Common Vegetable Garden Pests

Bugs and insects are a huge pain for many vegetable gardeners. Most bugs aren't particularly destructive, they're just annoying. However, discovering a garden pest making a meal of your crop would make anybody furious.

Among the ugliest garden pests is the tomato hornworm. This fat worm is green and white in color and has a horn like a stinger. It can be plucked from the plant using gloved hands and submerged in soapy water to kill it. You could also spray it with stomach poison insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis or neem oil.

Thrips are partial to a variety of plants. You'll know they've been there by the random white marks you see on the leaves. You can wash the bugs off by using a hose, and then apply contact poison to the plant.

Snails and slugs will devour the leaves on your plants, and they always leave a slimy trail as evidence. You can buy bait to attract and kill them, but you can achieve the same thing with a shallow dish of beer; they'll be drawn to it and drown.

Those plump white worms that you see in the ground are most likely grubs. When grubs attack your plants they start to droop and their growth will be stunted. You can usually eliminate them with some milky spore added to the earth. Grubs later become beetles, which can be wiped out using stomach poison insecticide.

Cutworms typically cut down the stem near the bottom of the plant. Putting a paper collar around the plants is really the only way to keep them away.

Corn earworms will infiltrate a cob of corn while it's still on the stalk and consume the kernels. Likewise, a tomato fruitworm consumes the insides of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Choose an insecticide targeted to the elimination of earworms.

You'll find borers in thick stemmed vine plants like squash and pumpkin. You have to cut them out of the plant in order to get rid of them. You might end up having to pull up the plant and destroying it if you find a borer near the base of the plant. You can usually get rid of them with insecticide.

Beetles are bothersome pests that enjoy munching on leaves. They are able to do an astonishing amount of harm to a vegetable garden, therefore it's essential to eliminate them. It's possible to pluck the beetles off the plants, or spray with an insecticide to destroy them.

Aphids are a common sight in any vegetable garden. Typically, you'll come across bunches of tiny, soft bugs in assorted colors. To eliminate aphids, use neem oil or insecticidal soap.