Pests

  • How to Handle Common Houseplant Pests
    Article

    How to Handle Common Houseplant Pests

    Outdoors, pest populations are kept in check by rain and diseases and by birds, beneficial insects, and other predators; indoors, however, plant pests can proliferate very quickly with nothing to…

  • Preventing and Fighting Webworms in the Garden
    How-To

    Preventing and Fighting Webworms in the Garden

    Fans of the 1998 remake of the movie The Parent Trap with Dennis Quaid and Lindsay Lohan probably remember this signature line: “Meredith, do you want the 411, the information,…

  • Be on the Lookout for Root-knot Nematodes
    How-To

    Be on the Lookout for Root-Knot Nematodes

    If you’re the type of person who likes to learn about plant pests in your free time, odds are you have already heard or read about a group of organisms…

  • Coreopsis
    Design

    Plants to Attract Beneficial Insects

    You can use certain plants to lure desirable insects to your garden to help with biocontrol. Many of these workhorse plants are attractive to a wide number of beneficial insects…

  • Rose rosette disease damage caused by an eriophyid mite
    How-To

    Eriophyid Mites: What They Are and How to Control Them in the Home Garden

    If you’ve ever battled rose rosette disease or encountered odd leaf deformities, you should care about eriophyid mites. I find the juxtaposition of their incredibly small size with the bizarre,…

  • deer and hydrangeas
    How-To

    Do Deer Eat Hydrangeas?

    The arrival of late spring and early summer means just one thing here in New England: hydrangea season. The East Coast is known for the iconic displays those hydrangeas put…

  • garden pests in the us
    Collection

    12 Common Garden Pests in the United States and How to Control Them

    Most insects raise no concern when spotted in the garden. In fact, many are welcome guests that we invite with an array of plants they love to visit. But we…

  • rose slug on a leaf
    How-To

    Pest Control for Northern California: Rose Slugs

    Although they resemble miniature slugs, rose slugs are not true slugs at all. They’re the larval stage of the European sawfly (Endelomyia aethiops), a small, rather innocent-looking flying insect. European…

  • whiteflies on a broccoli plant
    How-To

    Pest Control for Southern California: Whiteflies

    Whiteflies are familiar across the country as greenhouse and indoor-plant pests. But in our warm climate, two species of these unwelcome little sap-sucking insects are very prevalent. Silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia…

  • apples rotten from apple maggot
    How-To

    Pest Control for the Northwest: Apple Maggot

    As summer starts to heat up and everything edible starts to ripen, gardeners start worrying about apple maggots (Rhagoletis pomonella) in their apple trees. Long established in eastern North America,…