Seeing holes chewed in the leaves of your beloved plants can be disheartening. But there are effective natural ways to deter the bugs feasting on your garden and houseplants. Follow these tips to protect plants from damage.
Why Bugs Eat Leaves
Bugs munch on leaves because they provide an easy source of food. Different insects are attracted to different plants. Common culprits include:
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Caterpillars – Chew irregular holes in leaves Attracted to a wide variety of plants
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Japanese Beetles – Skeletonize leaves between veins. Favor roses, grapes, beans and more.
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Aphids – Suck sap, causing distorted growth. Enjoy vegetables, flowers, trees.
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Slugs – Create ragged holes. Eat a wide variety of plants.
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Spider Mites – Leave dots of stippled damage. Infest many garden and houseplants.
Leaf damage reduces plant health and appearance. It’s important to take action before bugs defoliate plants completely.
Eco-Friendly Deterrents
Use these natural, non-toxic methods to safely keep bugs away:
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Remove pests by hand – Pluck off caterpillars, beetles, slugs and snails and drop them in soapy water. Effective for large, slow pests.
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Use row covers – Cover plants with fabric row covers to create a physical barrier against insects.
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Apply neem oil – This organic pesticide repels and kills many soft-bodied insects. Use it as a foliar spray.
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Use insecticidal soap – Potassium salts in the soap disrupt soft bug bodies. Spray plants, especially undersides of leaves.
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Sprinkle diatomaceous earth – The sharp edges cut and damage small insects like mites and aphids. Avoid breathing in the dust.
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Attract beneficial insects – Ladybugs, lacewings, parasitic wasps prey on plant pests. Plant flowers they like.
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Remove weeds/debris – Eliminate places for bugs to hide and breed around your garden.
When to Take Action
Be proactive in protecting plants from bugs:
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Monitor plants frequently for early signs of damage. Catch infestations before they worsen.
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Take action at the first sight of pests. Removing just a few can prevent populations from exploding.
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Be most vigilant during peak activity times – warm days for sap-sucking insects, night for slugs and snails.
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Target immature stages like caterpillars and slug eggs for most effective control.
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Reapply natural deterrents like neem oil regularly since they break down quickly.
Protect Specific Plants
Match solutions to the bugs attacking your specific plants:
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For roses prone to Japanese beetles, knock off beetles early each day and apply neem oil to repel them.
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Prevent caterpillars on cole crops like broccoli by covering plants with fabric row covers.
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Stop slugs devouring hostas by handpicking nightly and spreading diatomaceous earth around the perimeter.
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Aphids on veggies can be blasted off foliage with water and deterred with insecticidal soap sprays.
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Kill spider mites on indoor plants by thoroughly spraying leaves with neem oil.
When to Call a Pro
If you can’t get a handle on pest damage, don’t hesitate to call a professional. Expert extermination services may be needed if:
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Plants show severe defoliation or decline in health.
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Multiple applications of natural deterrents prove ineffective.
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An infestation explodes rapidly or spreads to other plants.
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You are uncomfortable with hands-on removal techniques.
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Pests pose dangers, like venomous spiders or stinging insects.
Protecting your plants from hungry bugs is possible with consistent monitoring and an integrated pest management approach. Implement multiple eco-friendly deterrents to safely keep leaves intact and plants healthy.
What Are The Most Common Plant-Eating Bugs In Scottsdale?
Want to know which bugs are most likely to blame for the holes in your leaves and plants that look like they’re going to fall over in your garden? Here is a list of suggestions:
Some of the bugs that might be causing your indoor plants to droop include:
Aphids
These bugs are easy to pick out for their unique pale-green color. Unless you’re looking closely, aphids are almost easy to mistake for very tiny leaves. When you look more closely, you’ll see that they are very small pear-shaped bugs with long antennae and two tubes pointing backwards from their abdomen. These pests are frustratingly common and enjoy eating everything from fruits and vegetables to flowers and outdoor trees. But instead of chewing holes in leaves, they like to suck the sap out of plants, which makes the leaves droop and spreads disease.
Mealybugs
These tiny white bugs love houseplants. You can find them most often at the small joint where the leaf meets the stem, as well as on the stems and leaves. Like aphids, they don’t eat the leaves directly but instead feed on the plant’s sap. If you don’t get rid of them, the plant will wilt and die.
Spider Mites
Even though these aren’t really insects but arachnids, they can still do a lot of damage. These mites look like tiny red dots that gather on the underside of leaves to eat plant fluids. They leave tiny dots wherever they’ve been eating. They can get into any houseplant, but ivy is where they’re most likely to be found. They can make a plant turn yellow, wither, and die.
Some bugs that live inside, like aphids, can also live outside, but you’ll probably have to deal with a different group of bugs in your garden. A few of the important ones to keep an eye out for include:
Japanese Beetles
They are annoying bugs that live in almost every state east of the Mississippi. They eat many kinds of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. The way they eat flowers, turn leaves into patchy skeletons, and sometimes completely bare a plant of any leaves makes it easy to tell where they’ve been. Adults are a metallic bluish-green with metallic red wing covers, while the larvae are white grubs.
Tarnished Plant Bugs
You can spot these bugs because they are green and brown and have yellow triangles with black tips on their forewings. However, they move very quickly. They’re not extremely picky about their food and will eat plenty of different fruits, vegetables, and flowers. They don’t chew on the leaves; instead, they drink the plant’s juices, which makes the plant wilt, droop, and often grow too slowly.
Flea Beetles
Flea beetles are another pest that you’ll find on vegetable plants throughout North America. Young plants can be hurt the most when the adults chew round holes right through the middle of the leaves. Larvae are more likely to chew at roots. This bug can be told apart from others because it is dark and can hop like a flea when it is scared.
Caterpillars
There are many different types of caterpillars, and none of them spell good news for your garden. They are larvae, which means they will hatch into moths, flies, butterflies, and other insects one day. For now, their only job is to eat. Unfortunately for gardeners, their preferred food is usually garden leaves.
It doesn’t matter what kind of food a caterpillar eats; it will eat fruits, vegetables, and trees. It will often chew along the edges of leaves. The good news is that these pests are usually simple to find, which makes it easy to figure out what’s wrong.
How To Keep Bugs From Eating Your Plants
As soon as you realize that bugs are eating your plants and have a good idea of which bugs are to blame, the next step is to find a way to keep bugs away from both indoor and outdoor plants. You can buy many synthetic pesticides at your local hardware or plant nursery, but many of us would rather use something more natural.
That said, let’s look at some homemade bug sprays for indoor and outdoor plants.
What Garden Bugs are Eating My Plant Leaves? | DIY Bug Killer Mix
FAQ
How do I get rid of insects eating my plant leaves?
How to treat plants with holes in leaves?
What is the best homemade bug spray for plants?
How do I get rid of little bugs on my plants?
How do you stop Bugs from eating plant leaves?
Combine soap and water for a simple home remedy to stop insects from eating plant leaves. Soapy water works against a wide variety of insect pests. Mix 5 tablespoons of organic liquid soap with a gallon of water to make a plant-friendly bug spray for indoor and outdoor plants. This solution will kill most bugs. 5. Neem Oil
How do you get rid of invasive leaf destroying insects?
One of the most sustainable ways to combat invasive, leaf-destroying insects is to introduce their natural predators. Plant native and pollinator-friendly plants, such as the pincushion plant ( Scabiosa) and beebalm ( Monarda ), to attract insects that not only help your garden thrive but also prey on the bugs that damage plants.
How do you get rid of bugs on plants?
Check the underside of your plants, too—some small insects like to hang out on the bottom of leaves. Spray Bt on your plants to kill pests. Bt is a bacteria that kills some insects, but doesn’t harm plants. If you have a big problem with caterpillars or other large insects, find a product that contains Bt and spray it on your plants.
Can insects eat plant leaves?
Finding the garden culprit will help you choose the most effective method to stop insects from eating plant leaves. Here are some of the common garden pests that are likely to damage or eat your outdoor plants and vegetables: Mostly on cucurbit stems and leaves. I’ve seen them attack zucchini, pumpkins, butternut squash, and cucumbers.