Official Poll: What is the #1 pest/problem in your garden?

[Support]

Beetles, rodents, worms! You name it, we've all encountered it! There always seem to be that one pest/problem that, no matter what you do, you just can't get rid of.

Please take a minute to complete this poll and tell us what the number one pest/problem is that you encounter in your garden.

If your answer isn't listed, you can vote for "Others" and reply to this thread with your answers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

#1 varies, year to year and at different times of the year. Not in any particular order:

Voles are tunneling all over sometimes undermining plants and sometimes chewing on sweet potatoes. They haven't been bad this year yet.

I have to permanently remove several rabbits every year to stop them from eating my beans as they sprout plus nibble on tomatoes and other things later.

Some years corn ear worms are a huge problem, some years not so much.

I'm waiting for my annual blister beetle attack and to see what they go after this year. Occasionally its something they are not supposed to bother but it will be something and they will attack in mass.

Most years I can't grow squash because of the squash bugs, but I had a good year last year.

In our recent two years of draught every grasshopper in this valley came to my garden because I was the only one watering. It was the only place they could find something green to eat and get moisture. The grasshoppers killed my beans, ate the silks off the corn, and did a lot more damage, even to some fruit trees.

A huge pest is Bermuda grass. I'm constantly battling that stuff the way it spreads and sprouts. Some properties that make it a good lawn, pasture, and hay grass make it a real pest in the garden.

 

[Kevin B Walsh]

Elk! They are beautiful, but curse them! They should be called Orcs. ...no great love for the Colorado Potato Beetle, the Blister Beetle, or the Flea Beetle, all of which have been problems here.

 

[digitS']

It is difficult to answer because, as @Ridgerunner says, it varies.

I have had so much trouble from potato beetles before I found a new pesticide remedy that they killed several eggplants and ruined the entire crop. Without spraying, flea beetles will usually wreck the radish and bok choy. Aphids so often show up in such numbers in the cabbage that I'd just about like to quit growing it!

Still, insects don't usually kill all the plants like the Mountain Cottontail Rabbits and Hoary Marmots might - eating all the beans or broccoli seedlings in only a day or two.

Still, I'm going with insects. They not only eat plants, they spread disease or weaken the plants so much that they cannot defend themselves from common problems.

Guard your Garden.

Steve
Elk?! Heaven forbid that any 1000# vegetarian elk or moose show up!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a vote for "other" but it does not show up in the statistics. Is the poll working right?

 

[Kevin B Walsh]

It is difficult to answer because, as @Ridgerunner says, it varies.

I have had so much trouble from potato beetles before I found a new pesticide remedy that they killed several eggplants and ruined the entire crop. Without spraying, flea beetles will usually wreck the radish and bok choy. Aphids so often show up in such numbers in the cabbage that I'd just about like to quit growing it!

...

Do you use a spray that would be compatible with organic certification? If so, what is it called?

 

[Kevin B Walsh]

Oh, I forgot to mention gophers, who have killed a few trees while they were still saplings. I keep an eye out for them. The worst of it is that they can get through fences.

 

[digitS']

Hi Kevin,

Just going out the door. Here's a simple list:

Pyrethrin, at times
Spinosad
Insecticidal Soap
Btw thuricide, at times

Steve
edit: BTW: dang you auto correct! B.thuringiensis (Thuricide).

 

[sumi]

I had a vote for "other" but it does not show up in the statistics. Is the poll working right?

Thanks for letting us know. I'll ask @Support to check what the problem is.

ETA: I just voted "Other" as a test and my vote is showing up. Try again and see if it works?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I did and I think it did.