What is the most difficult pest you deal with in your garden?
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So far, so good this year. But it could change overnight. In years past, groundhogs. Even though I have a four foot high fence that's also underground 2 feet. Groundhogs can climb, and babies can fit through the small openings. Last year I had loose chickenwire attached to the top of the fence that bends outward. Supposedly this discourages them b/c they can't negotiate the bendy, loose wire. We had way too much rain this month - 9 inches in the first week of June, so that meant a bit of rot of seedlings and seeds. But it's been drier since and things have started to grow. Still, lately we get really heavy downpours instead of nice steady rains, and this is hard on the gardens. The other thing that I have never been able to deal with is the early blight on tomatoes. My garden isn't big enough to constantly rotate them, plus parts are too shady for tomatoes. I try my best with a heavy mulch of hay to prevent, as much as possible, splashing on plants from rain (the blight lives in the soil), and this year I'm also spraying with neem. We'll see what happens.
Grasshoppers by the hundreds. Itty, bitty brown ones. The cat can't eat them fast enough. No bug sprays for me; I'm working on enriching the soil of my raised planter beds. So far I'm staying on top of the tomato worm problem. I'm getting better at finding them while they are still little. I prefer to drown them in a container of water rather than stomp them.
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Ground hogs. They love watermelon plants, cucumbers and okra. Hard to trap and travel for many miles.
Big green fat tomatoes worms. They eat and eat until they're 3" long and your plants look like twig trees. You have to check the plants every morning (best to look for them by lying down under the plant and looking up). I squash them! (this gives me a little too much pleasure) Wonder if they're good as fish bait?
I have noticed that my garden has been invaded by a few gophers. They have already taken out TWO of my roma tomato plants! We do have a couple of outdoor cats..and one did catch a make a meal out of the gopher. But this morning when I went to check on my garden was when I noticed the second roma had been killed by one of these gophers. Is there a way to rid my garden of these destroyers without using poison? I wouldn't want anything to happen to our cats, and unfortunately our cats haven't been able to catch them all. So any suggestions?
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Squirrels. My garden is along a privacy fence and they crawl into garden using the fence. Any ideas on how to keep these tree rats out?
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hi i am a first year gardener...for me it was cut worm...i planted 50 bean seeds and they cut 48...so i re-planted with rings around them and most of them came up....i love all the little tricks i am learning as i go..thank you gardeners.
Try diatomaceous earth. Worked for my (not fire) ants. Make solid lines with it so they have to cross it to get where they are going.
I have chickens but need to fence around my plants so they don't dig them up or eat them!I have been having lots of grasshopppers as well..of all sizes. The only cure I have found is I let the chickens go after them
I have been very successful with lady bugs to eat the white fly. Buy them in a little box of several hundred at a garden center (Armstrong's here). Release them in early evening after 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Then when they get out of the container they don't all just fly away.
I have also tried the Veggie Gardner's organic pesticide and it seems to help too. I also have a fence around my garden so they don't dig up my plants at this time but the hoppers in our area come from the fields and hop into our yard so they're able to grab them and eat them outside of my garden area. I also have my son do a grasshopper round up and give them to the chickens while the chickens are in their coop..that method works very well plus it gives my son the chance to help out with the garden
I have never seen these before in my garden..when you find out what they are I would like to know..This lately. Have no idea what it is!
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