Pest Prevention in your garden
Posted by RS Landscape
Late Summer Pests
August is definitely the time to focus on pest prevention in your garden. Pests, such as mildew, aphids, and slugs can ruin all the hard work you have done in your garden this spring and summer. There are concrete ways you can limit or eliminate these summer pests before they destroy your garden.
When you think of mildew you often imagine a cool and or damp scenario supporting it. However, when warm, dry weather hits in August it fosters the development of powdery mildew. This is a white coating on stems and leaves of plants. Take time to inspect each of your plants and look for the mildew. If you see any mildew you can apply a fungicide to take care of the powdery mildew. If you don’t see mildew, congratulations! Even if you don’t see any mildew consider applying a preventative fungicide spray to help keep your plants happy.
An aphid army may also be waiting for you in the garden. Aphids are persistent, but they can be controlled if you take the time to squish them by hand. If this seems like a lot of work, it is. Consider having the lawn care experts at R & S Lawn Service apply a suitable pesticide to eliminate the need to spend so much time personally eliminating these garden pests.
Finally, if August has brought some rain you are keeping your eyes out for slug damage. The greener and more full the foliage is the more likely you are to find slugs. The good news is that there are a variety of ways to get rid of these pests without resorting to pellets. Encourage the slug’s predators to visit your garden. A little seed encourages birds to visit and they love to eat slugs. If you’re worried about the birds not getting enough of the slugs consider putting down slate or wood pieces in your border. The slugs will climb under them making it easy for you to flip the boards and create a smorgasbord for the local birds!
Just don’t feel like doing it? No problem, the lawn care professionals at R & S Lawn Service will be happy to help you keep your garden pest free this summer into the fall!