Your backyard adds a special flair to your house. It makes your space look homey and close to nature, and it’s a big plus when you can grow your own vegetables organically in it.
But no matter how lovely your backyard may seem, pests are always there to ruin the perfect little place you’ve built. Pests can kill your plants and contaminate the land that your backyard stands on.
The damage is even more heartbreaking when you’re growing fruits and vegetables for consumption. Harmful pests eat up anything they can see and they can go from a few ones to a huge horde anytime.
It’s important to control the onset of pests and prevent more damage to your backyard. To keep it pest-free, employ the following tactics:
1. Put good insects in the backyard.
There are insects that you can put in the backyard that do more good than harm, such as ladybugs, damsel bugs, and parasitic wasps. These insects take biting quite literally—they bite the harmful insects to bits. Make sure there are more good insects than the bad ones to keep the backyard away from damage.
2. Use homemade insecticides and organic alternatives.
Chemical insecticides, though guaranteed to kill pests, pose a huge danger for your backyard plants. You don’t need to look beyond your home to ward off pests. Mix liquid soap and water and spray it on the affected areas in the backyard. Neem oil can also be mixed with liquid soap and water. Spray it all over the backyard to ward off pests.
If you’re one for cooking, you can make a spray out of garlic extract. Naturally, insects can’t stand the smell of garlic and spraying the extract on them will keep them away from your precious plants.
Lastly, this one’s for coffee lovers. After preparing your morning coffee, spread the grounds in your backyard to ward off the pests. You’re not only keeping these pesky insects away, but you’re also helping the plants grow. Coffee grounds give the soil nitrogen necessary for plant growth.
If your backyard has been damaged and beyond DIY repair, exterminator services are always a good go-to if you’re not sure about removing pests in your backyard all by yourself. There’s a reason why you have local wildlife control in Midland, Barrie, or anywhere else in Ontario.
3. Build barriers and use other plants.
One of the best methods to keep pests from feasting on your plants is by putting up a barrier. Plant barriers are used to heat the soil and carry out early planting. These are also marketed if you don’t want to use pesticides. Not sure where to get them? Your local arborists in Aurora may give you some leads.
Materials like row cover and lightweight fabric are good options if you’re looking for cheap options. Plants that are susceptible to pests are cabbage and broccoli.
Do not wait for pests to damage your plants and crops before taking action. The barrier you need to make depends on the kind of plants in your backyard. Here are some options in making your plant barrier:
- Attach a clean lightweight fabric to wires or wooden frames. Put it over the plants. You can also use woven plastics as an alternative.
- To prevent cabbage maggots from damaging your cabbage roots, get a window screen and shape it like a cone. Attach a wood on the cone and cover the cabbage. This prevents flies from getting near your cabbage roots where it lays eggs that hatch these maggots.
- Trees are prone to pests that eat their trunks. You can buy some trapping adhesives formulated for trees and stick pieces of it to the trunks.
If you don’t have the necessary materials to build physical barriers, planting other kinds of plants in your backyard can help. Flowers like petunias drive insects away like beetles and bugs with their bright petals. Lavenders smell so sweet that insects can’t stand them too. Basils, an essential ingredient in cooking, are a good option to keep mosquitoes and flies away.
4. Clean the backyard.
There’s nothing better than seeing a clean backyard every time you leave your doorstep. Over time, no matter how many plants you plant, pests will still make their way if your backyard is dirty. You can’t predict when insects will come and live in your backyard, so it’s better to keep it clean all the time.
These are some of the things you need to take care of when cleaning the backyard:
- Mow tall grasses regularly. These can attract insects and live among the grasses and eventually eat your plants.
- Throw all standing water away. Mosquitoes lay eggs on standing water and once the eggs hatch, the young ones can damage your plants. Mosquitoes also give you diseases like dengue after they bite you.
- Throw woods and logs that stand idle. These lure termites to live there. Termites can also damage your property.
- Have the trees pruned and maintained regularly. Trees degenerate over the years and can bring potential damage to your garden. Tree services in Newmarket provide excellent services for your trees.
5. Use essential oils.
When all else fails, the essential oils that you use to keep the air fresh in your room can do the job. Insects can’t stand the scent of essential oils. Citronella, peppermint, thyme, rosemary, and lemongrass are the best scents that will drive away harmful insects.
When using essential oils against insects:
- Put one drop of any kind of oil in a spray bottle and add a cup of water. Spray it on areas that have many pests.
- Add small amounts of essential oils to cotton balls and put these around plants to ward off pests.
- Mix a few drops of essential oils and water and soak cloth strips. After that, hang the cloth strips in different areas of the garden. Make sure the wet strips don’t drip the water-oil mixture directly on the plants.
There’s no harm in doing a thing or two of these tips to keep your garden pest-free. Use tactics that work for you and the kind of garden you’re keeping.