You can fight these pests throughout the season. But now, in the fall, when vegetables were removed from the beds, and the garden was freed from fruits, you can safely exterminate unwanted guests. At this time, the drugs will not harm either plants or humans.
We tell you what pests and how you can get rid of in the autumn.
Mole cricket
Mole cricket is a serious pest on the site. Probably every summer resident has heard about her. A rather large dark brown insect with a mustache, tentacles and abdomen, the length of which is three times the size of the head, digs excellent passages, eats up the roots of cultivated plants and root crops, and destroys seeds.
Catching a mole cricket with bare hands is not so easy. But there are many ways to repel the pest and get rid of it.
Before you start fighting an insect, study its preferences so as not to create a comfort zone for the pest on your site.
Mole cricket attracts:
- use of fresh organics as fertilizers;
- manure heaps and compost pits in which the pest hibernates;
- constantly wet soil, waterlogged areas and areas with a close location of groundwater.
In the fight against mole crickets, both folk remedies and special devices and chemicals are used.
The main ways to get rid of mole crickets:
- an ultrasonic repeller is a modern tool that causes panic in an insect and forces it to leave the area of concern. Such a device is safe for humans, and is used to get rid of other pests, incl. moles, is environmentally friendly. But it can affect pets, and when turned off, pests can return to the site again. There are other types of repellent devices - vibration, sound and combined, which emit vibrations or a signal that are unpleasant for an insect and at the same time are audible to a person;
- chemical preparations - Rubit, Mole cricket Off, Anti mole cricket, Vofatoks, Boverin, Rembek from mole crickets, etc. Ready-made bait granules with an attractive smell for pests are laid out around the area or in mole cricket passages. After eating the bait, the insect soon dies. Such preparations do not accumulate in the soil, do not reduce soil fertility and do not destroy beneficial microorganisms;
- digging the soil in autumn and spring to a depth of 15 cm - if the peace is disturbed, the mole cricket will leave the area and move to a safer place;
- beer trap - pour some beer into a plastic bottle, dig a hole in the places where the mole cricket's passages meet, fill it with water and place the container with beer at an angle of 45 degrees so that the neck of the bottle does not protrude above the surface of the hole. Place a small piece of cardboard or plywood under the neck so that the mole cricket does not cover it. Cover the trap with light-proof material (cardboard, plywood, slate, etc.) and cover it with a thin layer of earth. Once a week, inspect the traps and destroy the “prey”;
- dung trap - dig holes up to 50 cm deep and fill them with manure mixed with straw. The mole cricket will settle there for the winter. And when frost comes, dig out traps and scatter insects. In the cold the pests will die.
Slugs
These gastropods are found everywhere - in the garden, in the beds, in the greenhouse and even in the cellar. They are not picky about food and eat literally everything that comes in their way - fruits, leaves, moss and even mushrooms.
If you notice an accumulation of slugs on the site, you should not be inactive and wait for winter, hoping that with the advent of frost they will die. These soft-bodied creatures calmly tolerate a drop in temperature, nothing will happen to them during the winter, and in the spring they will continue to destroy lush greenery.
Before the arrival of cold weather, slugs look for warm places to overwinter, where the temperature rarely drops below 0°C. Therefore, autumn is the best time to deal with mollusks.
Slugs are fought with both folk remedies and with the help of special chemicals.
The main ways in the fight against slugs:
- beer traps - slugs, like the bear, also love the taste of beer. Build beer traps on the site, as described above;
- traps from watermelon peels, cabbage leaves, wet rags, pieces of slate, plywood, cardboard - lay them out on the site, and in the morning collect and destroy the pests that have fallen;
- the use of chemical molluscicides - it is enough to scatter the granules in the right places. Suitable drugs such as Metaldehyde, AntiSlizen, Ulitsid.
Do not leave dead slugs on the site. The smell will attract new mollusks and there will be more pests.
Ants
Ants are a serious threat to all horticultural crops. These insects damage the roots, fruits and leaves of plants, attract aphids to the site, and spread dangerous bacteria. Getting rid of these insects on the site is not easy, but there are a number of effective ways.
Folk ways to deal with ants:
- spread strong-smelling anise leaves, smoked herring heads, sawdust mixed with mashed garlic around the ant shelter. Or just pour kerosene over the anthill (just don’t set it on fire!);
- spill the habitats of ants with a special composition (10 liters of water, 400 g of laundry soap, 10 tablespoons of kerosene and 2 tablespoons of carbolic acid);
- sprinkle the anthill and ant trails with salt or ash;
- pour 2-4 liters of boiling water into the anthill, repeat the procedure after 2-3 days;
- pour the anthill with a solution of boric acid (dissolve 5 g of the drug in a glass of hot water, add 2 tablespoons of sugar or honey, add water to 1 liter and pour the anthill and insect passages in the evening.
Of the chemicals against ants on the site, Rembek from ants, Rembek MurahaCID, Muracid, Murahomor, Antiant, Karbofos, Taracid, Thiuram, etc. are used.
Moles
The mole does not feed on plants and does not come to the site at all for the harvest. But these animals spoil the lawn, expose and damage the roots of plants, make the site uneven and unattractive.
If there are piles of earth on the site, do not wait for the new season until the underground living creatures completely "smash" the territory. The mole does not hibernate, and even in winter it digs quite actively. So proceed to exile him.
How to get rid of a mole on the site? There are several effective ways:
- install metal rods in the ground, and put on empty cans of beer or other drinks with cut-out blades on top;
- insert plastic bottles with their neck down into a freshly dug hole, make a 2-3 cm hole in the bottom and turn the bottle with the hole in the direction where the wind most often blows. Moles will not like this sound;
- make plugs from rags soaked in kerosene or ammonia;
- fill the wormholes with water from a hose;
- dig a jar or bucket into the course flush with its lower surface and cover with plywood or cardboard;
- place mole traps and traps around the site;
- use special sound, ultrasonic and vibration repellers;
- use special means to repel moles - Antikrot, Moleboy, etc. There are both bait pellets and smoke bombs.
Mouse
These rodents destroy crops, damage plants, spread infections, and damage property. The problem becomes especially urgent with the advent of autumn. And it is not always possible to solve it favorably with the help of a cat and mousetraps. Not every summer resident will allow himself to keep an animal in the winter in the country, and mousetraps may not work or it will take a lot of them to protect the entire area.
But there are other equally successful ways. You can get rid of mice in the country with the help of:
- all the same special scare devices emitting an ultrasonic signal;
- chemicals - both fast-acting poisons and cumulative drugs are sold, for example, Nutcracker, Ratid-1, Anti-mouse, Bros, etc. The release form is very different - gels, powders, tablets and solutions;
- mint essential oil - apply it on cotton pads and place it in places where mice have wound up;
- washing powder with a persistent odor - sprinkle it into small open containers and place it in places where mice gather;
- vishnevsky's ointments - moisten pieces of cotton wool and spread them in places where rodents live;
- traps from a jar - pour oil into a three-liter glass jar and grease the walls, and then put the bait there. Place the jar at an angle of 30 degrees with the neck up on a board or book; the rodent will no longer be able to get out of the slippery container;
- glue - spread the adhesive on an oilcloth, board or plywood, and put the bait in the middle.
Choose the right option and get rid of uninvited guests.
