Anyone who has been farming or gardening for any amount of time can tell you that the 2nd biggest problem in the garden is pests, namely the bug population. There is nothing more disheartening than walking out to your vegetables that you have watched sprout and grow and seeing holes in their stems or huge sections of leaves eaten away. 

It can be easy to become discouraged by the task of keeping garden pests under control, especially for new gardeners. Luckily we know a few experts on the subject and today Greg spoke with Wendell Flowers of Monterey Lawn & Garden about some products and tips to help with your garden infestations.

Chewing Bugs and Sucking Bugs

There are two main types of bugs you will find in your garden; chewing insects such as flea beetles and worms, and sucking insects like stink bugs and boll weevils. According to Wendell the most damaging and difficult type of insect to control is the chewing varieties. This, he says, is because they destroy the leaves of the plants; causing them to lose their ability to photosynthesize.

Even though bugs are a problem we never want to eliminate them, we simply need to control their population and keep their damage as minimal as possible.

Good and Bad Bugs

If you are new to gardening it is important to note that there are beneficial bugs you will see in the garden such as ladybugs, wasps, bees, and butterflies. We need these insects to help control the bad, destructive bugs. 

In order to eliminate the bad bugs we find and not harm the beneficial ones we need, Greg says to be "pre-active" in the garden to mitigate the bad bugs so that later there isn't an explosion of bad bugs that require stronger steps that can also kill the beneficials. This means to take a preventative approach early on in the garden with the right chemicals and applications.

Wendell showed several options, many of which are organic and could be used up to the day before harvest, that Monterey Lawn & Garden have available in their lines of pesticides and fungicides.

Chewing Insects

Worms such as hornworms are a big problem with tomatoes as they will eat the leaves and then any fruit that is produced. To combat this pest and other worms, Wendell had four Monterey pesticides to recommend; Bug Buster II, Bug Buster-O, Garden Insect Spray, and Monterey B.t.. Bug Buster II is a synthetic pesticide but the other three, Bug Buster-O, Garden Insect Spray, and Monterey B.t., are organic options.

While B.t., or bacillus thuringiensis, is most commonly used to control worms and caterpillars in farming and gardening, Wendell recommended the Garden Insect Spray. The Garden Insect Spray has a broader range of pests it can eliminate including thrips, beetles, borers, and fire ants. Neither of these options will harm your beneficial insects in the garden as they must be ingested to work.

Another major problem insect is the Colorado potato beetle. This little beetle can quickly defoliate your potato plants leaving nothing in their wake and no crops to harvest. Again, Wendell recommended the Garden Insect Spray. There are other options for ridding your potatoes of this beetle such as Sevin, however, Sevin is very rough on the bee population.

While the Garden Insect Spray will work on 200+ pests in the garden, there are some smaller bugs that need a different approach. One of these is the flea beetle. This beetle is incredibly tiny yet does a tremendous amount of damage for its size. To deal with this little pest Wendell recommends using the 70% Neem Oil; another organic product. The neem oil will not only kill these smaller bugs in the garden but also stave off any bacterial...