Controlling Pest is a Job Never Finished – Part #1
Because many plants are very susceptible to insects and diseases they must be sprayed or controlled to keep them attractive and vigorous. Before embarking on a pest control program for your landscape, garden or houseplants, however, you should know something about insects and diseases. Controlling garden pests is somewhat like controlling human ills. You would not dose yourself with penicillin or aspirin just for the fun of it. Similarly, you should not start a spray program in the garden without some sound reasons.
Experienced gardeners know which plants need to be sprayed regularly to keep them healthy, and which plants need little or no spraying. Beginners can learn from experience, but it is slow and, at times, very costly. A beginner can pick up valuable tips more quickly from older gardeners and from books and magazines dealing with pest control.
Off Season Insect Control
Insects are easier to control than diseases. One reason is that you can see most insects, or at least the damage they cause, and hence you are most likely to take remedial measures before too much damage is done. You can actually wait until you see the insects at work before applying the insecticide. As a matter of fact, both time and materials may be wasted if the insecticide is applied too far in advance of the pest’s appearance.
Some insects can be controlled by applying sprays during the plant’s dormant season. Fruit trees and certain ornamentals such as euonymous, lilac and junipers, which are quite subject to scale insects, can be sprayed during March or early April. Diseases caused by fungi, bacteria or viruses are more difficult to control because you cannot see what causes them, nor can you easily anticipate when a disease will break out.
Just as a cold is contracted days before the actual symptoms appear, so it is with plant diseases. It sometimes takes weeks from the time a fungus spore infects a leaf to the time a dead spot appears or the leaf becomes blighted. Consequently, you must not wait for the spots and blight to appear before applying preventive sprays.
Not only must the protective materials coat the leaves and stems several weeks before the disease symptoms make their first appearance, but they must be reapplied at regular intervals… at least every week or ten days, to insure maximum control.
Frequent Applications
More frequent applications must be made in the spring, because rains (which encourage fungus infection) are more prevalent, and leaves are expanding so rapidly that the newly formed areas are unprotected. Once the leaves reach full size, there is less need for frequent applications. because no new surfaces need to be protected and there are ample residues from earlier sprays to provide protection.
With the possible exception of certain powdery mildews, most plant diseases cannot be cured. They must be prevented. The time to start spraying roses for blackspot control for example, is when the leaves begin to unfurl in the spring, and not in midsummer when the leaves become spotted and yellow. By coating both upper and lower surfaces of the newly developing leaves, there is little likelihood that the blackspot fungus spores can germinate on, and penetrate the leaves. The roses at say The New York Botanical Garden could be sprayed at periodic intervals more than twenty times each season from mid March to early October to protect them from the many fungus parasites, insect pests and mites to which they are susceptible.
Roses and Apples Call for More Sprays
Roses and apples are two plants that must be sprayed more frequently than most. Generally speaking, chrysanthemums, phlox, azaleas and mountain-laurel are subject to more than the average number of fungi and insects and need to be sprayed at least three or four times each season. Others, such as tulips, hollyhocks, iris and delphinium, do not require periodic sprayings for disease control.
Some of these, however, may require an occasional application of insecticide to keep insects and related pests under control. For plants that do not require a regular spray program, early detection of the first stages of a disease and removal and burning of infected parts is usually sufficient to keep most diseases in check.
The supplies you need must next be considered. It’s a good idea to keep your pest and disease shelf well stocked with pest-control materials. Just as the size of a pantry shelf is governed by the number of persons in a family, so the pesticide shelf should be governed by the size of the lawn and garden. Obviously, if the property is small with few plants, a small quantity of insecticide will suffice.
Every gardener should have some malathion on hand in liquid form. It is one of the best all-purpose insecticides developed and, if used as directed is relatively safe to handle. Malathion controls the crawling (young) stage of most scale insects as well as aphids. mealy bugs, white flies and mites. Its main drawback is its unpleasant odor when first mixed and applied, but you will soon overlook this when you see what a wonderful job it does in controlling insects and mites.
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