Got a Gardening Question?
| Got a question about organic gardening? Ask Flora! Our resident expert -- who’s also behind our thriving Facebook community -- would be happy to chat about everything from the best ways to control pests naturally to why ladybugs don’t fly at night. Send us an email at flora@organiccontrol.com. |
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| Q. Is there a way to control Mealybugs? |
| A. Have you ever looked at a plant and wondered why it looked like it had fuzzy bits of cotton on it? You could be looking at Mealybugs. These pests look similar to tiny, fat centipedes or flat sow bugs covered in white fuzz. The bugs cover themselves in white fluffy masses for protection, and once they congregate and lay eggs, you can end up with quite a pile of white fluff. Mealybugs like many indoor plants, citrus and cactus as well as hibiscus and ferns. Similar to whitefly and aphids, they suck on the plant and cause general decline in your plant life. As always, a healthy plant is less likely to get pests, so we always recommend maintaining your plants to prevent problems. Here’s a couple ways to help you to reduce the chances you’ll encounter Mealybugs in your garden, it’s as simple as establishing good habits. 1. Clean your plants with regular water washings. This can deter populations from setting up home in the first place. 2. Dab each Mealybug with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. Spraying doesn’t always work because the white waxy coating shields these bugs from pesticides, chemical or natural. 3. Release Cryptolaemus, a.k.a. “Mealybug Destroyer.” As implied, these beneficial insects have a voracious appetite for Mealybugs, but they also eat aphids, immature scales and whiteflies. Cryptolaemus look similar to a Ladybug with a black body and orange head and tail. You’ll only need roughly ten of these bugs per tree, 2-5 for small indoor plants or five per square yard of garden. Upon release, the “Destroyers” lay their eggs in the Mealybug egg mass, hatch out and start feeding. Pretty soon, no more Mealybug. To learn more about “Mealybug Destroyers,” visit organiccontrol.com/cryptolaemus/. Happy gardening! |
| Q. Control snails with…snails? |
| A. Do you have garden snails eating your delicate shade plants? These pests can be difficult to find during the day, as they stay away from the hot sun at all costs. But, you can tell when they have been out at night feeding on your plants because they leave large holes and can even climb up citrus trees to get to the leaves, ruining all of your hard work to maintain a healthful garden! |
| Q. How can I control garden snails? |
| A. There are several non-chemical methods to control them—you can put copper strips around trunks of trees or pots, hand pick and squish the snails, or even trap them in plates of beer. However, your most permanent solution is to fight garden snails with another species of snails: Decollate snails. Decollate snails eat garden snail eggs, ridding your garden of the wannabe escargot once and for all. Decollate snails also eat decaying leaves and debris, but not healthy plant material. Additional benefit some folks have found is a decrease in slug population at the introduction of Decollate snails. |
| Q. What do Decollate snails looks like? |
| A. Decollate snails are long and conical, whereas garden snails are round and stubby. These snails spend most of their time in the soil, so you may not see them at work. But after a couple months, you will notice less garden snails and eventually none! If you live in the southern California area, zip codes between 90000 and 93499, we can ship live decollate snails to you directly. Get yours today and stop garden snails from ruining your beautiful plants. |
| Q. Will lady bugs take care of all my problems? |
| A. Ladybugs will take care of a lot of garden problems but probably not all of them. They like soft-bodied pests like aphids, scale, mealy bugs, boil worms, leafhopper, and corn earworm, but they like aphids best and will travel to find them. Not unlike me and chocolate, pizza, ribs… There are other Beneficials who have a broader appetite including Green Lacewings and Praying Mantids. In fact Praying Mantids can be put out before you have a problem, they will hatch out in spring and look for all sorts of other bugs to eat, keeping the garden pretty clean. Green Lacewings control aphids, mites, whiteflies, meal bugs, leafhoppers, thrips, all types of moth and butterfly eggs, and caterpillars. Like Ladybugs it is best to put them out after you see a problem so they have something to eat right away, if you put them out too early and there is nothing for them to eat they may travel out of your garden to find food. Another good way to keep bad bugs at bay is to make sure your garden is healthy, well fed and watered properly. It seems silly but often bad bugs are not attracted to healthy plants, they go after the stressed ones. Worm Castings are a great fertilizer, helping the soil and the plant plus they have been known to repel or decrease populations of Whitefly. |
| Q. Why would I use a bug to control a bug? |
| A. Using a beneficial insect is a natural way to control the bad bugs on your plants or in your soil. You can’t get more organic then one bug eating another bug—it’s nature at work. Since the beneficial bugs don’t harm the plants you are not replacing a problem with a problem. Look for a balance: you don’t want so many bad bugs that you’re disfiguring beautiful flowers or reducing harvests, just enough to keep the good ones around in case there is a spike in populations. If all the bad bugs are gone the beneficial insects will leave also to look for more food. Not unlike house guests or teenagers. Another benefit to using beneficial insects is you don’t have to worry about the bad bugs building up a resistance to the spray or chemical. Even organic sprays are essentially chemicals, just from natural sources and bad bugs can build up tolerances to them as well. Bad bugs can never build up a tolerance to being eaten. Also you don’t have to worry about storage, leakage or kids getting into sprays or bottles with a beneficial insect. |
