Released On 17th Sep 2024
Common UK Garden Pests (And How To Deal With Them)
Gardening in the UK can be an incredibly rewarding hobby. But even occasional gardeners will admit that it comes with its fair share of challenges. The biggest and most common is pests. These tiny invaders can cause significant damage to plants, flowers, vegetables, lawns and even trees if they aren’t spotted and managed properly. Even during the colder winter months, pests can thrive and undo all of the hard work you put in over spring and summer. So here’s a guide to the most common UK garden pests, and some effective ways of dealing with them.
Slugs and Snails
Slugs and snails are among the most notorious garden pests in the UK. They thrive in damp conditions, often wreaking havoc by eating through the leaves, stems, and roots of plants, especially seedlings and tender plants like hostas.
How To Deal With Them:
Hand Picking: Go out in the early morning or late evening with a torch and physically remove them from plants. Put them into a container, which you can then put either in your compost bin (so they do you some good), or you can leave them out for predators to take.
Slug Traps: There are a few different ways to do this. Our favourite is to fill containers with beer and bury them at ground level. Slugs are attracted to beer because of the smell of yeast, which is similar to the smell rotting vegetation and fermenting fruit gives off. When they come towards it, they will fall in and drown. If you don’t want to use beer, you can mix a cup of water with a teaspoon each of sugar, flour and yeast and use that in the trap instead.
Barrier Methods: Apply copper tape around your plant pots or raised beds. Slugs and snails don’t like crossing copper because it has a mild electric charge that hurts them, making it quite an effective deterrent.
Encourage Natural Predators: Do what you can to attract birds, frogs, and hedgehogs to your garden by creating a wildlife-friendly environment. These creatures are natural enemies of slugs and will help keep your populations in check.
You’ll notice that we didn’t say ‘use slug pellets’ at any point. That’s because slug pellets are essentially poison, and while they will kill slugs and snails, they will also kill a lot of other wildlife in your garden too. Not to mention they pose a risk to any pets you or your neighbours might have that roam around your garden!
Aphids
Aphids are small, sap-sucking insects that can quickly multiply and form large colonies on the leaves and stems of plants. They weaken plants by draining sap and spreading plant viruses.
How To Deal With Them:
Water Blast: Spray plants with a strong jet of water to dislodge aphids. This can help reduce their numbers and set them looking for a new home somewhere else.
Neem Oil: Organic insecticides like neem oil can be effective against aphids without harming beneficial insects, or other local wildlife.
Natural Predators: Ladybirds are the natural enemies of aphids, which is why you should encourage them into your garden as much as possible! You can buy ladybird larvae to introduce into your garden, or attract them by planting nectar-rich flowers like marigolds and daisies.
Companion Planting: There are certain plants that aphids can’t stand, so companion planting can be very valuable. Garlic, onions, or chives are all good things to plant near susceptible plants, as they naturally repel aphids.
Vine Weevils
Vine weevils are particularly damaging because both the adult weevils and their larvae attack plants. Adults eat the leaves, creating notched edges, while the larvae live in the soil, feeding on plant roots, often causing plants to wilt and die.
How To Deal With Them:
Hand Removal: Adult vine weevils are slow-moving, which means they can be picked off plants at night when they are most active. You can then dispose of these by freezing them in a sealed container and throwing them onto the compost heap, or leaving them out for birds to take.
Beneficial Nematodes: These microscopic worms are a natural predator of vine weevil larvae. All you need to do is apply them to the soil and they will infect the larvae, killing them from within.
Trap and Monitor: Place sticky traps near your plants to monitor adult weevil activity and catch them, preventing them from laying eggs.
Caterpillars
Caterpillars, especially from species like the cabbage white butterfly, can strip the leaves from plants rapidly. They are particularly damaging to vegetable crops like cabbages, kale, and broccoli, and can completely destroy your entire crop if you aren’t careful.
How To Deal With Them:
Physical Removal: Check the undersides of leaves and remove caterpillars by hand. You can then give them to birds to eat (chickens are very fond of them!) or dispose of them. Some gardeners like to move them onto more mature plants to protect their seedlings, but this doesn’t stop the problem for long.
Netting: Cover crops with fine mesh or netting to prevent butterflies from laying eggs on your plants. No eggs, no caterpillars!
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt): This is a natural, soil-borne bacteria that kills caterpillars but is safe for humans, animals, and other beneficial insects. You can find it in most garden centres.
Encourage Birds: Birds are a natural predator of caterpillars, so having bird feeders and bird-friendly plants can help encourage them into your garden, where they will pick off your caterpillars.
Whiteflies
Whiteflies are tiny, sap-sucking insects that can infest a wide range of plants, particularly greenhouse crops. They not only weaken plants but also leave behind sticky honeydew, which can encourage the growth of sooty mould and attract aphids.
How To Deal With Them:
Yellow Sticky Traps: Whiteflies are attracted to the colour yellow, so hanging sticky traps near affected plants can catch them.
Introduce Natural Predators: Parasitic wasps (Encarsia formosa) can help control whitefly populations, especially in greenhouses. It might sound odd to encourage wasps into your garden, but they’re a good helper for some things!
Neem Oil or Insecticidal Soap: These organic sprays can kill whiteflies without harming beneficial insects, and you can find them in most garden centres.
Ants
Ants are absolutely everywhere, so this isn’t a case of getting rid of all the ants in your garden. In fact, most of the time they’re harmless! But while ants themselves don’t usually cause direct damage to plants, they often farm aphids for honeydew and protect them from predators, exacerbating aphid infestations.
How To Deal With Them:
Disrupt Ant Trails: Use a soapy water solution to disrupt ant trails and deter them from establishing nests near plants. Ants follow patterns, and if you break their path they will forge a new one, usually in the other direction.
Plant Barriers: Certain plants, like mint, tansy, and lavender, can act as natural repellents to ants, so plant them throughout the garden. With mint, make sure you plant it in pots, otherwise it might take over your garden!
Ant Bait Stations: Set up bait stations with ant baits. The ants will carry the gel-like bait back to the nest, which will eventually eliminate the colony.
Leatherjackets
Leatherjackets are the larvae of crane flies (daddy longlegs). They live in the soil and feed on plant roots, which can cause grass to turn brown and die, along with damaging vegetables and young plants. Leatherjacket infestations can be difficult to spot, but thankfully easy to deal with.
How To Deal With Them:
Nematodes: Similar to vine weevils, leatherjackets can be controlled by applying beneficial nematodes to the soil. These will infect and kill the larvae in the same way.
Birds: Attract birds to your garden by offering bird feeders can encourage them to dig for leatherjackets, especially if you put the feeder in grassy areas or in the flowerbeds, where they will look for dropped seeds on the ground and dig.
Regular Tilling: Turning over the soil in your garden helps expose leatherjackets to the surface, where they can be picked off by predators or killed by frost.
Rats, Rabbits & Other Large Pests
Rabbits, rats, squirrels, and pigeons can cause substantial damage to plants and vegetables. They feed on leaves, stems, and fruits, often leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They can even cause damage to your garden and home infrastructure, chewing through cables and hosepipes alike!
How To Deal With Them:
Fencing: Installing rabbit-proof fencing around the perimeter of your garden is one of the most effective ways to keep them out. This also applies to rats, but given that their ribcages can collapse slightly to get through the smallest of spaces, it’s not quite as effective.
Netting or Cages: Covering individual plants with mesh or wire cages can protect them from both rabbits and birds. If you have a rat problem, then wire cages are your best bet, since their strong teeth will chew right through the wire.
Scare Tactics: Using scarecrows, reflective tape, or motion-activated water sprayers can help deter larger pests. You can also use humane traps to catch and release them – just make sure you release them far away!
If you have a pest issue and aren’t sure how to handle them, or you want to design a pest-proof garden, we would love to help. Our team of experienced gardeners are happy to provide advice and guidance, or provide you with a regular garden maintenance service so that pests are spotted quickly and dealt with professionally. If you’re interested, just get in touch with the team today.
