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Transcript of Sustainable Pest Control for Home and Garden Kathy Murray [email protected] Maine Department of...
Sustainable Pest Control for Home and Garden
Sustainable Pest Control for Home and Garden
Kathy [email protected]
Maine Department of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Resources
Kathy [email protected]
Maine Department of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Resources
Got Pests?
Viburnum Leaf Beetle
Lily Leaf Beetle
Japanese Beetle
White Grubs
Use IPM!Integrated Pest Management
• Monitor for pests and ‘pest-conducive’ conditions
• Prevent Pests: Use sanitation, maintenance and good horticultural practices
• Determine your Threshold: Is it really a pest? How many is too many?
• Use multiple pest control methods that eliminate pest access to food, water, shelter.
• Keep records: use a garden notebook
Elements of Garden IPM• Know your enemy. Identify pests and good
bugs. • Send samples to UM Pest
Management Office or local Extension office for ID.
• Visit www.GotPests.org or Bugguide.net or other websites to ID pests and learn their food, water, shelter requirements
• Avoid pests– Use barriers (such as row covers, fence,
bird netting)– Rotate crop families to new areas yearly
Elements of Garden IPM
• Use Good horticultural practices– Select right plants for right places– Choose pest-resistant, disease-resistant cultivars– Provide plants with optimal plant nutrition, right
amt of water, optimal plant spacing.• Protect and Encourage Natural Enemies
– Spare the (pesticide) sprays– Diverse plantings including season-long
offering of plants with flat, open flowers to provide nectar for small beneficial insects.
Physical IPM Methods
• Mulching – Can suppress weeds, conserve
moisture, provide habitat for natural enemies
– pull mulch away from the trunk to decrease pest/ disease potential
• Sanitation – Rake leaves to reduce disease
– Prune away diseased plant tissue
Physical Methods
• Exclusion by screens, barriers (example: bird netting, row covers)
• Pruning infested/infected plants
• Physical removal. (example: hand-pick bugs!)
Know your (Natural) Enemies
Lady bug larva. Eats aphids!
Use GotPests website to ID beneficial insects
Spare the Sprays to Protect Beneficial Insects
•Dragonflies
•Spiders
•Small parasitic wasps
•Predatory mites
•Syrphid flies
•Ground beetles
Common Garden Pests and Solutions
Striped cucumber beetle• Transplant cukes, squash,
zucchini, pumpkins instead of direct seed
• Cover with spun-bonded row cover (example Remay, Typar) until flowering.
Lily Leaf Beetle
• Plant daylilies instead of true lilies
• Hand pick beetles and larvae. Squish eggs.
• Space plantings to allow good sunlight penetration.
• Least-risk pesticide: neem (example Neemix, Bioneem) if needed.
Japanese Beetle
• Select non-preferred shrubs and trees (avoid linden, roses, crabapples, grapes, raspberries)
• Hand-pick beetles (but leave the parasitized beetles)
• Cover susceptible plants with protective netting
• Grub Control: Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Hb) nematodes. purchase on-line, water them in.
• Avoid Japanese beetle traps
Note: Winsome fly eggs. This beetle has been attacked by a natural enemy!
Biological IPM Methods Rely on Natural Enemies
Winsome Fly: natural enemy of Japanese Beetle
Winsome fly eggs
Paper and Straw Mulch
• Suppresses Weeds
• Provides Habitat for Natural Enemies
•Keeps Soil from Drying Out
Slugs and Snails•Control weeds•Keep grass mown low or
consider gravel strip around gardens
•Traps (beer cups or wooden boards)
•Copper foil ribbon around raised beds or pots.
Diseases• Select resistant varieties• Select good site (water drainage,
good soil, full sun, air movement)• Maintain good plant spacing• Mulch prevents rain-splash of soil-
borne diseases• ‘Rogue-out’ diseased plants• Ensure plants get the right
amount of sun, water, and nutrition.
Avoid Late Blight– Plant only certified potato seed– Destroy any volunteer potatoes– Plant only healthy tomato
seedlings– Bag infected plants. Have
disease confirmed by Extension. Dispose of infected plant tissue. Don’t compost
What about Indoor Pests?• Prevent Pests
– Sanitation: don’t give pests food, water
– Keep them out: repair screens, doors, cracks, crevices
• Remove Pests– Vacuum, wash, comb, discard
• Use Physical Control Methods– heat or freeze infested materials– swat them!– Use traps (flies, mice, moths)
Fleas• Treat the pet!
– Bathe it and flea-comb often• Vacuum a lot. Rugs,
upholstered furniture, floors. Put vacuum bag in freezer after each use.
• Launder pet bedding• Spot-on pet treatments (eg
Frontline) are safer than flea powders, shampoos, sprays, bombs.
Mice
• Keep food (human, pet, bird) in pest-proof container.
• Empty garbage/compost daily. Use pest-proof garbage cans.
• Seal cracks in foundation, exterior walls, under doors, etc
• Trap them out
Bed Bugs• When Travelling
– Inspect hotel bed. Look for blackish spots and/or reddish-brown bugs (poppy-seed to apple-seed sized) along mattress seams.
– Don’t put suitcase on bed or floor. Inspect suitcase upon return home. Look in crevices/seams/pockets for bugs.
• Avoid second-hand furniture.
• Home Infestation– Systematically search and vacuum every
crack/crevice/seam in bedroom. Eggs don’t vacuum - scrape them up. Steam-clean carpet.
– Seal mattress in zippered bedbug-proof mattress cover. Place traps under bed legs.
– Hire reputable pest control company to inspect and treat (some use trained dogs and heat treatment instead of pesticides).
• Find resources at www.gotpests.org
Bed Bug Interceptor under bed legs
Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ant-damaged wood
• Locate Nests: Look for course sawdust next to wood, or oval holes about 1/8” wide, or put out food (try a milk/sugar paste) and follow them to nest or entry sites.
• Locate and seal ant entry sites such as gaps under doors or around windows and cracks in the foundation.
• Clean up and seal up food that attracts ants.
• Do carpentry to remove ant-infested wood.
• Ant baits such as those containing liquid borax or boric acid, placed near indoor ant activity is often effective.
ResourcesMaine Dept Agriculture: Gotpests.org
UMaine Extension: http://pmo.umext.maine.edu/homeowner/
• County Extension Office
National Pesticide Information Center