Sustainable Pest Control for Home and Garden

Sustainable Pest Control for Home and Garden

Kathy MurrayKathy.murray@maine.gov

Maine Department of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Resources

Kathy MurrayKathy.murray@maine.gov

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