With the pleasures of gardening come the annoyances of pests and disease. But there are some simple guidelines that most home gardeners follow to help avoid these problems. The best insect pest and disease control is prevention. But if it's already too late, take action chemically or naturally. Although there are various chemical controls available to combat insect pests, you may not want to use strong chemicals to keep your plants pest-free.
Many insects have natural enemies which provide some control.
A diligent home gardener may find that this and other natural methods used together may be sufficient to keep garden pests to a minimum. Predacious insects such as lady beetles and their larvae, syrphid flies, lacewing larvae, assassin bugs and many other beetles prey upon other insects - aphids especially. Parasite insects such as the ichneumon wasp and tachinid flies lay their eggs on or in caterpillars. The larvae or young of the fly then eat the host caterpillar. Spiders, snakes, birds, frogs and mice also help to reduce the insect population, but unfortunately may catch beneficial insects along with harmful ones.