|
|
Perennials
|
 |
|||
| We said earlier that a healthy garden is teeming with life, and this includes a variety of insects as well as fungi and other microorganisms. These may even include some "pest" organisms -- insects or fungi that attack your prized perennials. Managing garden pests, then, is different than eradicating them. The term Integrated Pest Management describes a philosophy of pest control in which pests are managed, not eradicated. IPM practitioners follow a series of steps to evaluate pest damage and promote a healthy garden environment. Let’s look at some of these steps. Identify the pest. Before spraying or taking any other pest control steps, you need to identify what, if any, organism is causing the problem. Monitor plants. Then determine what amount of damage is acceptable -- a few chewed leaves here and there may not warrant intervention. Understand the pest’s life cycles. If control is necessary, you’ll want to target your efforts where they’ll be most effective. This may mean catching an insect in its larval stage, or applying fungicides at just the right time to prevent infection. Use the least invasive methods possible. Hand-pick or trap the adult insects before they lay eggs to lower populations. Use barriers to exclude pests, or repellents to deter them. Prune and destroy diseased plant parts to remove source of infection. If the problem persists and further control is needed, use the least toxic product. For example, insecticidal soap can be just as effective against aphids as stronger pesticides, and it will have less impact on other organisms. (An even less toxic alternative is to repeatedly spray foliage with a strong stream of water to dislodge the aphids.) If stronger controls are necessary, use products that specifically target the pest. Bacillus thurengiensis (B.t.) is a biological control for caterpillars, and will not affect other insects. However, B.t. will also kill butterfly caterpillars, so use it only when absolutely necessary. Choose products that degrade rapidly, so they don’t build up in the environment. In general, plant-derived pesticides, such as neem and pyrethrum, break down quickly into harmless substances. Synthetic pesticides generally tend to persist longer in the environment.
Copyright 2002,
National Gardening Association. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
||
