Your lovely Metuchen garden may be sabotaging you. Most local gardeners inadvertently develop ideal conditions for unwanted visitors through perfectly normal and harmless practices. Our humid summers and mild winters already make this a perfect climate for a number of pests, and some gardening practices can make your place even more enticing to them.
Whether it be from overwatering that makes mosquito nurseries or densely planted sections that provide a home to rodents, these are the problems that impact about 73% of households with gardens in Metuchen. Fortunately, these Metuchen pest control problems can be understood and solved. Let us explain how!
Gardening Habits That Might Be Making It Worse
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Overwatering Your Plants
Some Metuchen gardeners are so fond of their plants that they drown them with kindness. Extra standing water is a mosquito breeding ground, and they can reproduce every 48 hours. Like over-watering, your soupy soil is also a magnet for fungus gnats and gnawing plant roots, which weaken the plants and make them more inviting to other pests.
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Creating Dense Plant Clusters
Dense plantings create stale air and humid microclimates perfect for pests. Those thick areas turn into ideal hives for low-level pests like aphids, spider mites, and even larger rodents looking for a place to stay.
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Leaving Fallen Fruits and Vegetables
That rotten tomato sitting under your plant not only looks bad, but it also attracts pests. Well-rotting vegetables attract fruit flies, ants, and even rodents. If you have fruit drops, clean them up within a day so that they do not attract pests.
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Composting Incorrectly
If not managed properly, the compost piles get hot and smelly, attracting pests from blocks away. If you add meat scraps or do not turn your compost frequently, you create an all-you-can-eat buffet for pest invaders.
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Using Excessive Mulch
Mulch retains moisture, but three inches or more makes a perfect tiny home for slugs, snails, and other insects. This practice also invites other pests like termites and carpenter ants, which also look for wet or moist wood materials.
Common Garden Pests in Metuchen
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Japanese Beetles
They are leaf skeletonizers on roses and other types of fruit trees and vegetables. One beetle can eat 2 square inches of leaf surface per day, and they exude pheromones that are attractive to hundreds of others.
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Aphids
In our moist climate, these small green or black insects breed quickly. Within one week, a single aphid may produce 80 progeny. These sap-sucking insects group themselves specifically on new growth and flower buds, and help spread viral sicknesses.
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Carpenter Ants
Maybe because about 40% of the homes in Metuchen were built prior to 1960, older wood frames make great nesting locations. These big black ants do not consume wood, but they are digging it out for their colonies and, if left untreated, may damage it over the years.
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Spotted Lanternflies
Since 2019, this invasive species has been seen across central New Jersey. While doing so, they destroy fruit trees, grapes, and hardwood trees and leave behind a sticky honeydew that lures in other pests and encourages mold.
When Gardens Need More Than Just Green Thumbs
When your pest control needs exceed the scope of garden-safe sprays or homemade barriers, DIY typically fails. When carpenter ants have multiple nests spread throughout your structures or when spotted lanternfly nymphs and adults have reached destructive levels, DIY typically fails.
When the infestation risks the integrity of your home and garden, professional pest control becomes necessary. For example, Alliance Pest Services knows the Metuchen gardener’s plight thoroughly. They help to recognize pest entry points that might escape your attention and develop complete treatment plans that work for both instant remedies and future evasion practices.
When certain pests keep coming back, no matter what you do, and structural damage from wood-boring insects is apparent, professionals can provide the proper treatment.
