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Garden Pests
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Pest Quotes
"Herein lies our problem. If we level that much land to grow rice and whatever, then no other animal could live there except for some insect pest species, which is very unfortunate."
"You can't be friends with a squirrel! A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit."
"Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes"
"The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet; watch the roots."
"On every stem, on every leaf, and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part."
"We have descended into the garden and caught three hundred slugs. How I love the mixture of the beautiful and the squalid in gardening. It makes it so lifelike."
Garden Pests
Your Garden Pest
Some creatures are almost universally considered to be pests when they are found in the garden, such as slugs and snails.
There are other creatures that some people hate, whilst others welcome as garden visitors. For example, some like to watch the antics of squirrels in their gardens, whilst others view them as little more than 'rats with more attractive coats'. Yet others consider grey squirrels to be pests but love red squirrels.
Gardeners have to decide for themselves what they want to attract to their gardens and what they want to deter.
The general principle is that some creatures bring us pleasure by their appearance or antics, whilst others seem to be intent on destroying our prize plants or driving out other welcome visitors. It is the latter group that we consider to be pests and against which we declare war.
Choose Your Weapons
What methods you choose to deter or eradicate pests is also a matter for personal preference. Some gardeners are happy to use chemical pesticides, whereas others prefer to use more natural and humane methods when they are available.
It's worth bearing in mind that garden plants are continually under attack by all kinds of pests and diseases. Fortunately, they have their own natural defences to help them survive most attacks, but sometimes, when the attack gets out of hand the gardener has to step in and lend a helping hand.
The following pages offer advice on how to handle some of the more common garden pests: |
Rats and Mice Deterring rats and mice from making their home in your garden |
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Slugs and Snails Stop slugs and snails from invading your garden and destroying your prize plants |
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Rabbits What to do when rabbits invade your garden |
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Mistletoe The Christmas decoration that is a poisonous parasite |
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Garden Pests Dealing with a range of garden pests |
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Mosquitoes Trees and plants to help deter mosquitoes |
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Moles Humane control of moles in your garden |
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Foxes What to do about foxes in your garden |
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Squirrels Humane control of squirrels |
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Weed Control Techniques for effective weed control |
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Weeds Identify common garden weeds |
