Helpful predators around the home include frogs, spiders, ladybugs, praying mantis, and dragonflies. Keeping these beneficial creatures outside your home to helps reduce pest populations.

There are many strategies for controlling garden pests. One can try culture controls (nutrition, resistant varieties, inter-planting, crop rotation, trap crops, and cultivation), mechanical controls (hand picking, physical barriers, traps), biological controls (predatory and parasitic insects, microbes), and sprays and dusts. Ask a horticulturist for integrated pest control.

Slugs and snails

• Snails have a host of natural predators that feed them. Some of them are Gardener snakes, grass snakes, ground beetles, etc.

• Place overturned clay flowerpots near the shady side of a plant. Rest one edge on a small twig or make sure that the ground is irregular enough for the slugs and snails to crawl under the rim. They will collect there during the warmest pan of the day. Remove slugs and snails regularly and drop in a bucket of soapy water.

• Snails avoid sand, lime, or ashes. Use it to border your place.

• You can protect young plants by encircling them with a food can with both ends removed. Push the bottom end of the can into the soil.

Mice

• Place mashed potato powder or buds in strategic places with a dish of water close by. After eating the powder, or buds, mice will need water. This causes fatal bloating.

• Use mouse-traps where ever necessary.

Moles

Whip castor oil (one tbsp.) and liquid detergent (two tbsp) in a blender until the mixture is foamy. Add 6 tablespoons water and whip again. Keep It out of the reach of your children and pets.Take a garden sprinkling can and fill with warm water. Add and stir 2 tablespoons of the oil mixture and sprinkle over the areas of mole infestation. For best results, apply after a rain or watering the place.

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