Garden & Wildlife

Anyone who’s worked out how to get rid of squirrels in garden beds learned it the hard way. You bought the spray. It worked for a week. Then the squirrels came back and dug up your bulbs anyway. That’s the pattern in every gardening thread on the subject: someone finds the repellent that finally works,…

If you’re trying to figure out how to get rid of moss in lawn areas, start here: moss doesn’t invade a healthy lawn – it moves into conditions that grass can’t handle. As Clint Waltz, a turfgrass extension specialist at the University of Georgia, puts it: moss is opportunistic. It doesn’t compete with turf for…

Knowing how to get rid of roly poly bugs starts with understanding what they actually are. Pill bugs and armadillo bugs – whatever you call them – are technically crustaceans, not insects. They breathe through gills, which is why they’re always in damp places. That biology is the key: they can’t survive without moisture, and…

If you need to know how to get rid of scale insects, the first thing to understand is why spraying hasn’t worked. Adult scales secrete a hard waxy shell that most contact sprays can’t penetrate. You can drench the plant in insecticide and watch nothing happen, because the active ingredient never reaches the insect under…

You found the damage before you found the culprit. A branch stripped bare, ragged holes in the leaves, black droppings (called frass) scattered on the foliage below. If you’re trying to figure out how to get rid of tomato hornworms on tomato plants, the culprit is probably right there – you’re just not seeing it…

You came out to the garden and half your tomato plant was stripped overnight. Leaves gone, stems gnawed to stubs, and somewhere on what’s left: a large green caterpillar so well-camouflaged you almost missed it. That’s a tomato hornworm. If you’re searching for how to get rid of tomato hornworms, the short answer is: hand-pick…

Fire ant mounds appear overnight and the colonies underneath can hold hundreds of thousands of workers. Stomp one mound and the survivors relocate and rebuild within days. Pour straight insecticide on top and you’ll kill the foragers you can see while the queen keeps reproducing twenty feet away, unbothered. If you want to know how…

You walked out to the garden and found your seedlings decapitated. Stems cut clean through at soil level, plant tops lying wilted on the ground. That’s cutworms – and if you’re trying to figure out how to get rid of cutworms, the short answer is: collars, hand-picking, and a biological spray. The caterpillar does its…

Whiteflies outdoors are a different beast than the ones on your windowsill houseplants. Out in the garden, they breed fast in warm weather, cloud up every time you brush past your tomatoes, and suck the life out of entire beds if you let them. You’ll notice them first as a white flutter when you disturb…