Here's a safe and effective system to control the plant-eating pests in your yard. Blast spider mites and aphids with a garden hose. Most won't ever find their way back to your plant.
Simple barriers can keep some pests at bay.
Protect new flower and vegetable transplants from cutworms by surrounding stems with a protective paper collar. Keep slugs away from choice hostas by encircling plants with a copper strip in contact with the soil. Traps are effective at controlling some pests. Slugs and adult weevils congregate under boards placed on the ground. Slugs also are attracted to saucers of beer buried in the soil to the rim.