The garden floor is alive! But in addition to countless useful animals and microorganisms, there are also pests. They don't have any good plans for our plants, which we unfortunately often find out much too late. These are often found underground.
Voles may look cute, but they cause a lot of damage in the garden
grubs
Larvae of beetles are called grubs. Not all are garden pests. However, garden leaf beetles, cockchafers and June beetles are among them. Their larvae look confusingly similar:
- creamy white coloring
- hunched posture
- about 3 cm long
- have six pairs of sternums and a brown head
These larvae not only cause damage in vegetable and flower beds. Often they also damage green lawns, which suddenly show certain spots. Engraved grubs can be controlled with the help of predatory nematodes.
caterpillars
Various moth species provide caterpillars that live in the garden soil and can cause great damage to our plants.
- they are up to 5 cm long
- grey-brown or green
- curl up when touched
They eat thick-fleshed vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery or lettuce. They hardly leave anything from young specimens. The use of nematodes does not bring resounding success. Search the soil around the eaten plants for them and collect them.
tips
Other pests in the garden soil can be wireworms, vine weevil larvae or tipula larvae.
voles
A large pest that is up to mischief underground is the vole. They nibble off the roots of our plants. Hardly any variety is spurned by her. The plants lose contact with the ground, can neither stand upright nor are they sufficiently supplied with water and nutrients. They begin to wither and eventually die completely.
You rarely see a vole darting through the garden above ground. On the other hand, holes in the garden soil, which it leaves in several places, are more noticeable. They have a diameter of 3-4 cm. Voles are reproductive. If you don't deal with them promptly and effectively, an entire tribe could soon inhabit your garden.
Mechanical traps but also chemical control agents are commercially available. Numerous household tips can also be found on the Internet, but their effectiveness is disputed.