Garden pests damage plants in a few distinct ways: some chew holes in leaves and fruit, some pierce the plant and suck out its juices, and some tunnel into stems or roots. The type of damage often tells you which kind of pest you're dealing with.
Nothing hurts quite the same way as seeing your plants get torn apart by pests. Fortunately, the evidence left behind can tell you a lot about what kind of pests you’re dealing with.
The chewers are the most obvious. Caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers have chewing mouthparts that leave ragged holes in leaves, notched edges, or entire sections eaten away. If you find holes in the foliage or chunks missing from fruit, you can usually blame a chewing insect or possibly slugs or snails.
The piercing-sucking pests work differently, and their damage is subtler. Stink bugs, aphids, leafhoppers, and mites insert a needle-like mouthpart and drain fluids from the plant. This leaves stippling or tiny pale spots on leaves, dimpled or scarred fruit, curled or distorted new growth, and a general loss of vigor rather than holes. Aphids tend to cluster on tender shoots and leave behind sticky honeydew. And stink bugs cause corky, “cat-faced” scarring on tomatoes and tree fruit.
Borers and root-feeding pests tunnel into stems, trunks, or roots, and the damage shows up as wilting, sudden collapse, or dieback even when the leaves look intact, because the plant's plumbing has been cut.
Once you figure out what you’re dealing with, you’re better positioned to respond. But no matter how you do, one thing remains the same: if you're tired of watching pests chew and drain your garden every summer, Mosquito Squad of Southwest and South Central Michigan can help. Mosquito Squad offers perimeter treatments that help control stink bugs and other pests around your garden and home. These are applied by a trained technician alongside the barrier service that delivers up to 90% reduction in mosquito activity on a 21-day cycle.
