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Fall Pest Control

© Carla Goodloe

Well, it's nearly December. Have you done a final go over in the yard to make sure you have completed your fall cleanup before harsher weather sets in? There is still time to do so unless you are in the far north where snow is already falling.

Make sure you rake up all leaves and debris. Don't leave them lying around to harbor insects. You could mow the leaves a few times to make excellent additives to the soil as smaller leaf particles are not good hiding places for pests. Or you could add them to a compost heap and the heat of the decaying matter will kill most of the pests. Burning grass and leaves causes air pollution so consider environmental aspects when performing fall cleanup.

Remove all dead plants, fruits, and vegetables from the garden or orchards, if you have those, to the compost pile. If you know your plants were diseased, bag them and toss them to the garbage man instead.

If the ground is not frozen, use a tiller and make your beds for springtime. This way, you'll dig up any underground pests for the birds to eat. Add compost and/or the raked leaves during this tilling process for excellent soil at planting time. You will till again before planting time as well for a last minute pest control dig-up.

For potted plants, soak the plants with water until it runs out of the bottom for 5 minutes. This will take care of many pests that may be in your soil. You may want to spray your plants with something like Safer's Soap or Pyola from Gardens Alive to kill any eggs that may be on your plant leaves. Once done, you can bring them in the house for winter.

Mulch harbors insects too, but in harsher climates, it's necessary for plant survival. If you use a mulch like black plastic or something not made of plant material, you'll have fewer pests. However, straw makes the best winter mulch so you want to be sure to only put down a couple inches of it to keep pest numbers lower.

Another idea you might try is to buy some diatomaceous earth powder, add that to the soil before you till, then till it in. Do it when you know it won't rain for at least 3-4 days. This way the powder has time to connect with any pests in the soil and dry them out. You may want to try this on a small spot and do an experiment because I cannot find any official information on this method. However, I use it in my garden and as far as I can tell, have had fewer caterpillar pests this year than any year before. I think I saw one Tomato hornworm and it had trichogamma wasp cocoons on it so I left it alone.

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