Pests
(Pest)Aphids – They can damage a plant in their own right by sucking the plant’s sap and secreting sticky stuff which stops a leaf growing; but worse, they transmit
diseases to the plant through their sap sucking. Encourage ladybirds and hoverflies into your garden as they will eat aphids, but you can rub them off with your fingers as well.
Birds – They look lovely and eat caterpillars, but also your fruit. Pheasants dig over everything, as do chickens, but they produce wonderful
manure for the veg patch.
Children – Ask them not to walk on your raised bed edge, from which they fall into your plot; and to please leave sticks where they are. Give them their own patch and see how successful they can be at growing, and eating their own veg.
Mammal Wildlife – Deer, Foxes, Rabbits all cause damage so you just have to cover and protect.
Pets – Explain to your dog he can’t dig in your veg patch, and to your cat she can’t lie in the sun on your plot. Failing that, a water pistol should explain it more effectively.
Slugs and snails - Try using plastic plant pots with the bottom cut out as a barrier round young plants, and beer traps and upturned grapefruits as traps. I think slugs and snails are creatures of habit, so learn these habits and launch your ‘seek and destroy’ mission before planting out your precious, and vulnerable seedlings. Bury a glass jar in the ground and fill with (cheap) bitter beer; the slugs and snails crawl in and drown and you can dispose of them. (Beetles fall in as well, so leave an exit route for them) Leave grapefruit, or orange skins out and lift them in the morning and you’ll find them full of slugs that you can destroy. You can buy
nematodes (microscopic worms) that kill off slugs and snails. You just water them into your
soil, and if the instructions are followed they are successful.