Gardening in the Pacific Northwest isn’t without it’s hosts of problems. Common garden pests such as slugs, deer, and rabbits can decimate your garden.
What are other common pests do gardeners run into and how do you deal with them?
I recently came out to my garden to find many of plants topped off, let me know what you think is the cause:
Slugs
Our first night in our new home in Washington, I stepped out onto the back deck to let Kona (our dog) out before bed. My foot came down right onto the biggest slug I had ever seen. I scrubbed my foot in the kitchen sink with dawn for a literal fifteen minutes trying to get rid of the sticky slime.
Slugs love hostas and plenty of other delicious, young green leaves. With the size of some of these beasts, they can do plenty of damage to your plants.
I quickly got a host of suggestions to keep my garden safe:
- Copper: Strip of copper lining the garden bed can help keep slug friends from climbing into your crops.
- Egg shells: Apparently, the soft bodied slugs don’t like crawling over sharp egg shells.
- Beer traps: Shallow bowls of beer, buried just below the surface, might entice a slug to drown in drunken bliss.
Deer, Raccoons, Birds, Squirrels…
The natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest also offers a habitat for plenty of creatures such as deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, among other woodland creatures.
I highly suspect that one of these friends are enjoying my new garden beds, or even birds. I’ve been many other gardens in the area with bird netting or fencing to keep these types of creatures out.
While you could use chemicals to repel animals, the safest bet for you and your crops is to build a protective barrier around you garden or beds.
Caterpillars, Leaf Miners, and Weevils
NWedible has this awesome post that explains common insect pests way better than I could.
If you see chew marks, discoloration, or other damage to your leaves, pay close attention to the pattern. Take pictures and ask around to other experienced gardeners in the area.
Gardening in other states, I often found that once these bugs found your garden, you often had to control them manually. I often had to hose down my plants to cut down on aphids, or pick and squash tomato worms. I’m not adverse to using chemical insecticides, as long as they’re safe for vegetable crops and bees. However, I’ve not found that chemicals controlled the pests completely.
Final Words
If you have any common pests that you see in your gardens, drop me a line! I’d love to hear about how you fend off your crops from these common garden pests.