A guide to garden pests

For all our time spent gardening, there are numerous insects and pests ready and waiting to try and destroy our hard work. Not any more! Pests and diseases threaten to stop flowers, fruits and vegetables from performing at their best. But, there are measures that can be taken to starve off the various pests that can attack our garden plants, with three main steps;

• Getting to know the most vulnerable plants in your collection
• Taking preventative measures where appropriate
• Taking remedial action when first spotted

Some pests and diseases can ruin all your hard work. Slugs can quickly devastate seedlings and new shoots and vine weevil larvae can destroy the root system of precious plants. Luckily not all plant problems are so devastating, but they can be equally irritating.

Pest solutions

When treating plants always follow the products instructions and follow the safe spraying advice. Here are a few basic tips to ensure you do a good job without endangering you or the environment.

• Check that the product can be used on the plants you wish to treat.
• Mix the product according to the instructions.
• Spray thoroughly covering upper surface and underneath of leaves, stems and buds.
• Avoid spraying in bright sunlight as the water droplets can cause scorch.
• Never spray open flowers.
• Spray in the evening when pollinating insects are less likely to be on the wing.
• Wash out the sprayer thoroughly after use with a few drops of detergent, then rinse well and spray clean water through the nozzle.
• Store pesticides in a safe place out of the reach of children and pets.

Great sources for pest information

Use the gardening pest and disease identifier to diagnose the problem with your plants and find out how to treat them. The identifier provides both organic and chemical treatments as well as advice to help you prevent problems in the future. The identifier will initially ask you to select the plant part affected by the problem, it will then ask you a series of questions relating to the whole plant and its growing conditions, before identifying the most likely cause of your problem.

Alan Titchmarsh’s problem solving section, how to be a gardener, on the BBC website has a host of knowledge on how to be a good gardener, getting to know plants and caring for your garden. Try playing the pest paparazzi interactive game, to learn more on pests, where you will find them and what symptoms to look out for.

There are 24 different species of slug's in Britain, about half of which can be found in the garden. For expert advice on how to control them click here.

If you have ever had problems with moles you will be aware just how hard it is to control them. It only takes a couple of days to turn your perfect lawn into a scene of mole hills. For advice on moles click here.

Search for a problem and find the pest or disease that's attacking your plants. Simply select a category from the list to narrow down your search. Click here for the problem solving section of the site.