Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Insects Pests and Diseases

Wireworms represent the larval stage of the click beetles of the family Elateridae. There are around 9,300 species worldwide, but it is a small handful of species that cause problems in our fields and gardens. Click beetles are 1-2cm long, quite narrow in shape, and can be brown, grey, or black. Most obviously, when turned on their backs they use a special mechanism to right themselves, which produces an audible “click.” The larvae themselves are tan to orange in colour, cylindrical, hard-bodied (unlike many garden grubs), and 1-4cm when mature. These larvae may live in the ground for 2 to...

The Lower Mainland of BC tends to enjoy very damp spring and early summer weather. This dampness creates the ideal habitat for Woodlice – often called sow bugs or pill bugs. These are the small, grey, segmented animals that can be found beneath rotting wood, garbage cans, plant pots, and so on. They gather, sometimes in large numbers, anywhere where moisture collects and lasts throughout the day. Woodlice are actually crustaceans of the suborder Oniscidea, and are more closely related to shrimp than to insects. There are more than 3,000 species of woodlice in the world, and dozens of different...

Whiteflies are members of the order Hemiptera, a group of insects classed together because of the similarity of their sucking mouthparts, with which they feed on the juices of plants. They are closely related to aphids. There are over 1,500 species of whitefly, but two are a particular nuisance in North American greenhouses and gardens, the glasshouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum), and the tobacco whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). Adult whiteflies look like extremely tiny, bright white moths, and are usually seen after they have been disturbed and take to the air. They infest the tops of plants, their growing tips, and the...

Grazing deer can be a major nuisance for gardeners in Coastal BC, on the Gulf Islands, and in the Interior portions of the province. Vegetable gardens, full of tender greens and food, should be protected with sturdy fences, tall enough so that deer cannot leap over. Other garden areas, though, can be planted with a variety of flowers and herbs that either repel deer or produce odours or chemicals that offend their palates. Below is a brief list of the varieties we carry at West Coast Seeds, but there are others. We will be expanding our selection of deer resistant...

We’ve often spoken to gardeners who just shake their heads despairingly when we mention growing tomatoes. The Tomato Late Blight fungus really has hit Coastal gardeners hard and, from what we hear, has now even made its way into the Okanagan. Most new varieties are resistant to the common fungal diseases, but late blight (Phytopthera infestans) is dreadful here on the Coast. The leaves develop brown spots which eventually cause the whole leaf to turn brown and drop off. If conditions are right for the fungus, the entire plant becomes diseased and dies quickly. Although late blight has been around for...