Identifying outdoor garden pests and diseases in the Southwest.
Living out in the Southwest there are comparatively few pests and disease as in other areas. Since we have very little humidity and usually very hot sun we rarely have fungi and also rarely have galls, cankers, nematodes and allied garden troubles.
Black spot, rust and similar disease that devastate gardens in other regions are not hardly known in the Southwest. I usually spray cold water on my rose bushes and other garden plants and it controls aphis, red spider, thrips, and a lot of insect. By spraying the cold water treatment for several days the little pests will just wilt away.
Below are a few of the insects in the Southwest:
Aphis- These are tiny, soft-bodied bits, usually green or black in color, that will cluster on stems and leaves, sometimes covering entire portion. These are easily controlled with weekly or biweekly sprays of cold water during the hot part of the day.
Mealy Bug- They are Whitish, cottony-looking little bugs that enjoy soft-stemmed plants and succulents. Usually a spraying of vegetable, mineral and organic oils will rid the plants of these bugs. You can even use a toothpick with a small cotton swab attached and dipped into alcohol to touch the bug lightly and destroy it.
Thrips- A tiny insect about one-sixteenth of an inch long, and looking like a clipping of blond hair. These insects move quickly and are hard to detect. They are hot weather insects and as soon as the hot weather begins I start the cold water treatments.
Leaf Hoppers- These are little insects that hop from leaf to leaf and from plant to plant. They can carry virus diseases about with them and are best attacked with an insecticide or by hand picking.
White Fly- These are small and very bothersome little insects of several varieties and an insecticide will end these.
Mites- Red spider mites will be seen on stems and leaves as they will infest in quantity. Use a cold water spray for five days in a row and they usually leave.
Borers- These will attack peach trees mostly, use a non-oil emulsion on the base of the tree on a warm day in early Spring.
Scale- Scale usually fix themselves to a branch of leaf and resemble a tough, shell-like series of plant growths rather than insects. An oil spray works on these.
There are also hard-shelled bugs, such as the squash bag and beetles that can be controlled with a repellent spray. Worms such as the cabbage worm, leaf looper, miner, or bag worm, can be cleaned up with a contact spray. Army worms become moths, but in the worm stage they will eat the roots of lawn grasses and do lots of damage. A bait mixture usually rids the lawn of these.
Sod Web Worms for very troublesome for lawns, consult your local plant nursery for treatment.
Cutworms in the caterpillar stage often are very damaging. They are always starving, and sometimes can be prevented by wrapping the stems of plants with heavy paper inserted into the ground and extended an inch or two. Sow Bugs or pill bugs will feed on roots and will need treatment. Grasshoppers can be a major problem as they will pick off the plants while they feed, consult a plant nursery for help with this insect. Ants are plentiful but don't damage the garden, just make
unsightly spots with their hills, usually water
sprays will rid your garden of these pesky insects.
If you will practice good housekeeping in your garden and also properly irrigate you won't have much of the following fungus diseases: mildew, rust, curly leaf, blight, wilt, black spot, dollar spot, or brown spot.
Consult your local plant nursery for the best sprays for any insect or disease infestation.
