This document provides information on identifying and managing common garden pests like insects and small animals. It discusses integrated pest management strategies like observation, identification, and using biological and cultural controls before resorting to chemical methods. Specific pests covered include aphids, spider mites, squash bugs, earwigs, and more. For small animals, it provides facts on common species like deer, ground squirrels, mice, moles and rabbits as well as non-lethal control recommendations focused on habitat modification and exclusion. The document concludes with additional wildlife and pest management resources.

1. Insect and Critter Control
Wendy Hanson Mazet
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
hansonw@unce.unr.edu

2. First ask yourself - What is a Pest?
Anything or anyone that
is detrimental to your
garden or landscape
– destroys crops &
structures
– poses health threats
to family or pets
– reduces aesthetic
value of your property

3. Insect & Critters in the Garden
Six Key Steps
• Observation
• Early Detection
• Correct Identification
of insect or pest
• Education
• Select appropriate
control
• Proper application

4. Integrated Pest Management
IPM: a balanced, tactical approach
• Anticipates and prevents
damage
• Uses several tactics
in combination
• Improves effectiveness,
reduces side effects
• Relies on
identification, measureme
nt, assessment,
and knowledge

5. Control Tactics
Five Most Common
• Mechanical
• Cultural
• Physical
• Genetic
• Chemical

7. Know For Insects - Know Your Enemy:
• Sucking Insects: Pierce and suck plant juices
Yellow or bronze discoloration of leaves and shoots
Wilting and curling of leaves and shoots
Aphids, whiteflies, mites (not true insects) feed near tip of
young shoots and on undersides of leaves
Leafhoppers feed under leaf surfaces, and scale feed
on leaves, stems, and shoots.
All feed in large groups except leafhoppers

8. Piercing Insects
• Control:
• Keep plants healthy
• Maintain a diverse habitat
• Monitor garden daily, so
when insect pests are
found, control measures
can be taken quickly.
– hose plants off
– insecticidal soap sprays
– horticulture oils including
Neem oil
– Cover with garden blanket
– Encourage Beneficial insects

9. Aphid
• Small, soft bodied insects 1/10 inch
long
• Long mouth parts used to suck plant
juices.
• Cornicles are found on most species.
• Found in many colors.
• Most over-winter as eggs, hatch in
spring.
• Secrete honeydew.
• Most abundant in cool spring and cool
fall.
• Ants may be present tending aphids.

10. Stink Bugs
•5/8 inches long, bright
green, brown with
stripes, large body small
head
• When crush they stink! NCCE
•Piercing/sucking mouth
parts
• stippling damage on
leaf and stem tissue
•Barrel like eggs laid on
leaf and stem tissue

11. Squash Bugs
•5/8 inches long, brown
with stripes, large
oblong body small head
•Overwinter as adults
•Piercing/sucking mouth
parts
• stippling damage on
leaf and stem tissue
•Eggs are rust to root
beer colored and found
on the undersides of the
leaf
University of Minnesota
Extension

12. Spider Mites
•Very small – require a
hand lenses to be seen
•Not an insect. Arachnid
possessing 8 legs.
•When spider mites feed
on fruit can cause a silvery
or bronzy sheen called
russetting.
•When populations are
large a fine webbing may
be seen on leaves and
needles.
•Prefer hot, dry and dusty
environments.

13. Mites Cont.
Several species of mites in our area.
– Common is two-spotted spider mite
• Found on outdoor plants and
houseplants.
– Spruce spider mite
• Found on Juniper, Spruce, and other
needled-leaf evergreens.
– Clover mite-pest of lawns and weedy areas
• Occurs as periodic lawn pest, and
nuisance in spring and
Fall.

14. Leafhoppers
•Adults a wedge-shaped and
about 1/8 inch long
•Leafhoppers over-winter as
eggs on twigs, or as adults in
protected sites, such as bark
crevices.
•Very active – jumping,
flying and running when
disturbed.
•Sucking mouthparts cause
stippling, yellow to
brown leaves.
•Nymphs are considered
more damaging than
adults

15. Whitefly
•White Moths with powdery
wings 1/10th inch in length
•Eggs are typically laid on
the newest leaves.
•Piercing-sucking method of
feeding produces stippling of
leaves
•Heavy feeding may wilt and
stunt plants
•hosts, bean, cucumber, egg
plant, lettuce, okra, potato, t
omato, squash, and sweet
potato.

16. Earworm
•½ inch to1 inch in length
•Prefer cool damp places
hiding in organic mulch, under
bark, in garden debris
•Feed on a variety of dead and
living organisms, including
insects, mites and shoots of
plants.
•Earwigs also feed on silks of
corn, causing poor kernel
development.

17. Chewing Insects
• Loopers, hornworms,
leafrollers, cutworms are
all larvae of butterflies
and moths.
• Control:
– Handpick larvae
– Cover with garden blanket
– Bacillus thuringiensis-Bt
– Encourage Beneficial
insects Cabbageworm Butterfly

18. Army Miller Moth
Cutworm
•Smooth, gray-black
with smooth skin
•Can reach 1 ½ inches
long
•When disturbed they
curl into a C shape
•Caterpillars chew on
stems and leaves
•Adult is known “Miller
Moth”

19. Corn Earworm
•1 ¾ inches long
•Light green to brownish
black
•Alternating light stripe
running down the length
of its body
•Chews holes in leaves
and fruit
•Eggs laid on the silk
•Adult is a moth and
overwinters as a pupa

20. Cabbage &
Alfalfa looper
•Loopers 1 to 1.5”
•feed on leaves
•Female can lay 200-350 eggs
over a 12 day period – hatching
occurs within 2 weeks
•Larvae will feed 2 to 4 weeks
•Note: plants can lose 20 to 25
percent of their leaf area
without a reduction in yield

21. Hornworm
•Large green to brown
caterpillars – up to 3-4
inches
•Can defoliate a tomato
within days
•Adult is a sphinx moth –
known as a
hummingbird moth
•Pupa overwinter in the
soil

22. Leafminers
•Larvae a maggot or slug
like and burrow between
the two layers of tissue
•Adult is a small slender-
bodied, grayish, black-
haired fly – ¼” long
•Larvae will pupate in the
top 3” of soil, but some
will stay in the leaf itself
•Can have 3 to 4
generations a year
•Larvae over winter in the
soil

23. University of Minnesota Extension –Karl Foord

24. The Good Guys –
Naturally occurring predators
Lady beetles Snake fly
Green lacewing

25. Predators available for purchase
• Convergent lady beetle
• Spined soldier bug
• Praying mantid eggs
• Green Lacewing Eggs

26. Companion Planting
Planting a variety of flowers will
attract many of the beneficial
insects.
•Flowers in the sunflower
(Asteraceae) family consist of
many small flowers which
attract many beneficial insects.
•Carrot family (Apiacea)
•Buckwheat family
(Polygonaceae)
•Scabiosa family (Dipsaceae)

27. Benefits of Crop Rotation and
litter management
• Residue destruction • Crop rotation
– More important for disease than
– Removes host plant
insect control
material
– minimum is a 4 course crop rotation
– Trash
Roots
– Contain compost pile Brassica
Cucurbits
Legumes
Others

28. Simple rules for crop rotation:
• Don’t follow tomato, peppers or eggplant with
potatoes, or each other.
• Allow 3 years before replanting the same group in
any given bed.
• Onions may be planted throughout all groups.
• Beets, carrots and radishes may be planted among
any group, and replanted as early crops are
removed.
• Interplant with companion plants to minimize
pesticide use.
• Keep good records so you can duplicate successes.
PennState – Crop Rotation

30. Incorporating age old techniques
Biochemical Pest Suppression
Some plants exude chemicals from roots or aerial parts
that suppress or repel pests and protect neighbouring
plants.
Insect Plants that should deter
Aphid Chives, Coriander, Nasturtium
Ants Tansy
Asparagus Beetle Pot Marigold
Bean Beetle Marigold, Nasturtium, Rosemary
Cabbage Moth Hyssop, Mint (also clothes moths), Oregano,
Rosemary, Sage, Southernwood, Tansy, Thyme

31. Insect Plants that should deter
Potato Bugs Horseradish
Mosquitoes Basil, Rosemary
Moths Santolina
Squash Bugs & Beetles Nasturtium, Tansy
Tomato Horn Worm Borage, Pot Marigold
Carrot Fly Rosemary, Sage
Flea Beetle - Catmint, Mint
Flies - Basil, Rue
Japanese beetles - Garlic & Rue (When used near roses and
raspberries), Tansy

32. Wildlife

33. Wildlife Damage and
Management
• Things to know…
Wanted in 5 neighborhoods
– Managing nuisance On 17 counts of larceny, suspect
wildlife is not easy. at large with a 3 pound stash
of birdseed in his checks –
– It will take time Birds in Garden Image
– It can be costly
– You need to be
persistent and
patience.
– And there is no magic
wand
N.W.D.S UK

34. Knowledge is Key in
wildlife damage prevention
• Before you start the • Now what will you do?
war you need to
• H-E-R-L
understand why are
they coming to your – H – Habitat Modification
garden or yard. – E - Exclusion
– You moved into their – R - Removal or Repellent
territory – L - Lethal Control
• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• M.T. Mengak

35. Mule Deer R. Miller
Important Facts:
•Generally prefer open
space, but very adaptable This is a
•Herbivores – forbs, leaves and Chipmunk
twigs
•Size 130 to 280lbs
•Life span – 9 to 11 years
•1 to 2 young per year
•Have better nighttime vision
than humans
•1,000 times stronger sense of
smell than humans

36. California Ground
Squirrel
Important Facts:
•Generally prefer open
space, but very adaptable
•Herbivores
•Will cannibalize
•Live in burrows
•1 litter per year – litter size ~7
•Life span 4 to 5 years
•Currently, zinc phosphide is the
only acute rodenticide that is
registered by EPA for the control of
Belding and California ground
squirrels.

37. Golden-mantled
ground squirrel R. Miller
Important Facts:
•Generally prefer open space,
but very adaptable This is a
•Herbivores Chipmunk
•Looks like a large chipmunk,
but they have no stripe on the
face
•Live in burrows
•Seldom do the stance of the
chipmunk
•1 litter per year – litter size ~5

38. Curtis, B, D. Curtis, and W.
Voles Miller. 2009
•Also called meadow, field or
pine mice
•4 to 8.5 inches long
•vary in color from brown to
gray
•Large colonies
•Damage by voles can be
reduced by :
•habitat modification
•exclusion
•Repellents
•Trapping
•poison grain baits
•http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/
pn7439.html
Missouri Botanical Garden UC IPM

39. House &
Deer Mouse
•House Mouse
•vary in color gray, light
brown to black
•Short hair, with small eyes
and large ears
•Life span 9 to 12 months
•Deer Mouse
•Two-tone, brown to grey
on top with a white belly.
Tail 50/50 tan and white
•Start reproducing at 6
weeks of age
•Prefer seeds, but will eat
fruits, invertebrates and
fungi
• http://ucanr.org/sites/ipm//ipmweb/?p=/PMG/P
ESTNOTES/pn74161.html

40. Woodrats
Important Facts:
•Also known as pack
rats, bushy tailed
wood re and trade
rat
•Active at night
•Build stick dens on
the ground or in
trees
•Herbivores, green
vegetation, twigs
and shoots
•1 litter per year –
litter size ~ 4

41. Rats Mice
• Nocturnal • Nocturnal
• Requires water daily • Generally get water from food
• Will travel several hundred source
feet from nest • Will travel long distances from
• Prefer to travel on edges nest
• Wary of new objects in the • Prefer to travel on edges
environment • Not wary of new objects in the
• They can jump, swim and environment
squeeze into and through • They can jump, swim and
almost anything squeeze into and through
• Will eat almost anything
pipes, wire, blocks, and • Live outside, in homes a sheds
whatever necessary to get

42. Moles
Important Facts:
•live in underground
runways
•Seldom seen above the
ground
•Runways 5 to 20” deep
•Prefer loose, moist soil
•4 to 8” long - Blind
•Carnivores – earthworms,
grubs, beetles, insect
larvae
•Can eat 40lbs of food a
day
•Single litter – 3 to 5
•Life span – 3 years

43. Quail
Important Facts:
•Generally prefer open
space during breeding
•Omnivorous, but tent to
be vegetarians looking for
seed and seedlings
•1 clutch per year – clutch
size ~12 eggs
•When quail reach 2
months old they can
breed
•Life span 3 – 5 years

44. Cottontail
Rabbits
Important Facts:
•Generally prefer open
space, shrub or bush
filled areas or any
backyard urban or
rural.
•Herbivores
•Live in existing cavities
or burrows excavated
by others
•Territory about ~10
acres
•multiple litters per
year – litter size ~5-6
•Lifespan 12 – 15
months
•Carry fleas

45. Resources
• http://icwdm.org/handbook/index.asp
• www.ipm.ucdavis.edu
• Nevada Department of Wildlife
– http://www.ndow.org/
• 775-688-1500 Reno office
• For general questions or comments ndowinfo@ndow.org
• Nevada Department of Agriculture
– http://agri.state.nv.us/
• 405 South 21st Street, Sparks, NV 89431
• 775-353-3638