Pests

Note : It is important to rotate your crops to prevent the build up of pests. Ensure you keep your gardens clear of debris and give your garden a good digging after the growing season. Treat your digging as a search and destroy mission.

Not an exhaustive list but a start.

Aphids ( Green Fly / Black Fly )

Aphids are commonly known as Green / Black fly but range in a variety of colours. Aphids are sap feeders and may transmit plant viruses, cause stunting and deformities of leaves and stems. They attack Cucumbers, Beans and  Brassicas including Swede. Spray them with a mild solution of soapy water, pinch out growing tips, plant Marigolds to attract their enemies, encourage insect eating birds or revert to the finger and thumb method.

Cabbage white butterflies

Two species of butterfly, large whites and small whites, are often lumped together as ‘cabbage whites’ (the closely related green-veined white is not a pest species). Squash their oval, yellow eggs when you find them and exclude the adults with a fine mesh netting.

Cabbage root fly

This fly lays its eggs in the soil or occasionally on the plant itself. Cover the ground with fleece or a fine mesh straight after sowing or planting, or protect individual plants with special root fly mats. You can buy these or make your own from 12 cm squares of any soft woven material. A traditional remedy is to plant young brassicas in holes lined with rhubarb leaves. Apparently the smell puts them off.

Capsid bugs

These feed on the growing tips of many plants such as currants and runner beans causing distorted growth. Birds find the bugs tasty so encourage them with bird feeders placed near infested plants.

Carrot Root Fly

Very destructive, first burrowing around the outside, eventually tunnelling throughout the root. Parsnips, Celery, Dill and Fennel can also be attacked. The carrot root shows rust coloured tunnels around it's circumference, in parsnips the damage is usually near the crown and bases of the leaf stalks. There are normally two generations per year, the first in late April to early May and a second in late July. They over winter as larvae in roots or as pupae in the soil, though a few adults may survive the winter. They are low fliers, so surround plants with a polythene barrier about 2ft high or cover with garden fleece. Lifting the crop in autumn limits the damage. Sow seed very thinly to reduce thinning, this limits the attack as they are attracted by the smell. Avoid growing early and late crops together and if infestation occurs do not leave any roots in the ground to carry over to the next season. Sowing at the correct time will avoid the flying insects. If sown in early June, the first generation females will have nowhere to lay their eggs so there should be fewer second generation flies to emerge. Other sowings in late autumn or early spring for harvesting in the summer should be at lower risk. Harvesting before the second generation is important before they do too much damage, so lift the June sown carrots by November. Any left after this will be vulnerable and can provide over wintering habitats.

Caterpillars

Caterpillars can be found on cabbage, swede, and kale, throughout the summer. The adult, mostly white butterfly emerges from the pupa (chrysalis) in April and May. The adult male has black markings on the tips of its wings; the female is identified by the additional two black spots in the middle of each wing. After mating the female lays clusters of yellow eggs on the underside of plant leaves.

Celery fly

This also attacks plants such as celeriac, parsley and lovage. Cover your crop with a fleece or fine mesh netting.

Codling moths

These attack fruit trees. Sticky pheromone traps are successful against adult moths, and earwigs eat the caterpillars. Encourage earwigs with artificial refuges such as short lengths of hosepipe bent double and hung in the branches.

Cutworm

This is a generic name for a variety of nocturnal moth caterpillars that attack crops such as lettuce, brassicas, carrots, celery, beetroot, potatoes and strawberries. Protect young transplants by pushing a collar (a cardboard tube or open-ended tin
can) into the soil around the plant.

Symptoms: This microscopic pest can survive in the soil for 20 years in the absence of any potato crop. It tends to be common on allotments, where potatoes are often grown without using a crop rotation.Infected plants will tend to die back early, sometimes in patches, and yields will be reduced. Where soil is severely infested, growth and cropping may be minimal. To confirm the presence of eelworm, check in July/early August. Carefully expose the roots of a potato plant and look for pinhead sized white, yellow or brown cysts on the roots. A magnifying glass may help! Two forms of potato cyst eelworm are commonly found - Heterodera rostochiensis, the golden eelworm, and Heterodera pallida, the white eelworm. It is very difficult for the amateur to identify which type is present. The only time it matters which type is present is when using resistant varieties; the majority are only resistant to the golden eelworm; a few to both.

Control:
Use certified seed to avoid introducing the pest.
Use a 4 year crop rotation; longer where eelworm is a problem. Tomatoes are also susceptible.
Pentland Javelin, Cara, Maris Piper, Nadine, Nicola, Kestrel, Swift, Sante and Valor, for example, are resistant to the golden eelworm. Kestrel and Sante must be the preferred choice as they also have some resistance to the white eelworm.
Use compost and composted manure to improved the soil.

Flea Beetles

A tiny beetle that attacks your Brassicas, Turnips and Radish, especially at the seedling stage, leaving small holes on affected leaves. By touching  the leaves you will see them fly off in all directions. Place fleece over your Brassicas immediately after planting. Hoe regularly to destroy their eggs laid in the soil.

Leatherjackets ( Crane Fly )

The larvae of the Crane Fly or as most of us know them as "Daddy Long Legs". They attack potatoes, strawberries, cabbages and lettuce. Birds find them a good source of food.

Millipedes

Most of the millipedes you see in your garden will be harmless but a few burrowing species are troublesome. The worst villain is the spotted-snake millipede which can damage root crops and potatoes. There’s little that can be done about them but as they often exploit damage caused by pests such as slugs, action against these will often limit the damage millipedes can do.

Onion fly

These also attack shallots and leeks. Try growing onions under fleece or fine netting and make sure you grow the crop on rotation.

Pea and bean weevil

Avoid using vetch or winter tares (both legumes) as green manures as these will attract the weevils. Protect the crop with a fine mesh or fleece.

Pea moth

This lays its eggs inside pea flowers so early and late sowings may avoid the times the moth is in flight. Alternatively, cover the flowers in a fine mesh.

Pea thrips

These also attack broad beans. Early sowing will help avoid the peak infestations of midsummer.

Pollen beetles

While largely harmless they may occasionally damage cauliflower or calabrese so protect them with fleece. They often migrate to allotments from nearby agricultural crops, especially fields of oil-seed rape.

Rabbits

Yes we have our fair share of rabbits, and they love to eat our vegetables including broccoli, beans, beet tops, carrots and peas. They will also chew the bark, buds and stems of woody plants. Rabbits can be identified as the culprits in your garden initially by their droppings or pellets. 
Rabbit's make a 45 degree cut when chewing off twigs and stems. The cuts are clean and close to the ground and prefer to eat after dark.
Use chicken wire, wire meshed frames with a 1- 2inch mesh size. Bury the bottom of the fence 2-6 inches.
A cylindrical enclosure 2 feet high around trees and plants provides good protection, bury the bottom of the enclosure 2-6 inches below the soil surface. Allow ample room between the plant and the barrier. 
Black pepper and Bonemeal sprinkled around the rabbits favourite foods may encourage them to eat elsewhere. Their natural predators are foxes and stoats.

Raspberry beetles

These also attack tayberry, blackberry and loganberry. Remove mulches in the autumn to expose the grubs to predators and gently dig the soil to do the same. After fruiting, remove netting to allow birds to hunt down adults and larvae. Cutting the canes to the base at the end of the year can also help.

Sawfly ( Gooseberry )

Attack the leaves of gooseberry bushes, red and white currents, but not blackcurrants. The adult female lays its eggs on the underside of the leaves at the centre of the bush. When they first hatch they make tiny holes in the leaf. As they grow larger they can strip the bush bare as they move outwards. The damage can occur between May and September. The best control is to examine the bushes carefully in late April, looking for the eggs or the early larval stage low down in the centre of the bush. Repeat in early June, July and late August when later generations could be starting. Crush any eggs or larvae. It helps to prune the bushes in an open manner or train them as cordons, so that inspection is easy. They survive the winter as cocoons in the soil around the base of the bush, so clearing away debris and mulch in the winter and disturbing the soil will allow the birds to find them. When the first signs are spotted remove the affected leaves to ensure all of the eggs and larvae are cleared.

Slugs & Snails

Its not the large ones that do the most damage apparently but the small ones. They mostly feed at night so make sure your torch is in good working order if you prefer to pick them off. There are a variety of traps and pellets that you can purchase and use. I remember reading an article about slug pellets stating that they contained 5% poison and 95% dog food, get some rain, the poison washes out, leaving the dog food for them to feed on and multiply. If your cruel sprinkle them with salt or use beer traps ( brown ale is suppose to work best ) sunk so the rim is level with the soil, they'll drown quite happily. A half-and-half mixture of vinegar and water in a sprayer should work, one squirt is all that is needed I've been told. Crushed egg shells sprinkled on the soil surface works in my back garden, the shells stick to their undersides immobilising them or at least slowing them down. Of course natural predators such as Ground Beetles, Hedgehogs and Toads could be encouraged.

Squirrels

Squirrel repellents include moth balls, naphthalene flakes and dried blood.

Wireworm ( Click Beetle )

They feed on plant roots and the base of stems ruining potato and other root crops. They burrow a tunnel about 3mm in diameter which can later be invaded by slugs or millipedes. Lift potatoes before September, when they are most active and damage is done.

Wood Pigeon

What can I say, well protection is needed very much the same as Rabbits but a top covering is required. A fellow gardener told me that Pigeons need a bit of a runway to take off and they don't like red or orange. He uses the orange plastic fencing as used for road works and positions it closely to allow room for his vegetables but the area small enough to prevent the pigeon taking off. The theory goes that if the pigeon can not take off it will not land. I believe his theory and will try it next year. Now where are any road works.