Controlling Pests—Naturally

Keeping those pests under control.

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  • Topic: Pests
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: pests, rabbits, deer, mole, gopher, vole, insects, Pests, rabbitresistant, deerresistant
  • Date: April 2004

© All articles are copyrighted by High Country Gardens. Republication is prohibited without Permission.

Short of keeping a trained owl to nab all the gophers and rabbits out of your garden, or a tamed robin to pick off the grubs, the best way to keep the pests away is to keep your garden healthy.

Controlling Insects

Maybe what we’ve all learned here in the Southwest the past few years with our massive pinon tree die-out is stressed plants become weakened. In turn, weakened plants become susceptible to disease, and diseased plants then become easy targets for insect infestations.

The drought we’ve been experiencing throughout the West has brought this all home. If we’d had enough moisture, millions of trees wouldn’t have died.

So how can this apply to our gardens? Same thing—keep them properly watered and happy. Keep the soil fed and happy. Keep the intricate balance between soil, water, and plants working all the time. If you maintain this harmony, your garden will naturally attract beneficial insects. A partial list follows:

  • Ladybug—many species of this tiny beetle have an enormous appetite for aphids—one of our most common plant pests. Others prefer scale insects and mites and are very effective in reducing infestations.
  • Praying mantis—it looks like a leaf and the disguise lets them grab insects that don’t belong.
  • Lacewing—the larvae is an enemy of small caterpillars, aphids, and other soft-bodied insects.
  • Ground beetle—common under logs and debris, feeds on a variety of insects.
  • Parasitic wasps—feed on other insects.

After you’ve enticed the good insects and the nasty ones still persist, the next step is using traps, barriers and the hand-picking of pests. Many natural plant-derived chemicals (such as red pepper, pyrethrins, rotenone and many others) should be used in place of chemical pesticides, which often kill beneficial insects as well as the pests. Insecticidal soaps can be used as well effectively.

But our philosophy here at High Country Gardens is to use plants that are well suited to your region and David Salman, our chief horticulturist, says: “This is the best way to avoid stressed, insect and disease prone plants. A plant that is ill-suited to its growing environment is always struggling and therefore vulnerable to attack from pests.”

The key to controlling insect pests is to watch your plants carefully and control pests when their populations are just getting started. Controlling mass infestations of insects, whose populations have been growing unchecked for many weeks or months, is much more difficult.

Controlling Rabbits, Deer and Gophers

Though not always foolproof (as attested by some of our readers), some plants naturally deter critters. Their strongly scented foliage and naturally occurring internal chemicals naturally repel browsers. Following is a list of plants we recommend to try keeping the critters out of your garden.

Besides Deer Off, what deer don’t like:

  • Daffodils
  • Lavender (all varieties)
  • Bachelor’s Buttons
  • Yarrow
  • Sunflowers
  • Russian sage
  • Orange globe mallow
  • Gladiolus
  • Caryopteris
  • Various Salvias
  • Coreopsis Moonbeam

What rabbits don’t like:

  • Agastache
  • Rosemary
  • Chamisa
  • Sage (all varieties)
  • Oregano
  • Thyme
  • Nepeta
  • Broom Dalea
  • Ratibida (yellow and Mexican Hat)
  • Silver-edged horehound
  • ...and evergreen bushes and trees

What gophers and such don’t like are daffodils. Also Bulb Guard is a good deterrent to protect plants from above ground browsers, while Mole and Gopher-Med is an excellent soil-applied repellent to keep burrowing mammals away .

For a more detailed list of critter resistant plants, visit our plant search and check the appropriate boxes for rabbits or deer.

Still, all in all, the best preventative measure is to keep that pet owl around. Certainly Harry Potter likes that idea!