When your plant babies look less than healthy, most often it is the result of improper care. Factors such as too much or too little water, light, heat or fertilizer can cause many plant problems. However, in some cases, the problem results from a pest infestation. These pests can cause significant damage to your plant babies.
Different plant pests cause different symptoms on your plants. Knowing what these pests are and their symptoms are important to help you remedy the infestation.
3 common plant pest in our garden
Spider mites
Spider mites are among the most common garden pests and are smaller than the head of a pin, making it hard to identify them. Spider mites are plant-eating mites that look like tiny spiders. In cool climates, they spend the winter resting in soil, while in warmer regions, they live and feed year round. Most active in dry, hot conditions, spider mites use their needle-like mouth parts to feed on fluid extracted from individual plant cells.
Leaf Miners
Found in our home gardens, leaf miners are the larval (maggot) stage of an insect family that feeds between the upper and lower surfaces of leaves. On heavily infested plants it is not uncommon to find 6 or more maggots per leaf. Although damage can restrict plant growth, healthy plants can tolerate considerable injury. Host plants include beans(link), cabbage, lettuce, peppers, and a variety of ornamental flowers, citrus trees and more. Frequently, it appears as yellow, squiggly lines in the leaves.
Aphids
What are those little green bugs on your plants? They’re probably aphids! Aphid, also called plant louse, greenfly, or ant cow, any of a group of sap-sucking, soft-bodied insects that are about the size of a pinhead, most species of which have a pair of tube-like projections on the abdomen. Aphids can be serious plant pests and may stunt plant growth, transmit diseases, and cause the deformation of leaves, buds, and flowers. Various species can appear white, black, brown, gray, yellow, light green, or even pink.
Tips on How to control them
- Companion Planting - Some plants, mostly flower plants (like our our zinnia plants), attract the good bugs in your garden such as the lady bugs, lacewings, butterflies, etc. that eats off those pesky little pests around your garden.
- Keep your soil healthy - Definitely our soilless potting mix is a must in your garden! A soilless potting mix provides a cleaner medium and gives you more control. Besides being free of pests and diseases and other contaminants, you can blend in additional ingredients for preferred drainage, water, retention, nutrition and airspace.
- Pesticides(organic of course) - Use a spray bottle which you can get exclusively in our subscription plan. Spray them with your organic pesticides. Also, Did you know oil is a general pest repellent? It will take care of the pests upon application. This is a longer-lasting solution, and is often used after applying an insecticidal soap or if you are in a tight budget, dish soap will do.