeping them around is.

I’m sure any insect or animal would love to stay over if there are a sustainable food supply and shelter around, but what happens when they’ve finished all of the pests?

Toads And Frogs

Both toads and frogs are very effective in clearing up pests as digesting them give them enough protein to survive.

They are also the cheapest and easiest to invite.

All you need is a bowl of water!

For the extra effort, you can also put out a toad house and check every once in a while if any of them resides.

Birds

Most of us wouldn’t want birds in our garden since they’re known to munch on fruits. But if you think about it, having your fruits nibbled on is better than having your entire garden infested with pests.

These birds love to eat insects for protein.

To invite them, all you need are two things, a birdbath, and a feeder. Any bird would be grateful for a fresh source of water and nectar!

Make sure to position these feeders and baths in a covered area, it’s not really their thing to feed and bathe in the open where they’re easily exposed to predators.

Spiders

Spiders are known for eating various insects, in fact, it’s almost the only thing they eat. Some spiders use webs to catch their prey, and some hunt them down.

You can attract them to stay in your garden with specific plants. Arthropods see plants as a safe space to weave their webs, lay their eggs, and enjoy their prey.

These plants can either be in a closed location that is not far from the ground like petunias and sweet alyssums or high up the ground and often reached by sunlight like tall irises and blackberries.

Tiny Bugs

Bugs such as lacewings, parasitic wasps, minute pirate bugs, and especially ladybugs are extremely beneficial to your garden. They eat protein-rich pests or use them to develop their young.

The best bug you could invite to come over would be ladybugs. Not only do they consume a massive amount of soft-bodied insects, but they also do no harm to your precious garden.

These bugs only want one thing if not for pests, and that is carbohydrate-rich nectar. Flowers like cosmos, marigolds, fennel, and sunflowers are a good choice!

Conclusion

Not all pests are harmful to your garden, so it is important to identify them first before taking action.

Also, think about whether these pests need immediate killing. Maybe they could do with some scaring away or some blocking anyway. Poisoning isn’t always the best choice, especially since some of these are chemical-based.