Get Rid of Garden Plants Bugs and Diseases part 2

For a lazy gardener’s attack against root knot nematodes (most prevalent in the South), plant lots of French marigolds, whose roots exude a repellent, and keep the soil extra high in organic matter. Beneficial fungi that grow in decomposing humus keep these pests under control.

Hill earth over carrots to prevent a pesky fly from laying eggs in the top of the carrot root.

Let us have light — and scare away the aphids, which are accustomed to the cool, dark undersides of leaves. Spread a square of aluminum foil under affected plants. Supposedly, the aphids are confused by the increased light and leave. Do this around squash plants, too, to repel the squash bug. If you don’t get rid of the bugs, the foil will at least act as mulch to smother weeds and will bounce more light on crops that need much sun.

If green lacewings invade your garden, do nothing but welcome them. Their larvae are death to aphids.

Know and control your soil’s pH. Keep it sweet — almost at 7.0 — and you’ll discourage club root disease in cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and the rest of the brassicas. Keep scab off potatoes with an acid soil — below 5, or an alkaline soil — 7 or above. Scab is worst when the pH is around 6.

Plant white radishes with cucumbers to deter cucumber beetles.

Sayonara, Japanese Beetles

Hire your children to save the garden from Japanese beetles. Pay them a penny a bug. In the evening, when the beetles won’t fly away, the kids can tiptoe along and brush them from plant foliage into jars of kerosene. Bet they won’t even be able to count their catch! Meanwhile, you can relax with a long novel or take in the evening news.

If Japanese beetle grubs are destroying your lawn, introduce milky spore disease, a microbial attack against the larval form of this insect. A little energy invested this year is well spent. Put a teaspoon in the ground every three feet for several years’ protection. It’s death to the grubs, but leaves the earthworm population untouched.

Cheer when you see little round nose-holes in your lawn. They’re a sign the resident skunk has been feasting at night, ferretting out grubs. What could be better than volunteer pest control while you sleep?

Let a bug trap do all the work for you. It entices Japanese beetles with a female sex scent combined with a floral lure. Victims are trapped in a bag and die inside from sun’s heat. Replace the bag when it’s full. One trap services 5,000 square feet. Be sure to hang it thirty feet downwind of plants you want to protect. If you set it near the plants, it will attract beetles to them.

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